H2a lease of hoppers to PRR, return of hoppers to N&W

[NW Modeling List]

Ben

The lease of the H2a hoppers is pretty complex.

The late Charlie Schlotthober did tremendous legwork to compile a roster of the leased cars from the equipment ledgers I have donated to the Archives. Fortunately, he had shared his detailed spreadsheet with me so I could write an Arrow article on the cars, which is still to come. 

2,000 hoppers were leased by the Pennsy beginning in July 1956, with two cars that month, one more in September, one more in January 1957, two more in February, followed by one in March, and then, in April, the vast majority began to move over. 

Over 2400 cars were involved in this deal, with some lost to wrecks or shipped back for repairs, and others sent as replacements.

Almost all the cars were returned to the N&W beginning in 1966, arriving in Columbus and being reinstated at Williamson.

There were a few strays, one each month in April 1967, August, September, October and December for a total of five cars, the last car barely made it to the PC era, being returned on June 23, 1968.

Please be sure to look for the detailed article in the Arrow sometime next year.

Again, my thanks to Charlie Schlotthber for the excellent research on this.

Best
Ken Miller

> On Oct 16, 2025, at 11:05 AM, NW Modeling List via NW-Modeling-List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> I have heard that the return of these hoppers commenced in early 1967 and that they were all back on the N&W by halfway through the year.  Is this so, or could some have lasted on PRR into the PC era? 
> 
> Ben Scanlon
> Shanghai
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