The founder of Ortner Freight Car Corporation, Robert Ortner, together with a team of engineers, created the rapid-discharge door system in the 1960s to deliver greater efficiency in unloading coal from open hopper cars. The first coal cars built with the rapid-discharge design entered service on the Muskingum Electric Railroad (now American Electric Power) in Ohio in 1969. Missouri Public Service was the second customer of this design, followed by many more. Trinity Rail purchased Ortner Freight Car Corporation in 1984, and today, cars equipped with Ortner’s rapid discharge system are commonplace for the transport of coal and other heavy aggregates across North America.
Now available at your favorite dealers are Athearn’s Ortner 5-Bay Rapid Discharge Hoppers in several paint schemes and two major variations. Each car rides on 100-ton trucks with 36” machined metal wheelsets. All cars include a removable load and come sufficiently weighted for reliable operation.
Road names include Electric Fuels Corporation (ELFX), Georgia Power Co. (GGPX), Union Pacific (Aluminum/Yellow), SMEX (green), SSIX (yellow), USS Steel (blue, USSX) and SKOL (black/green). Individual cars are $54.99 MSRP each, while 5-packs are $239.99.
Per prototype practice, cars assigned to sugar beet service are available either with or without etched metal side extensions. Sugar beet cars without extensions for this production include Helm Leasing and Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia. Road names for cars equipped with etched metal screen extensions include The Andersons (Holly Sugar/ITGX white), and The Andersons in either ITGX red or ITGX black. Prices begin at $57.99 MSRP for individual cars or $254.99 for five-packs. Multiple road numbers are offered per livery.
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Later in life, many of these 5-Bay Rapid Discharge Cars were sold to new owners who used these cars to haul sugar beets from fields to processing plants. As sugar beets are less dense in weight than coal, these cars would usually fill to the top before exceeding the car’s maximum allowable weight. To maximize efficiency, side extensions made of metal screen were added to the tops of many of these cars to enable them to reach the maximum allowable weight limit. Athearn’s model of ITGX 10012 represents an Ortner 5-Bay Rapid Discharge Hopper assigned to Holly Sugar with the tall side extensions. A removable load is included.
Athearn’s 5-Bay Ortner Rapid Discharge Hopper is also available in Union Pacific colors.
Every Athearn Ortner 5-Bay Rapid Discharge Hopper includes a removable load.
