Freight
Reading Company 2-Bay Hopper, Class HTss, #66418
Background & History
2-Bay Hopper #66418 began life as one of those hundreds of composite hoppers built by the Reading during World War II. It was a former Class HTs, car built in 1942 thru 1944. The rough use of a coal car was taking its toll on the wood sides and bottom used on the composite cars. By 1951 it was time to address those issues and begin rebuilding the HTs cars by getting rid of the wood and making them all steel cars.
This created the Class HTss cars that car 66418 became a part of. The Class held a total of 1,661 cars with a length of 31 feet, rated 55 tons, and capable of 1936 cu. ft. The rebuild program kicked off in 1951, but was in full speed from 1952 thru 1954. Class HTS & HTss cars were numbered in the 66000 thru 66999 for the first group and 67339 thru 67999 for the second group.
Car 66418 at Temple, PA. in 1998.
(Photo courtesy of Charles Murphy. Jr., MP&RE Collection)
Note, in the picture above, Car 66418 was misidentified
and incorrectly numbered as #60097.
The composite hopper here has yet to be rebuilt into an all steel car. This photo is from Craig T. Bossler’s “Rdg Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment” book available at the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum Book Store.
Motive Power & Rolling Equipment (MP&RE) personnel plan to paint the car in the scheme as shown above.