Wreck & MOW
Reading Company MOW Covered Hopper, Class LOfx, #93533
Background & History
Covered Hopper #93533 began life as Class LOf. The cars were rated at 70 tons with a capacity of 1860 cu. ft. and measured 27’ 4” long. The cars were built by Bethlehem Steel in 1953 and assigned numbers 79550 thru 79649. LOF cars were originally designed for sugar service and were assigned to National Sugar Refining Company service.
Covered Hoppers in Class LOax sand service were beginning to wear out, so 18 LOf cars were converted to sand service. The 18 cars were renumbered into MOW series 93531 thru 93548 and reassigned to class LOfx in 1966 & 67.
In January of 1997, RCT&HS purchased former Reading two-Bay covered hopper #93533 from Conrail. Conrail was still using the car to haul Locomotive sand from southern New Jersey. It carried the same Reading lettering and class number in Conrail as it did when working for the Reading. It was still hauling sand up to within a few weeks of when we acquired it.
Covered Hopper #93533 rests at Temple, PA in 1998.
(Photo Courtesy Charles Murphy Jr., MP&RE Collection)
Further research on the car makes us fairly certain that this car was the first car painted in the READING speed lettering. We are pleased to have this car in our growing collection of historically significant freight equipment collection.
Notice in the picture that the end posts seem to be curved inward. Car 93533 seems to be full of mysteries as we have yet to determine when and why this occurred.