Burlington Northern Bopper

Nine of these cars were built in 1989 by Bethlehem Steel's Johnstown railcar builders. These all-aluminum cars carried the numbers BN 80000-8, and a tenth car in the group, BN 80009, was a converted 50' exterior post boxcar with a generator to power the equipmnent in the Boppers.

Bopper is a portmanteau of Boxcar and Hopper, hence Bopper. They had a 10' plug door, and a trough hatch on the roof for loading grain. The generator car BN 80008 provided power and hydraulic pressure to operate the unloading equipment when in 'Hopper Mode.' A 'walking floor' directed the grain to two central unloading chutes. The idea was to use the car in grain service in the autumn, and load lumber and other dry goods in the off-season.

One car was wrecked in 1992 (BN 80006), while the other eight survived until early 2002, when three Boppers and the generator car were donated by BNSF to the railroad museum in Duluth Minnesota. The remaining Boppers were presumably scrapped.

This kit consists of a one-peice body shell and a floor. Trucks and couplers are not included

To completely detail this car, the following parts are recommended:
Kadee standard shank couplers
Atlas (or other) 100 ton roller bearing trucks
2-56 screws for trucks and coupler boxes
Tichy Train Group AB brake system
.020" brass wire
.012" brass wire
Tichy Train Group freight car ladders
Plano ACF hopper walkway Morton pattern - may need to splice multiple walkways to obtain proper length (53 scale feet)
BN hopper or boxcar decals (black text)
Aluminum or silver paint
various styrene strips

Assembly Instructions:

1. Gather desired detail parts
2. Drill out and tap truck and coupler screws as neccessary
3. Add underbody details
4. Add Tichy ladders to sides and ends of cars - use styrene strips to create mounting brakets
5. Add etched-metal roofwalk - use strene sheet to create end platform suport brackets
6. Paint car aluminum or silver
7. Add decals
8. Grab iron on roofwalk ends painted red