Tangent Illinois Central (IC) "Delivery Gray 1-1967" General American 4700 Covered Hopper System #56479

• Product: General American 4700 Covered Hopper System
• Scale: HO Scale 1:87.1
• Truck: Tangent 100-ton Barber S-2 trucks with rotating bearing caps
• Wheels: CNC-Machined 36″ Wheels

– Illinois Central (IC) “Delivery Gray 1-1967” replicates one of the largest orders for the GATC 4700.  The IC received 500 cars in this order, as part of their expanding fleet of 100-ton covered hoppers. These sharp grain haulers were painted medium gray, and were the first new cars to wear the IC’s Split-Rail logo.  The IC GATC 4700s featured a 13-post body and low ladder appliances, but with a twist.  If you look carefully at the prototype photos, you will notice that the side ladders feature 4 rungs on the ladder, versus the “normal” 3 rungs for other roads.  The end ladders feature 8 rungs, versus 7 rungs for the other roads.  Yes, Tangent designed and tooled a IC-specific body to handle this important detail.  GATC even “filled in” the unused pre-punched holes on the ladder stiles with rivets, a detail carefully replicated on the Tangent model.  The IC cars were equipped with Truck-mounted brake hardware, so this translates to little things on the model like a “missing” brake cylinder on the B-End.  The 4 individual brake cylinders are mounted on the truck brake beams on the 100-ton Barber S-2 trucks!  Don’t forget to take a look at that beautiful Ellcon-National 1600 power brake with a separately-applied short release lever.  Underneath, the model has accurate Keystone “Portloc” gravity outlet gates with intricate ratchet and rod detail.  These cars had incredible longevity in delivery paint, with over one-third of the fleet staying in their original gray paint through the IC-ICG era.  In fact, IC original gray cars have been documented into at least 2007!