The Illinois Railway Museum has added to its collection Illinois Central Gulf 767253, a covered hopper car built in 1980 by Pullman-Standard (P-S). The Museum thanks Canadian National Railway (CNR) for their generous donation of this historic piece of railway equipment. Car 767253 arrived at the IRM site in Union, Illinois, on April 28th.

Car 767253 is a P-S type 4750 covered hopper, a type that was one of the most popular and numerous covered hopper designs ever produced. An evolution of the earlier P-S type 4740 design, construction of the type 4750 began in 1972. By the time production of the type ended in 1981, more than 56,000 examples had been produced, making it the largest single-body covered hopper fleet from any manufacturer. Many examples of the type remain in regular service today.

In 1979, Illinois Central Gulf (ICG) added 500 type 4750 cars to their fleet, with about one-third of them being given a simplified overall-orange paint scheme. Car 767253 is part of this batch; delivered in 1980, it hauled grain for ICG, then Illinois Central, and finally CNR. It still wears its as-delivered ICG paint.  It is the only type 4750 car to be preserved in operational condition and is the only preserved ICG covered hopper car.

Donations are needed to support the preservation and restoration of ICG 767253. Every bit helps – click here and enter the donation amount in the “price” field to support this car.