Hopper Car #520

From a prototypically accurate standpoint, this hopper car comes up a bit short--literally. The East Broad Top did operate hoppers similar in appearance to these, but they were most likely around 5' longer than these. The prototype series of hoppers had a larger capacity than the original Billmeyer and Smalls hoppers, which were rated at around 9 tons of coal, according to B&S literature. These new cars were rated at between 15 and 20 tons. From looking at photographs, it's difficult to determine that much of a size difference between the two cars lengthwise. The most notable difference is likely the width. The old B&S hoppers had thick external bracing, so the actual bin for hauling coal was only around 5' wide. The newer cars had minimal external bracing, more closely akin to a gondola car than a hopper, which gave the car an extra foot's width. They were also fitted with extender boards along the top, allowing the coal to be piled just a bit higher. (This is a concept the railroad would revisit this practice 35 years later, adding extensions to their steel hopper fleet, upping the capacity of those cars from 35 to 40 tons.) These "new" wood cars were built by the railroad beginning in 1908, and construction continued on these cars up to 1913 when the EBT modernized to steel hopper cars.

The Model:

Why, then, is my choice for modeling this car 5' short? Simply put, because Bachmann doesn't make them any longer than that, and I wasn't about to cut them up to lengthen them. Some times you just gotta compromise.

The most notable, but unnoticable change on this car is the construction of a new underframe. This lowered the car about 1/8", letting it sit a bit lower to the ground. I also added new framing details to the underside like truss rods, queenposts, and thicker side sills.

All of the original grab irons were removed, the holes enlarged to .100" and plugged with .100" styrene rod. Once sanded, the original hole locations disappear into the woodwork (or would that be plasticwork?)

New grab irons were added, as per photographs of the car. I replaced the hopper door mechanisms with Ozark Miniatures detail parts.

The other major cosmetic change was the addition of the extender boards along the top. Again, I followed prototype practice here. For my money, that was probably the most defining change to this car, as it completely changes the character of it. It gives it just a bit of extra width, so when viewed from above, (and yes, we do spend a good amont of time viewing the railroad from above) it doesn't look quite so narrow. The board itself is a strip of basswood, held in place by brass angle irons that are glued to the sides of the car. I used Atlas track spikes to add just a bit of reinforcement to the angle irons, so they wouldn't snap off.

One other cosmetic piece I added was a large cross brace along the center of the car. I don't know if this is true for all such cars, but the ones I got were significantly bowed inwards in the middle, to the tune of over 1/8" difference between the width at the ends vs. the middle. While on the prototype such a cross brace would be used to keep the sides from bowing out, this cross brace actually keeps the sides from bowing in. I attached the brace with a drop of glue, though there really was no need to do that.

The hardest part about this model was the painting and weathering of the car. On a wood model, if you want to simulate peeling and worn paint, all you need is a bit of 60 grit sand paper. On plastic, it's not so easy. I knew I wanted these cars to look well used, as they hauled coal day in and day out. That meant the insides had to be pretty well worn away, especially on the slope sheets where the abrasiveness of the coal sliding would make fairly short work of any paint that was on the sides.

To do this, I began by painting the entire car primer grey. This provided me with a base from which to start. I chose grey because it best simulates the look of weathered wood, once all is said and done. The Bachmann cars come with wood grain molded into the plastic, so I saw no real reason to change this. Rather, I used it to my advantage. To finish "painting" the car, I mixed up a blend of black india ink and flat black acrylic paint. This was applied over the entire car, so that it looked freshly painted. As I was painting, I was also wiping away to varios degrees the paint, exposing the grain and giving the wood a weathered look. I generally use this technique just to weather cars, this was the first time I was using to actually paint a car. It took a bit of time, but I finally got it down to a system. The good thing is that if you don't like it, you can wash it off with a bit of rubbing alcohol and start over again.

For the wood pieces like the extender boards and cross brace, I attacked those with a bit of 60 grit sandpaper, and then weathered the exposed wood with a bit of very dilute black paint. The metal details were hit with a solution of vinegar and steel wool to produce the rust effect. I've got jars with varying strengths of this solution, so I can control to some degree the amount of rust that I create on various parts.