coal hoppers – Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads

Weathering progress

I’ve continued working on several HO scale hopper models. I posted my line up card last month that helps me keep track of the various work stages on eleven freight car models. It’s time to share a progress report.

Decal time!

The last post shared detail on a line up card I created to organize work on eleven freight cars that waited at the paint booth. A few models have been moving forward with decal application.

Line up card

After building a handful of freight car kits and detailing a few more, I had a traffic jam at my paint booth. I prefer to paint several models at a time but wasn’t expecting an eleven car pile up.

Coal hopper details – pt 2

Let’s dive into more hopper upgrade ideas. Part one in the previous blog post covered end post replacement, and grab iron and hand hold replacements. Are you ready for more?

Coal hopper details

The last blog post covered upgrading hopper brake hardware from AB to KD brake components. The example was an HO scale plastic Bowser GLa class hopper. Let’s take a look at more upgrades you can make to hopper models.