It has been over a quarter century since I kit bashed this train in N Scale. My, how time flies. The Kato E8s were still kind of new on the scene but I needed E7s. So I bashed some Con Cor E7 shells to fit over the Kato mechanisms.
From my old N Scale layout about 1974 when I was a teen. Locomotive is Minitrix' faithful FM switcher and track is Arnold Rapido.
Good morning from Sunny and Warm Northeast Ohio! Finished a couple of cars this week! Athearn PC&F 50's RBL painted with Scalecoat II Tuscan, Silver and Black Paints and lettered with Herald King Decals. The SP ordered these cars with 14' doors to facilitate the loading of canned goods with forklifts and sending these cars across the nation from California canning plants. Athearn 34' Ribbed Side Hopper with Pikestuff Panel Sides attached, painted with Scalecoat II Black, then lettered with Champ Decals. The Wabash, NYC, SLSF and others replaced the worn out flat panel sides on their hoppers with these punched out side to gain an extra 60 CF of load carrying ability. They did that with these cars and the 31' USRA hoppers. Last Saturday our club had its first operating session since last March 2020. I took my PFM B&O E27ca to the club where I operated the Mallet Creek local which included switching the plastics plant I finished. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski
Good info on the hoppers. I figured the panels would gain capacity but did not know how much. I also was not aware of their use as a rebuild component.
Thanks for the compliments, but I made an error with the Wabash Cars, the car I modeled in the 36000 series, were purpose built as panel sides in 1937 and repainted in 1955 with the 33" WABASH in place of the 18" WABASH on the original paint job. But the Wabash did replace the panels in their USRA originals and their USRA clones and these were in the 34000 and 35000 series. Most of these panel side cars were gone by the time of the N&W merger in 1964. Many of them were sold to the Andersons Grain Elevator in Maumee, OH for shipment of grain to the Port of Toledo as much grain was shipped by ocean freighter after the St. Lawrence Seaway opened. Rick Jesionowski
This is an older shot, before the controversy. Need to find my pattern to put hand rails on either side of the nose door, and outline the door a bit....
Well, you cruise eBay and you find stuff. I brought this John Deere caboose. It's not the same set as the F7s, but I'm a fan of the wide vision caboose. I do have another A-B set of locomotives in this scheme, and two bay window cabooses....