Cement car rebuilds.

[e-paw]

Well Randy The Anna lines also has a class of converted coal hoppers much like you described. They make up a smaller part of the cement conveyor belt than the covered gons..

I started on the hopper chutes by shaving down a angled Lego brick and cutting off the little peg on the top, making a mold of it, and pouring several castings. The last set is still in the mold.    

I had to move some of the brake equipment in order to fit the chutes. The top car is stock and the bottom one has the castings installed.     The next step will be to finish installing the chutes and fabricate doors for them.
Here is a pic of the same car at it's present state.    

[ocalicreek]

Nice use of the Lego! I've heard of using them for the walls of a mold box, but never as the casting masters themselves! hock:

However, when you mentioned adding hopper bottoms to the cars, I was imagining 8 on each pickle car, since there are 8 hatches and they're spaced pretty far apart. Are you thinking the end hatches would be disused due to lading weight? Or is it a more practical consideration like the hoppers don't fit next to the wheelsets?

Galen

[cn nutbar]

Lucky me---here's the cars Doctor Wayne mentioned

[modelsof1900]

A few years ago I modified an Athern 2-bay hopper to a Kaolin car. It is shortened for one segment and it has got a wood roof - built after a plan in MR.



However I must say that a couple of identical cars will give a good look to a model train. It is nice to see what for different models have been rebuilt to cement cars. Ok. hoppers are the most changed models.
E-paw, good job and a good looking cement car train!

[e-paw]

I have installed the hatches and finished the hopper bottoms, minus the locking chains on all six cars.     Here 1/2 the fleet on a siding in Easton.

The biggest change that I made to the cars in the last few days are the cross braces on the car sides.     They are some .015 brass wire bent to shape with turnbuckles from Tichy trains. The cross braces and undersides still need paint. At this time only 3 cars have the cross braces installed, because I need to order more turnbuckles.

[doctorwayne]

Lookin' good, Steve. I like that paint scheme, and the turnbuckles on the truss rods are a nice touch, too.

Wayne

[e-paw]

All the turnbuckles are in and the weathering is almost complete . I really wanted to grime these cars up, as they would represent car that have been pressed in to service that should have gotten scrapped. just a few more things and I'll call them finished.    

[modelsof1900]

Great work, Steve!

[e-paw]

A little more weathering was done, this time with real concrete. Here are some pics of the more heavily weathered of the 6.









The cement was attached by thinning some white glue with water and mixing it into the cement. A tooth pick was used to apply the wet mix to the cars. Just to make sure that the cement didn't foul up the wheels or trucks I placed them on a train for a test run..

[modelsof1900]

Ohhhhhh. Nooooooo!

Where are the wonderful nice models?
However many more realistic now. Ok, well done!

[Steamtrains]

E-Paw...Those are nice looking cars....I like the outside bracing details.....

On another of your threads there is a "passel" of these cars in the background and I mistook them for pickle cars... I bet you had a hard time understanding a comment I made.... :oops:

[e-paw]

well Steamtrains, you aren't completely off thinking that the were pickle cars because that's what they started out as.

[e-paw]

I finished up the cement cars today, " hooray "!!! The last few things that I wanted to add were the closing mechanism and to fill in some of the damaged sections from earlier.

In this shot you can see the chain type of closure on the hopper bottoms.     I got the idea from a N&W prototype seen here.     My version is just a little less involved. I wanted these cars to represent an older design so I felt they were fitting.

Two of the cars got damaged when I was taking them apart , The glue just wouldn't give . So rather than fix them before painting I went with an idea that was used on anthracite cars well into the 50's. As seen here in the upper left cornner.     In order to keep the cars rolling until a proper repair could be made, straw mixed with resin would be packed into holes as a quick fix. To do this I cut some fibers from a straw broom, mixed them in some white glue, and shoved them in. Not all that different from the prototype method.

[e-paw]

The only other thing to do was sit back, have a beer, and watch the 6 of em run.    

With this I'll call them finished.

[Steamtrains]

As much fun as building may be....nothing beats watching them run....