Lanes Trains Open Hoppers

Click on the photos to make them larger

PRR GLca

This GLca was imported by Southwind Models. It is factory painted.

PRSL GLca

The following 2 cars started life as American Flyer offset 2 bay hoppers. They are not intended to be a perfect brass model level project. It was a “get the taste of the car”.

I think the end result did that very well.

Someone else did substantial work to them to make them look a lot like the GLca by laminating very thin plastic sides complete with rivets to the A F hopper. The cars essentially had a completely new exterior put on them. I have 4 of them – all of which were purchased from eBay. In Fall 2010 I decided I wanted to convert 2 of them to PRSL M O W GLca. Photos of just the cars were not existent but you saw them in the background especially at the shore points like Wildwood. Some of these cars were unique in that they had a false flat bottom installed at about waist height. The car was filled with coal and spotted on the track next to a tender – again mostly at the remote shore points like Ocean City. It was some unfortunate person’s job to shovel the coal from the hopper to the tender in the hot summer sun.

The project was IN progress when I had the chance to buy 7 negatives of theses cars in a scrap line in Modena Pa on 7-4-60. What a find!

Richard Hall Photo

I stripped the cars, added about 4 ounces of weight in the hoppers and installed the false floors. I then painted and decaled the cars. I mostly used an alphabet set since the lettering was so simple. The weathering presented a challenge for me. Even in the mid 50s the cars were rather battered. I really wanted a random blotchy rusted look. I think that turned out pretty well too. I may put a partial coal load in them at some point. I use REAL coal. It would not take much coal - even loose - to simulate their intended use. But they are so different and interesting just as they are.

Completed November 2010

The following H21a, H22, and H25 were all imported by Southwind Models at the same time.

I have 10 models total and painted 7 of them. 3 were factory painted. I will add more photos of these cars when I can.

PRR H21a

PRR H22

PRR H25

PRR H27

The PRR’s one of a kind and only offset hopper car.

This car started as American Flyer 3 bay offset hoppers. The chopping and body work was done by the late

Richard Hall. I bought the car in 2010 from John Hall and was just going to “do a little fix up” which

as usual turned into a bigger project. I made many improvements beyond that like adding wire

grab irons, a center sill channel to make sure it stays together and extensive work hiding the body

section seams. Archer Rivet Decals were added by my friend Mac. I decided at the last

minute to put cut levers on it as well. The coal load is real coal!

The data is correct to the builder’s photo from various S Scale decal sets including X29, G26 and H21.

PRR H31b

I bought this H31b as shown from John Hall, who also made the decals. Since it has the “Buy War Bonds” slogan on it, I may redo it at some point.

PRR H31c

The H31b and H31c were the first PRR Hoppers that Southwind Models imported. I added the sign Boards, draft gear, and cut levers to this model.

USRA 2 Bay Hoppers

These USRA hoppers were imported by River Raisin Models in 1998. I will add photos of 5 ribbed side cars as soon as they are weathered.

Three different styles of USRA 2 bay hoppers are now available in ready to run plastic from S Helper Service.

This Wabash car is the second one I painted. The first car is shown on the River Raisin website in their past projects section. I traded the first car back to River Raisin after seeing a photo showing a Wabash USRA hopper with an Ajax style power brake. I also made a draft gear master pattern just for this series of hoppers. I had them cast and are installed on all of my USRA hoppers.

This New York Central car is as built by River Raisin except that I added the draft gear. It is also dead on correct for this NYC series of cars.

N&W 2 Bay Hoppers

This is a one of a kind brass pilot model for a run that was never made.

This is a N&W HL that is largely made from STEEL. I won it on eBay in March 2010. It too may be 1 of a kind.

The seller did not know anything about who built it. I knew it would be every bit as good as a brass car

when I was done with it. I stripped it and gave it a new paint job using Greg Komar decals.

Updated 5-11-11