My Dad's Early 20th century hopper cars

[Ed Kapuscinski]

My folks came down to do puppy duty the other day and my dad brought some of his latest projects with him.

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He loves 19th and early 20th century stuff. Talk about not doing the easy thing! In case you all wondered where I get it from.

I believe it's one of these: https://www.shapeways.com/product/KTQYJRZFH/gb-gondola-hopper-ho-n-s-tt-o-scale?optionId=212179915

Any of you into this old stuff too?

[wm3798]

I've got a few small steam locomotives that could work for an early 20th century plan, as well as an Atlas 4-4-0 American, which is beautiful and runs like a swiss watch, which could pull duty for a mid to late 19th century piece.  I've got a handful of Bachmann "Old Timer" freight cars, with the idea they could be improved, but they really are to clunky.  I think the boxcar could be made serviceable, but the details on the flats and gondolas look like they're done in marshmallow.

Lee

[bbunge]

My folks came down to do puppy duty the other day and my dad brought some of his latest projects with him.
...
Any of you into this old stuff too?

Nice work!

There a few small steamers in N-scale that make this period more possible, IMHO.  It is an interesting area I've dabbled in a bit.  As I mentioned in a thread a while ago, there is a massive hole in N-scale for wood sided early 20th century passenger cars; and to some extent freight cars.  There is also a lack of decals out there as well. 

I can understand this; until the coming of steamers like the Bachmann ten wheeler and the MP American and Moguls, other than the various 19th classic 4-4-0's and the Roundhouse connies and moguls, there hasn't been much power out there without someone hand building something.

I printed this from a HO scale Thingiverse download, down scaled to N in the slicer.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That Pennsy gon is great!

It's such an interesting era. It's why I do it myself, but in a slightly more manageable O scale.

BTW, Bob, if you're not aware of my second favorite Keystone Details product, you NEED a set of these:
https://www.keystonedetails.com/products/n-scale-details/2021/3/22/n-scale-prr-h3-tender-kit-for-athearn-2-8-0
https://www.keystonedetails.com/products/n-scale-details/2021/3/22/n-scale-prr-h3-cab-kit-for-athearn-2-8-0

[mmagliaro]

...
Any of you into this old stuff too?

No.


Okay, seriously, I'm done being a smart ---    .   I really like the old hopper AND the gondola.  I wish more commercial steam locos
were made in smaller sizes.  Early 20th century 0-4-0, 4-4-0, 2-8-0 are awesome machines.

[bbunge]

It's such an interesting era. It's why I do it myself, but in a slightly more manageable O scale.

BTW, Bob, if you're not aware of my second favorite Keystone Details product, you NEED a set of these:
https://www.keystonedetails.com/products/n-scale-details/2021/3/22/n-scale-prr-h3-tender-kit-for-athearn-2-8-0
https://www.keystonedetails.com/products/n-scale-details/2021/3/22/n-scale-prr-h3-cab-kit-for-athearn-2-8-0

I grew up a Pennsy guy - with many ancestors working Pennsy out of Columbus, Ohio (and a bit of TO&C), although Columbus was blessed with it all... N&W, NYC, B&O, C&O, etc..  Yet I raised a railfan in Maryland who visited B&O from early on and ended up modelling mostly B&O.  Thus, while I've got the bits to make some early Royal Blue cars, the decals... sigh.  And one of those pretty B&O high stepping 4-4-0's.   

Photo by my father at the Ohio Railway Museum, Worthington, Oh, summer of 1956, when the Santa Fe 5111's famously visited.  When I spent most of my young weekends there it was N&W Alco's and EMD's dragging the coal north to Sandusky. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

No.


Okay, seriously, I'm done being a smart ---    .   I really like the old hopper AND the gondola.  I wish more commercial steam locos
were made in smaller sizes.  Early 20th century 0-4-0, 4-4-0, 2-8-0 are awesome machines.

Still one of the coolest models I've seen in the past decade.

And yeah, me too. I love me my 70s/80s Conrail family stuff, but as far as steam goes, personally I think Strasburg #90 is the largest engine I really get excited about.

[Mike C]

I grew up a Pennsy guy - with many ancestors working Pennsy out of Columbus, Ohio (and a bit of TO&C), although Columbus was blessed with it all... N&W, NYC, B&O, C&O, etc..  Yet I raised a railfan in Maryland who visited B&O from early on and ended up modelling mostly B&O.  Thus, while I've got the bits to make some early Royal Blue cars, the decals... sigh.  And one of those pretty B&O high stepping 4-4-0's.   

Photo by my father at the Ohio Railway Museum, Worthington, Oh, summer of 1956, when the Santa Fe 5111's famously visited.  When I spent most of my young weekends there it was N&W Alco's and EMD's dragging the coal north to Sandusky. 

   That has to be the ORM  5012 and 64 .    Mike

[bbunge]

   That has to be the ORM  5012 and 64 .    Mike

That would be correct.  Here is my current ORM collection.  To keep it on topic, build dates are included:

Starting bottom left to right:  CRP&L #703 (blt 1924), C&LE #119 (blt 1930), OPS #21 (blt 1905), CNS&M #154 (blt 1915), KCPS #472 (blt 1900).




I was blessed to ride in all of these as a kid.  Today, 154, stripped of all usable hardware is a wooden shell in a field in Michigan, 472 was destroyed by vandals, the rest are inoperable at the museum.

[thomasjmdavis]

Turn of the century and pre-WWI cars lasted longer than a lot of people think, especially in MoW and various services like hide cars or trash hauling which were generally assigned the oldest and least maintained equipment on the road.
So, for sake of variety, I am building a couple Fine N scale truss rod reefer kits as ice cars and a couple truss rod flats with gondola sides that I will be using as trash gons. I found a photo in one of my books showing ancient wood gons being used for trash collection around the freight houses near Dearborn station in the 1950s. While the FNS will just be stand ins, I think one representative of the cars in the photos may still exist, although in very poor shape, 110 years after it was built.

https://www.irm.org/player/cwi1185/

PS- Ed, please forward my upvote to your Dad.  Wish I had enough brain cells left to learn 3D design to produce my own cars.

[Zack L-J]

Man, I sure would love more early 20th/mid-late 19th century products. I know the locomotives are small and difficult to manage mechanically, but it’s such a charming era of railroading, visually. At least something better than dang old Bachmann old-timers. I consider myself very blessed to have gotten a good set of Atlas civil war era cars and a gorgeous lightly customized USMR Atlas 4-4-0.  But I would really love some of the other common locomotives from the era, like more 2-6-0s, 2-4-4Ts, etc.

[EdKap2]

My friend Jim Smith modified one of the MDC consols to look like the Reading's Wooten boilered consols.