New from Bowser: N Scale 100 Ton Hoppers

[Rivet Miscounter]

If this was ten years ago, I would have been really exited over this release.  In the last ten years, I have renumbered 30 factory decorated MTL Conrail hoppers.  Unhappy with the results, I had custom decals made (Solidesign / not recommended), stripped the repainted the aforementioned 30 cars and applied the custom decals.   After this huge effort was completed, I found a font issue with the reporting marks that I did not see when I had the decals created.  I decided to get more custom decals made (Circus City / recommended), I stripped down 36 (original 30 plus six more) MTL hoppers, repainted them and applied the Circus City custom decals.  I am very pleased with this effort.  I even bought a milling machine to lower the ride height (not attempted yet) and acquired Trainworx 100 ton offset bolster roller bearing trucks for these.  I cannot allow myself to discard these MTL hoppers and repeat the process with the Bowser cars.  I will never get to building a layout if that happens.

I think my counterpoint is, if I have to stop down and go through the above, I have the same barrier to building the layout.

The original complaints are "why do we need this", and I think a few of us expressed why.   It has little to do with an accumulator mentality.   It's just triage for hobby hours.

[chessie system fan]

Chessie System hopper decals don't exist.  C&O accurate-enough decals didn't exist until last year (still, no 100t decals exist). Custom decals are doable but would be a lot of effort, and there are a lot of projects higher on the list.

[Mark5]

You know, you guys are acting as accumulators rather than modelers.  You always can paint/decal whatever quantity is needed if the need is great enough.  All of the current manufacturers of this model offer them undecorated.  If it's not that important, then it's academic how many road numbers of a scheme that Micro-Trains and/or Atlas have released.

Only if accurate decals are available.

Until recently, all N&W hopper decals in N scale sucked (I'm being nice). Back in the 00's I was working on the artwork for correct N&W decals - I got them about 90% done but with raising the kids and my other hobbies (I have too many hobbies lol) - that got put on the backburner. K4 recently released some that look good to me - and I have several sets to try out - if I am happy with those I will skip having my own decals produced.

It is true that I have accumulated plenty of hoppers (call me lazy if you will, but I already have several hundred hoppers, of which at least 50 need to be painted decaled). I have probably 50 locos that need a lot of work before I can paint and decal (hi nose, anyone?) and plenty of non-hopper rolling stock to customize. I really don't need more fleet projects.

I am modeling the area between Williamson WV (at one time the world's largest coal classification yard) and Welch, WV (on the Pocahontas division). This is what I am up against:



Here is a view more relevant to my era (1975ish): https://www.railpictures.net/photo/204974

In addition to trying to represent (sorta) that coal yard, I plan to have two coal mines on the layout - the sidings need to be constantly populated with hoppers (emptys coming in, and loads going out). Whenever we drove around, everywhere you went there were hoppers (the roads in this very mountainous area follow the valleys, as do the tracks).

I plan to retire next year, buy a new house with space for this layout, and have at it!

Mark

[ai5629]

Chessie System hopper decals don't exist.  C&O accurate-enough decals didn't exist until last year (still, no 100t decals exist). Custom decals are doable but would be a lot of effort, and there are a lot of projects higher on the list.

Matt at Circus City did the artwork for me.  I sent him photographs, lettering sizes, road numbers and he did the rest.  There were some compromises made (due to the limitations in legibly printing tiny data / I made some data larger than it was on the prototype), but the end product looks very nice IMHO.  Thanks.

Jeff

[James Costello]

I know this car is more in Bowser's Wheel house, but I would have loved to see a Western style PS-4000 hopper made in N Scale.

A "proper" unit train of BN hoppers would be sweet.

https://www.pwrs.ca/view_product.php?ProductID=313801

Accurate western 3-bays, aka the Tangent releases in HO, would be a welcome variety in N that I could get behind...

https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/pullman-standard-3526-3600-4000-ht-3-bay-coal-hopper-system/

[amato1969]

The 70-ton H39 model is a huge opportunity missed here (IMO).

  Frank

[Ike the BN Freak]

I know this car is more in Bowser's Wheel house, but I would have loved to see a Western style PS-4000 hopper made in N Scale.

A "proper" unit train of BN hoppers would be sweet.

https://www.pwrs.ca/view_product.php?ProductID=313801

This is on my month beg Tangent car list...but hey, now we got PS4750s

[lock4244]

I'll grab a CN or two, though they weren't too common (if they showed up at all) in southern Ontario... think they were kept in the Maritimes. The Chessie otoh are welcomed as blocks of eight to ten were common with loads headed eastbound to Quebec. Would see cars from CSX family, Conrail, and even the odd ATSF iirc. While the CRQ are too new for me, eventually I suspect an earlier scheme will be done.

[dem34]

Only if accurate decals are available.


Mark

Yeah I ran into this when I was trying to do a couple custom Conrail hoppers. Even with a big fleet car from a big railroad. It was still tricky getting the right decals. And in the end I had to still mutilate a lubrication placard.
And of course K4 came out with perfect sheets a week after I finished.

Decals are probably I think the biggest current barrier to a lot of custom projects. The skills and tools needed to do good ones are higher than most other disciplines to custom rolling stock.