It is interesting that this car is being used to represent cars built new in 1940 and also cars rebuilt in a RR's own shops 25 years later, and I am not reading anything here about this or that error from prototype. Not very many cars that can pass muster over that kind of timeframe, and apparently across manufacturers. Is there any information on what the specific prototype for this car is? On one of these pages I noted that it bears a distinct resemblance to some cars built for C&EI by Pressed Steel. What details should I be looking at that would give me a clue just how close it is?
Freight car modeling is in a way new to me. I come from the day when there were 3 boxcars on the N scale hobby shop shelf- one was wood, one was steel with a sliding door, and one was plug door with ribs. In those days, a PS1 with a distinctly postwar door, lettered A.T.&S.F. with a map on the side did not bother me at all running around a track in supposed 1944, but what with Intermountain, Bluford, and recently even Atlas coming to market with prototype specific cars, I try to be more accurate. One of the plans for the "Great, Dream Layout to be Built Someday" is a coal mining operation in Southern Illinois, which means C&EI hoppers (and yep, anticipating the Bluford USRA cars currently in production, but hoping for some future variations, as I don't think C&EI ever met a 2 bay design they did not like).
