My “good enough” version of a unique PRR Hopper Car. The Mighty PRR only had ONE Offset
hopper. The H27 was it. There are no known in service photos
of this hopper. It is rare! |
|
This
car was made by the Late Richard Hall, who made literally thousands of model
freight cars in his life, mostly in O Scale. Richard was an awesome person and
excellent modeler that knew what to include to get the wanted effect but not
get bogged down in the minutia. He wanted to “give you the taste” of the car as
“good enough” without the heavy research in most cases. In short he got the
cars done in record time and moved on to the next car. Some cars were also made
in S Scale for his son John. I bought
the car in the summer of 2010. It is made from multiple American Flyer offset
hopper shells pieced together. Richard did all of the “heavy lifting” here.
I
was “just going to give it a new paint job” since it was only decaled on 1 side
when I got it. Of course it did not end up that way – it turned into a fun but
substantial project. It had a coal load that had to be removed and strip paint
off of the car which was quite a task. I went to great lengths to replace the
cast in grab irons with wire, and spent a lot of time blending the seams with
paint and putty while wet sanding in between coats. I will never do that again
to an American Flyer Hopper! It has a coal load again since the inside is full
of plastic angles holding the car together so all of that bracing needed to be
covered up. Nonetheless, I added a brass channel as a center sill and tied it
to the bolsters for an added reassurance the car will remain intact forever.
I am sure it is the only H27 representation in S Scale.
Until I FIND them, some photos do not pop up.
Under Construction
September 2010
With the Archer Rivet decals applied
Thanks to my friend Mac for doing the rivet work.
April 2011
Finished H27
5-11-11
On
my layout 3-14-12
Updated 2-25-18
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