The One and Only Covered Hopper

One, and only one.  As best I can tell John Allen only ever rostered one covered hopper in his entire fleet of rolling stock.  And, based on scant evidence, admittedly, my best guess for that car's road name is "Jack Frost" Cane Sugar.  More confidently I can say the make of the car was an MDC Roundhouse 2 Bay Covered Hopper.  The rib spacing, round hatches and body shape tell that story pretty clearly.  Beyond that we get into the realm of speculation.

A close-up crop from the Optimum Use of Space slide show.  Note: this is a reflection - you're looking at the left end of the car on the right side of the image.  The proof of this is the G&D boxcar to the right, whose lettering is reversed.  Original photo by John Allen.

Dating it on the G&D is difficult since it shows up so infrequently.  The best color image comes from John's clinic on the Optimum Use of Space.  Even then it doesn't clearly show the full side and is only seen reflected in the mirror at Great Divide behind a bridge column.  If you've got the Westcott book you can see it on page 4 but only a top view.  Jerry Drake's clinic on the G&D includes a full side view - completely shaded almost to the point of silhouette.  And so it goes.  Still, unless new evidence surfaces, I remain convinced it is a Jack Frost car based on the schemes of what was available in the model train marketplace during the 1960s.  I'll let you visit the gdlines.org site and dig around to see if you can find it on your own.

"Lagoon Blue" was nearly an exact match.  Trucks are metal and sprung to match what would have been under the car originally though the MR review notes the wheels were plastic.

Model Railroader reviewed the car, new, in August 1962.  There seem to be two variations in the lettering - the key difference being the position of the 'sugar baby', either next to the Jack Frost lettering or beneath it.  Without knowing when the car appeared on the G&D or when Roundhouse changed the lettering I had no guidance on which version to look for.  Being the G&D aficionado I am I had to have one for my Heritage Fleet - my own roster of cars found on fallen flag model railroads.  The car was surprisingly difficult to find on the second hand market as a complete, unbuilt kit.  Though I suspect the version I selected is not the oldest, it more closely matches the lettering on a prototype image I found, for what that's worth.  

Tamiya black panel liner provides a shadow effect to make the best of the thick plastic running board.  My acrylic weathering sludge in the cup is a mix of charcoal gray, tan and a drop of rust.

The MR review states this was an easy kit to build.  I struggled to get the hopper door braces cut to length and glued in place, and needed to spend a while with a set of files to get the underframe to fit correctly.  Roundhouse suggests painting the underframe black but I chose to match the brilliant blue of the sides, as that seems to be what the prototype did (again, that matters less than trying to match how John built his, but that's impossible to know with current images).  Where I tried to more closely follow John's practices was with the weathering.  There having a good prototype image IS important, as this is what John followed when weathering his cars, though his results often appear quite heavy handed.

 

Overall I'm pleased with the result, both in terms of adding another car to the G&D Heritage Fleet and on its own merit as a bright and colorful car.  As of writing this post, the next heritage car under construction is a GM&G ventilated box car, for which there is far better photographic evidence!  Thanks for reading.  Feel free to comment or ask questions.

 

Kit-Mingled 2-8-0 - Boiler Swap

Oh my poor Shifter.  This little 0-4-0 has been put off for over 12 years now through moves and shifting locales and all sorts of reasons.  I had claimed in my end-of-year goals that this time would be different and for sure I'd finish it by Christmas, but alas, it may not be so.  One thing I've learned about how I approach my hobby during lockdown is to follow the muse and pursue the passion even at the cost of delaying a project yet again.  Momentum is precious when the anchor of settled inertia takes so much effort to weigh.  Best to change tack and sail with the wind.

No, I'm not building a ship - lest the nautical references mislead you.  I'm swapping a boiler and cab to create a unique locomotive.  John Allen, of Gorre & Daphetid fame, was fond of heavily modifying locomotives to make them different from everyone else's.  I have always felt the same way.  The 2-6-0 I modified last year got a shortened tender and a high headlight; for fitting on a short turntable and to give the engine a 'family' appearance, respectively.  This time I'm applying a boiler and cab from an AristoCraft/New One 2-8-0 to the smooth running mechanism of an Athearn (nee MDC/Roundhouse) 2-8-0.  

The donor boiler is slightly longer than the original but offers a few features that make the conversion worth it for me.  Not visible in this image are the open cab doors on the front of the cab - a thing often seen in real life but rarely on the model, something I've always wanted to include on a model engine.  Like the 2-6-0, (and the Shifter) this engine has an auxiliary dome just in front of the cab and a side-mounted whistle (family likeness, again).  I also like the brass detailing already built-in and will be featuring that in the finished model.  

I'll be borrowing the backhead detail from the original boiler using Oyumaru thermoplastic and superfine Miliput to make a copy.  The great thing about this thermoplastic material is that the mold can be remade if it doesn't turn out well on the first try.  I was fortunate and got it right first time.  Here you can see two castings in Miliput.  I'll use the top one but it will need a little more Miliput to fill a couple imperfections.  It smooths easily with water.  The little side tabs will be cut away before it is installed.

I'll have to make a boiler segment for inside the cab along with a rudimentary floor and of course a place for a skinny engineer to sit.  The fireman may end up living on the deck behind the cab.  We'll see.  Brass for the bits to attach the new boiler to the old frame (or is that the other way around?) has already been cut and shaped, and I have all the detail parts I'll want to use.

More on this project as I hit new milestones.