Does anyone make these?

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I'd guess the hopper length to be about 38' if the end panels are 4' and the splines are spaced at 2'.
 
Does anyone know whether any manufacturer makes those in HO scale? I have looked through the ballast hoppers on ebay. It seems that the most panels on a model ballast hopper is 12, while the hopper in the photo has 15 or 16.
 


i would say it is a 32 feet modified hopper for MOW, and to the best of my knowledge i dont think anyone is doing one. hit us up if you find something
 
I saw something similar to your car on ebay..in fact bought one we used this style in the mow .Not sure but check the walthers section on ebay JohnWalthers
 
Just take a longer hopper and chop it into any size you want... :)

IMG_4437.jpg
 
Very observant, dib... ;)
You must spend spend a lot of time trolling ebay auctions. I was curious if there was any interest and did sell one shorty gondola for $10 so it's not really worth the time. Anyone can easily trim gondolas and hoppers to any length. Still haven't figured out how to do a box car yet... ;)

Greg
 
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tooter said:
Very observant, dib... ;)
You must spend spend a lot of time trolling ebay auctions. I was curious if there was any interest and did sell one shorty gondola for $10 so it's not really worth the time. Anyone can easily trim gondolas and hoppers to any length. Still haven't figured out how to do a box car yet... ;)

Greg
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Greg, I did a boxcar once about 15 yrs. ago. I cut out everything from the doors to the end of the car & all that was left was the door on a 40ft. box.
I did it for a kid that had a bunch of shorty cars on his layout just like yours.
It was for a birthday present. It turned out pretty good. Better than some of the engines I make now. This kid was 12yrs. old at the time & now works for the RR in Ga.:D
 


tooter said:
Still haven't figured out how to do a box car yet... ;)

Greg
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Take 3 equal length sections out of the car? One across the door (to inlude the door), and then on either side of the door. This will adjust the door track to the new size of the door (assuming sliding door, not swing door). You could then take additional length from the box car from beyond the door track to further shorten it (so 5 sections?)...
 
That was very kind of you, Larry... :)
...and is exactly what I've been thinking of doing, letting the door and slider determine the length similar to this japanese box car...

hitani-10.jpg


Greg
 
diburning said:
I want a model of this car. Does anyone make this type of ballast hopper in HO scale? I am unsure of the length of the car, so I am lost.

http://par511.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2169326
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Try taking one of these and modifying it.

http://www.bowser-trains.com/hocars/stew_14_panel/70 ton Hoppers.htm

The car in your photo is an original 3-bay hopper that has been modified for ballast service. On the inside, it should be configured with slope sheets forming an inverted V in the centre of the car to discharge out the two ballast gates. The remaining centre hopper outlet would be basically unused/useless now.
 
do you have any photos of other cars showing the modification to the hatches and the inside of the center bay?

There are literally only 3 photos (in existence) of this car so I don't have much to go on.
 
diburning said:
do you have any photos of other cars showing the modification to the hatches and the inside of the center bay?

There are literally only 3 photos (in existence) of this car so I don't have much to go on.
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I assume you mean outlets rather than "hatches" since this is an open car?

I don't have any photos showing the insides of this car. But it's clearly a 3-bay hopper that's been converted. You can see the middle hopper still in place, only the two outboard hopper outlets have been replaced with the side-unloading ballast gates. So it's now a 2-bay car, so the middle outlet needs to be covered over so that the car fully empties out the two end gates.

Based on other ballast cars and conversions I've seen, these are generally two bay cars with steep slope sheets on the inside. Since the middle hopper gate is untouched I would say that it is now hidden under the new slope sheets in the centre of the car.

Here's some examples of other ballast cars to give you an idea of what it likely looks like.

This is a former 3-outlet rapid-discharge car turned into a 2-outlet ballast hopper. The original car is almost identical to the Walthers Ortner car (the AC cars were actually built by NSC to a copy of the design by Ortner). The nice thing about this car is that you can see the marks on the side where the new slope sheets were welded on the interior:
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ac8331&o=ac
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ac8338&o=ac

Unconverted car from same original series:
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ac8385&o=ac
 
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By hatches, I mean gates.

I want a photo of the slope sheets so that I know what to do to the inside of my car.

Also does anyone make the ballast gates as a detail part or will I have to take those off an another car?
 
tooter said:
That was very kind of you, Larry... :)
...and is exactly what I've been thinking of doing, letting the door and slider determine the length similar to this japanese box car...
hitani-10.jpg

Greg
Click to expand...

:D there is just something hilarious about a car that's as short as it's tall!
 


diburning said:
cv_acr, you seem to know a lot about these cars. Can you help me out please?

Thanks
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Not necessarily these cars in particular but the arrangement of the hopper outlets, with the two outboard bays replaced with side-dumping ballast doors and the middle one untouched give some pretty obvious clues as to what's been done to that car.

Plus what I've seen from similar arrangements with that rebuilt Algoma Central car I photographed and posted earlier in this thread, and Herzog Thrall Gondolas rebuilt as ballast hoppers with dumping gates and slope sheets in the car (don't have photos of that one myself (at least not the interior) but I've seen some online before, probably on RailCarPhotos.com)
 
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