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So I'm looking for ballast cars that are orange with CSX markings. I am looking to model the trap rock industry in Westfield, MA. As I understand it this quarry supplies much of the ballast used throughout the northeast and will be a perfect inclusion in my model of the Boston and Albany, Berkshire subdivision.
Anyone ever seen these cars in a ready to run option? I'm not very good at kitbashing or doing my own painting
I am planning to do the same area but back in CR days. As for the CSX hoppers you will have to kitbash them as there are a lot of details that need to be added such as Solar Panels and various boxes for the electrical equipment. Right now I would suggest you get as many pictures of the cars as you can and start from there. See what you can find to get as close as possible and then mass produce them 10 - 20 at a time. I have the same problem for the CR ballast cars as I would like a 60+ car train of them. I think Walthers makes something close enough. BTW I plan to model CP 109 (Westfield) to CP 79 (Brimfield). If you need any info on this stretch of RR let me know as I can help you out.
We have spoken before on this line. Actually I saw some ballast cars that were orange and very like the ones at Trap rock with the expception that they had Amtrak on the side. i will probably go with these and find some way to get the appropriate labels and stuff.
I heard the Solar Panels are there so the cars can be dumped remotely. Any truth to that?
Solar panels?? Well you learn something new everyday!
As for the hoppers, they look awefuly close to the Walthers cars. I had several in amtrak orange a while ago.
I was looking at all the hoppers that walthers carries and didn't see anything close. You want a 9 panel hopper and these look like they are older 2 bay Covered hoppers that were converted or rebuilt but I am not 100% sure as for all I know they were built new. Maybe I will swing by Trap Rock tomorrow and see what the build dates are on these cars. I will keep looking for something close but I think that these will be a scratch building project.
I remember reading an article, maybe in Railway Age, about these hoppers. The nine panel hoppers with the solor panels mounted on the ends are new builds, done by ACF, IIRC. The CSX had previously convered some older hoppers with solar panels on the side to test the concept of the solar panels providing enough power to keep the batteries charged for the discharge chute motors. It apparently worked well enough to order these new cars, but with the solar panels on the top, since at least one side panel was never provding any charge. They've had constant problems withe solar panels being broken when the cars were being loaded with rock and have since designed a wire mesh protective panel.
