Central Vermont Hoppers...by Don Janes

Three CV Hoppers are spotted by the coal tower at the White River Jct. engine facility

Three Hoppers, Two Builders

     Following George's latest posts on freight cars I thought I would show some Central Vermont hoppers I have done up for my Green Mountain Division.  I had one Tichy hopper that I built a few years ago following CV photos I had of similar cars and finished it with CDS dry transfers made specifically for CV Hoppers.  The Tichy car has a lot of details added such as separate handrails, grab irons, brake chain, cut levers and air hoses. Quite some time ago I purchased a few Accurail CV hoppers for use in "Cinder Service" to go along with the Tichy car.  Well, I finally got around to finishing them this weekend.  Although not near as detailed as the Tichy car I figured that by adding a few basic details I could come up with a decent rendition of a CV hopper.  I love models with separate grab irons and handrails but just felt since the Accurail cars were already nicely painted and lettered I didn't want to spoil them by scaping off those details and adding wire ones. I decided to go with some basic details to spruce up the cars yet thing that wouldn't take me hours to finish.  

     Each car got a Tichy Ajax brake wheel as per prototype practice, wire cut levers and KaDee air hoses and #58 scale couplers. Once that was done I airbrushed these areas with Floquil Oxide Red, which was a very close match, and weathered the cars with artist oils and some Pan Pastel colours.  Once the weathering was done the molded on grab irons seemed to blend right into the cars making them less obvious.  I am quite pleased with the end result and now will work on making some cinder loads for these cars.

This is the Tichy hopper with added details and painted and lettered with CDS dry transfers

CV 20176 is an Accurail offering and shows the added Tichy brake wheel and cut lever

Another view of CV 20176 showing the KaDee air hose and #58 scale coupler

CV 20153 is another Accurail hopper factory painted in an older CV paint scheme. Note that the difference between the molded grab irons on this car and  the wire ones on the Tichy car coupled behind it isn't that great once the car is weathered.

Another view of the CV 20153 showing the brake wheel and cut lever.  With the arrival of the new GP-9's in the background the days of these cars in cinder service are numbered.