[Railroad Librarian]

I have been working on a few new projects this month, including several USAF pieces of equipment.

I've been editing an older DAFX U-Boat but took a break to finish my first test of a new DAFX coal hopper (part of a planned set to come). The Air Force operates its own coal power plants (or at least used to when I was in years back) and in some cases (if I recall correctly) ran its own trains for supply. Anyway...

Here's my first repaint (using a new shape by Robert Murphy).

Note, it wasn't until I was already well into my repaint before I realized that the car had ribs [which conflict with the painted supports], so I'll probably look for a different model but at least for now I can run some trains with this car...

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[Railroad Librarian]

Some shots of a string in the game...

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[keystoneaholic]

I don't know how relevant this might be, but the Official Railway Equipment Register for October 1967 shows no hopper cars in the DoD section and also has the note that cars lettered USAX are being relettered to DODX.

I suspect that you are thinking about an earlier time frame.

[Railroad Librarian]

You're right. Thank you for the correction.

The car I was using to create the paint is located at the Utah State Railroad Museum [near the Defense Depot] in Ogden, Utah.

http://www.aeroimage.com/railroad/milfreight/Images/00040514.jpg

The car is on display there. It appears that such cars were used more for ballast than coal -- but hey it's a virtual world is it not? So I'll be content to finish my project and use the cars as planned.

Meanwhile, I need to dig through my old slide and 110 pics to find the photos I have of the rail cars that I remember sitting next to the base powerplant in Dayton, Ohio years ago while I was stationed there.

My repaint projects are the product of my interest in improving my repaint skills, my brother's insatiable appetite for unusual rail cars (and mine too), fun and a wee bit of alcohol thrown in the mix to inspire my creative energies.

KevinB

keystoneaholic, on 08 February 2018 - 06:10 AM, said:

I don't know how relevant this might be, but the Official Railway Equipment Register for October 1967 shows no hopper cars in the DoD section and also has the note that cars lettered USAX are being relettered to DODX.

I suspect that you are thinking about an earlier time frame.

[conductorchris]

Kevin, the other problem with that model is it is noticeably too big, a 100 Ton hopper. Those were 70 Ton.
I made a 70 Ton hopper on 70Ton offset model by Paul Charland that matches this prototype.
The two bay car matches a model by Dick Cowen.
You can find both of these in the hopper section of the downloads here. Look for my name, Christopher Parker. Feel free to use my work as a starting point.

[Railroad Librarian]

Chris,

Thanks I'll go have a look. My brother likes the car but want a different one now so I'll look at your suggestions and see if I can redo this one. Sigh... things we do for family and for fun.

Cheers

conductorchris, on 08 February 2018 - 09:51 AM, said:

Kevin, the other problem with that model is it is noticeably too big, a 100 Ton hopper. Those were 70 Ton.
I made a 70 Ton hopper on 70Ton offset model by Paul Charland that matches this prototype.
The two bay car matches a model by Dick Cowen.
You can find both of these in the hopper section of the downloads here. Look for my name, Christopher Parker. Feel free to use my work as a starting point.