I was thrilled to see Bachmann release a 1:20 version of the EBT’s steel hopper car, so naturally it wasn’t long before one arrived on my workbench. Along with it, two flat cars, which–while not specifically EBT prototypes–are very close in construction. Needless to say, they didn’t stay “factory fresh” for long… The Hopper:
I model the EBT in the early teens, when the first steel hoppers were just beginning to arrive on the railroad. As such, I didn’t want the weathering to be too drastic, if very noticeable at all. There were some details that were omitted from the model, so I set out to add them.
This consisted mostly of adding some styrene panels and braces to the underside of the hopper, where the model had no details whatsoever. The plumbing on the brake rigging was also changed to match the prototype. In reality, these changes aren’t remotely noticeable unless (a) you’re standing very close to the model and (b) are familiar enough with the prototype to know there was something off-kilter to begin with. I’m probably the only one who would even care, though I do find it peculiar that these details were included on Bachmann’s earlier 3-bay hopper.
The car comes unnumbered, so I applied some dry-transfer numbers to the side. A little light weathering completes the car. I also added the air line that ran along the outside edge of the hopper.
I used the archbar trucks from the flat car to put under the hopper. The stock trucks are quite accurate for the 1930s hopper modeled, but not the original 2-bay hoppers that the EBT purchased from the Pressed Steel Car Co. in 1913. More of the hopper conversion can be found here:
http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=45037 The Flats
Both of these cars started life as a Bachmann flat car. The first off the workbench was the gondola, patterned after an EBT gondola.
No good photos of the EBT’s gondolas have come to light, so this is more conjectural than prototypic. (though gondola #78 was 30’ long)
In 1913, the EBT had not applied air brakes to most of its fleet, so the air brake detail was removed from the underside.
The deck was painted with Folk Art “Barnwood” acrylic paint, and the gondola stakes cut to fit in the stake pockets.
The deck was washed with dilute black paint to give the deck a weathered look. The wood sides of the gondola were also washed, and matched surprisingly well. I wasn’t expecting such a close match, but I’ll take luck when I can. The second flat car got an identical treatment in terms of backdating the brake gear and moving the brake staff to match EBT practice.
For this one, I added “end gates” which the EBT used on a handful of flat cars for pulpwood and other timber commodities.
I wanted this car to look a bit older and worn, so I weathered it a bit more, drybrushing some of the barnwood paint on the sides of the car and sanding off some of the lettering prior to washing the car with dilute black paint. The trucks on both of these cars are Delton/Aristo-Craft archbar trucks. More on these cars can be found here: Gondola - http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=44154 Flat - http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=45084 Later, K