How to detail war emergency hopper cars
Enhance commercial HO scale models using these easy-to-follow techniques
Fellow modelers Bill Hanley, Bob Chapman, and Chet French unknowingly broke a modeling log jam for me. I wanted to add composite-side war emergency hoppers to my late 1950s HO scale Monon RR layout. Through articles by and discussions with these gentlemen, I learned there were still substantial numbers of these cars, still with wood sides, in service during my modeling era.
This was good news for me. Over the years I’d squirreled away Life-Like Proto 2000 kits and later WalthersProto readyto-run models of these cars decorated for the Baltimore & Ohio RR (B&O), Louisville & Nashville RR (L&N), and Wabash RR (WAB). I selected these railroads as they were all interchange partners with the Monon.
Knowing the cars would work on my model railroad, I did additional research. Ed Hawkins wrote articles in the December 2000 and April 2001 issues of Railmodel Journal (RMJ) magazine. The stories, which included photos of full-size cars, covered the various prototypes in detail and the years the cars were in operation.
Ed chronicled the 50- and 70-ton versions of these cars in an expanded study in Railroad Prototype Cyclopedia (RPCYC) no. 29. The article was loaded with excellent prototype photos. This edition of the RPCYC is out of print, but you can find it at brick-and-mortar and online used-book retailers as well as online auction websites.
The information from these sources helped shaped the upgrades I made to models decorated for the B&O, L&N, and Wabash. These techniques can be used for hoppers operated by other railroads as well.
Mont Switzer lives with his wife of 49 years, Cheryl, in rural Indiana. They have one daughter and three grandchildren, all of whom enjoy seeing the trains and trucks in “grandpa’s basement.” Mont is semi-retired from the trucking business, allowing more time to pursue model railroading, IndyCar racing, vintage cars and trucks, history, and domestic travel.