Hoppers

All of my ops sessions to this point have been the same basic session. I have a group of waybills I created years ago for testing, and a number have been lost along the way. Thing is, this hasn't really been noticeable during a session, at least not as far as I can tell. Even from the same starting point, the operators handle the movements differently each time.

Part of me has wanted to compile a "full" list of potential sources and destinations for each car I own, and also a variety of waybills for each one so that they'll never be running the same route more than once. The reality is, this largely isn't necessary.

This process started due to an entirely different project. When I was looking to order some parts from Bowser, I noticed they were selling coal loads for hoppers made by a variety of manufacturers. So I decided to order a few to see how they looked. In the meantime, I decided to start adding real coal on top of the plastic loads that came with a bunch of hoppers. I also modified those loads to they would sit deeper into the hopper and the new coal wouldn't sit too high. I found I could modify Kadee loads to fit the Intermountain hoppers. It also led to an assessment of what cars I still wanted to acquire. As a result, I now have the complete hopper roster I'd like, but quite a few are still in kit form.

New Britain Yard looks a lot like I'm modeling coal country here. This is about half the roster. I need to finish the resin kits, lettering the MTH USRA hoppers, and modifying the Bowser "fishbelly" hoppers. Until then, the mix is a bit off.

The Bowser loads are real coal, and look like an anthracite load to me. That's great, because the majority of the retail coal should be anthracite. But for the industries I wanted the bituminous loads to look different. I have some real coal (I think) that came from Scenic Express years ago. That looks shiny like anthracite. I also had some Smith & Sons cinders left (which I love), and that looked more dusty, like bituminous. I found some old Highball coal but it's a bit more grey than I'd like. I also think it's too clean.  Bituminous is very dusty compared to anthracite. 

In this photo, the Bowser load is the lower left. One of my anthracite loads is the upper left.

The lower right is the Smith & Sons (I'd love one more bottle, I'm out).

The upper right is Highball Coal. 

So for the waybills, I need to identify sources and match them to industries in New Britain. I hunted down a lot of industry publications, like the Pennsylvania Anthracite or Bituminous Annual Reports published annually during that era by the state, along with railroad shipping guides and other similar documents. I started by looking at the retail brands sold in New Britain and locating the largest collieries for those brands. I also looked for the largest non-branded ones for additional suppliers.

Because the waybills will only be handled by the agent at a desk, I'm making them full sized. As much as a huge spreadsheet and loads of waybills might be interesting, I really only one per car to start. So that's what I'm doing, creating one bill for each car that I have in service. Not all will be used every session.

I currently have 39 hoppers ready for service.

Anthracite

1 - D&H (Kadee)

5 - Erie (Broadway Limited, Intermountain, JJL)

2 - Reading (Kadee)

Bituminous

6 - B&O (Broadway Limited, MTH, Proto 2000)

1 - Berwind (Rapido)

1 - C&I (Intermountain)

3 - C&O (Intermountain, MTH)

1 - CRR (Intermountain)

1 - Montour (Intermountain)

1 - N&W (Broadway Limited)

1 - O&W (Rapido)

Either

5 - NYC (Broadway Limited, Kadee, Tichy/Intermountain)

11 - PRR (MTH, Rapido)

The Tichy/Intermountain NYC hopper is incorrectly painted black, though...

In theory, any of the hoppers could be carrying any type of coal. But I'm assuming that most will be loaded on their home road, or close, so I'm basing the probable loads on that.

On-Layout Industries in New Britain receiving Anthracite

• Berson Brothers
• City Coal & Wood
• D&K Coal
• Household Fuel
• Shurberg & Sons
• Stanley Svea

On-Layout Industries in New Britain receiving Bituminous

• Landers, Frary & Clark
• New Britain Gas Light Co
• P&F Corbin
• Parkmeadow Lofts
• Russell & Erwin
• Stanley Works

That's twelve industries.  Many of these will receive more than one load at a time, plus there will be a number empties on-layout to pull. So I suspect I'll need 20-30 during a session, although not every car will necessarily move. During a session where there are multiple through trains (up to six) I will need a few more.

Can I Buy You A Beer?

Here's a little project I finished up recently. Greenway Models is a company that has produced a lot of custom painted Athearn models. I learned that they made a model for Cremo Brewery when I saw one at the New Britain Industrial Museum. One finally turned up and, even better, it was still in kit form. So I decided to upgrade it to my layout standards.

The sides are separate pieces, with a cutout above the door.  The roof and ends are molded as a single part, and snap into that location. So that needs to be addressed. I also wanted to replace the molded on parts, and conveniently the paint scheme doesn't have any lettering in those locations.

My initial approach was simply to shave them off. But I also needed to determine what I would use to kitbash it. Looking for a potential donor in my stash I decided to go with the Branchline reefer. I did some test fitting, and found it was nearly a perfect match in height and length for the sides. The sides were slightly thinner. 

It occurred to me that I could cut the sides just inside the ladder and grab irons, and splice the end portions of the Branchline sides. This included the mounting pins. This also meant that I'd gain the strap braces that secure the ends on the prototype, and the mounting locations for the ladders. I also filled in the missing portion above the door with strip styrene. In hindsight, I should have scribed deeper boards in the Branchline portions to more closely match the Athearn side. 

The rest of the model is the Branchline kit as designed. I touched up the sides with a blend of Vallejo white and off-white and the rest of the car is painted using Stynylrez black primer. This matched the scheme of the Greenway model, although I didn't paint the sill yellow.

It's a fictional car, but a fun addition to the roster. I couldn't fit the brewery on the layout, but operationally it was served out of Whiting St. Yard by one of the Holyoke freights. So it can be dropped off overnight or in the morning, to be taken back off the layout in the afternoon. 

Cremo Brewery closed in 1955, but Alvarium Brewery in New Britain has resurrected the brand.  I think I'll have one.