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By Jim Six
Model photos by the author
My layout is modeled after the New York Central Michigan Branch between Goshen and Wabash in northern Indiana. Obviously, there were no coal mines along the line, and in fact, there weren't even any power plants, steel mills or other large industries served with hoppers of coal. So why do I want coal hoppers for the layout? There are two good reasons. First, the L&N transferred coal to the NYC at Cincinnati and at Louisville. The former Big-4 (NYC) lines from these points headed north to the Michigan Branch, passing through the area I am modeling, funneling coal to the heavy industries on the southeast side of Chicago. The other reason may be even more important to operations on my layout. Back in the 1950s this bucolic rural setting saw the lightly used Michigan Branch serve several communities along the route. At the time that I am modeling almost every town along the route had at least one coal yard at trackside.
I have included the towns of New Paris, Milford, Warsaw, Claypool and Wabash on the layout. All had coal yards. In fact, Warsaw had two that were serviced by the New York Central. This means that coal hoppers were set out loaded and picked up empty by passing trains. While I am not much of a fan of switching yards, I love to switch customers along the line, and this plays right into my liking of open-top hopper cars.
While newer 3-bay coal hoppers fed these coal yards from time to time, more typically it was the venerable old 2-bay design that was most used in this service. As such, one would find from one to maybe a half dozen of these small hoppers in a train. I plan to do just that; setting out and picking up a hopper or two in each town will meet my wants and needs. I suspect that there are plenty of railroad modelers that have the same need.
Modeling coal operations has been a staple of our hobby for decades. Some of my favorite layouts model an Appalachian setting. The V&O, AM and other well-known layouts were all coal-based layouts. Many folks populated their layouts with the three Athearn 34' 2-bay open-top hoppers. They were and are nice models that with some TLC can become works of art. On the other hand, several other 2-bay open-top hoppers are available today. Lets take a look at a few the InterMountain New York Central USRA-rebuilt hopper and the Proto 2000 war emergency hopper with wood panel sides along with the war emergency hopper that was rebuilt after the war with sheet steel sides. We will take a look at a few things that can be done to these ready-to-run models to make them more realistic while remaining rugged enough for layout use.
Neither of these models is cheap. Ready-to-run, the Proto 2000 models can be had for about twenty dollars; add another ten dollars for the InterMountain models. So what does the fellow do that needs serious number of these models? Punt! The cost of today's quality models is one of the primary reasons that I am building a layout depicting a rural branchline that will not need dozens of these beauties. A couple dozen I can afford, but a couple hundred is out of the question. I have explained to many folks that I prefer the philosophy of the US Marines who want a few good men. In this case, I'd rather have a setting that calls for fewer freight cars so that I can afford really good ones. I most definitely am not a member of the "more is better" club.
All five models pictured on these pages are factory-painted and assembled models to which I added coupler cut levers, train line air hoses, and Kadee #58 couplers. Each was weathered using acrylic paints. Obviously the theme here is not about how to build a well-detailed model but instead, this is about how to put together a small fleet of well-detailed and weathered model coal hoppers.
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Thank you for your comment. It looks like the original author made a mistake. I'm sure you won't hold it against him. Let me know if you need anything else.