I have bought two hoppers of the Rock Island. I want to know what kind of commodities they carry, so I can make the car cards. I can not find this information anywhere. Is there someone who can tell me more about these cars?
As Martyn suggests, corn, soybean, wheat, etc. Sometimes they are used for other commodities that have a similar density to grain. Someone would need to chime in here.
anything the size of your thumbnail or smaller that needs to be covered, agricultural products are the norm, eg grain and corn, but plastic pellets, dry cement(maybe on that one) I can add the bottom car is a PS4750 covered hopper 4750 refers to capcity in cubic inches(??) and the total operational weight is 100t. these cars are still in service all over the US today.
So, together with my grain elevator, they resemble a true RI scene? I will try this weekend at our club meet. I also have weathered them today: and
Thieu, you have done a nice job. As to their usage...as said above, they can carry any bulk commodity that must be protected from the weather, is sized between 5mm and 50mm, and will free-flow by gravity alone. Powdered commodities that can compact into a solid mass during transit such as flour, cement, and the like that must be agitated before they will flow can not be carried in these cars. These would be carried in "Air-Slide" hopper cars.
Thanks for your explanations, I can finish my car cars now. I will put grain and corn on them as the 'main freight', which will be very usable for our club layout: we have too many car cards for boxcars and hardly any for this kind of hoppers. For weathering I use 'pastel' (is that also the English word?). Artist use it to make drawings, I make powder of it on sandpaper. I put it on the car with a brush (I have a small and a big one), and add a little bit of water to the brushes to create a kind of paint: it gives the car a dusty appearance. After that, I use a fixative spray to protect the weathering. This is pastel:
FYI, up through the late 60's or so, grain was often transported in box cars with "grain doors". These were wooden inner barriers across the doors extending perhaps two thirds of the way up. Covered hoppers of course have since replaced these. See http://crcyc.railfan.net/crrs/cov/covinfo.html Doug
I am using a spray for pastel. Normally you use it for paper, but also on plastic it protects the pastel. It helps to spray a first layer on the car, than the powdered pastel, and than a new layer of spray as a fixative. Making the pastel a little wet (not too much!), turns it into a dusky paint. I use brown, red (= rust), gray and white colours, sometimes yellow. With pastel you get these subtle results, better than with drybrushing. And if you don't like the results, you can remove it easily (of course only before applying the final layer of fixative...) and start all over again.
Looks great! The cars you noted are PS-2 model 4750 cuft, and ACF Centerflow 4650 cuft. I LIKE the weathering on the PS-2 *ribsided car*! Too bad they don't look that good anymore. Most are patched CNW, and badly faded. FWIW, cement is hauled in smaller cars, due to the material's density. Much heavier per cubic foot than grain, or plastic pellets. This is what cement usually gets a ride to market in:
And her a picture of my module 'East Tuckerville' with the two Rock Island hoppers, taken today at the 5th anniversary of our club: They really feel at home!
