Photos of my Penn Central PS-2 Covered Hopper

[tom]

Finished my last model of the year. Car started as an undecorated Kadee covered hoper car that I first scrubbed with Bar Keepers Helper powdered cleanser to prep the surface. I disassembled the model to do this and always intrigued on how this complex car assembles w/o any glue. The only modification I made to the car was to replace the incorrect 50-ton trucks with Athearn/Genesis 70-ton roller bearing trucks. This is the only PC H34A covered hopper that I have seen with roller bearing trucks.



I painted it a light gray using Model Flex SP Lettering Gray, CB&Q Gray and lots of white. I then lettered it with PCRRHS decals (which are unfortunately not available any longer).



The car was then weathered with pencils, Pan Pastels and airbrushing.



I like how adding the correct 70-ton trucks to the Kadee car improves the overall look of this car.

[ChessieFan1978]

Looks like the Spiders have been busy spinning webs! Doesn't that drive you crazy (it does me) that they always show up in pictures? Awesome hopper nonetheless.

[cera2254]

Love it!

[tom]

Dec 31, 2022 11:49:50 GMT -8 ChessieFan1978 said:

Looks like the Spiders have been busy spinning webs! Doesn't that drive you crazy (it does me) that they always show up in pictures? Awesome hopper nonetheless.

Well Penn Central was known for deferred maintenance.....time to get out the vacuum! Thanks.

[markfj]

Nice work as always Tom!

The PC gray and green paint schemes for the H34 are something Kadee could/should do, but probably won’t.

Not sure what the difference is between the plain H34 and the “A” variant, but the “C” has a slightly different end cage arrangement with a two rung ladder on the left side. It should be an easy modification to make on the Kadee car though. Also the outer most reinforcing channels were replaced with formed ribs. Any other difference I’m missing?



Mark

[Colin 't Hart]

Dec 31, 2022 17:01:25 GMT -8 markfj said:

...the outer most reinforcing channels [were] replaced with formed ribs.

Kadee makes the car with this style of outer ribs too, for example: www.kadee.com/shop-by-category/freight-cars/ho-scale-rtr-cars/8001-ho-scale-undecorated-rib-ps-2-two-bay-hopper-light-gray-rtr
At some point they clearly labelled these two versions "channel" and "hat", but now they use "Chanel" (while this car is a thing of beauty they do mean "Channel" ) and "Rib".

... the “C” has a slightly different end cage arrangement with a two rung ladder on the left side.

You'd have to do this mod yourself though.

[wagnersteve]

I am nearly certain that Pullman-Standard itself made the side "ribs" closest to the ends using channel sections before switching to ones like the others in 1955 or 1956 -- that may have varied between two-outlet and longer three-outlet cars. Both have been available in HO from Kadee; other suppliers have offered at least one type. I have several Atlas models of the newer type on which I intend to substitute channel sections for their outermost ribs.

[Deleted]

Great job as always Tom!