C&EI 14 Panel Coal Hoppers Finished
Jun 20, 2021 17:39:27 GMT -8
valenciajim, Christian, and 9 more like this
Post by fishbelly on Jun 20, 2021 17:39:27 GMT -8
These cars are factory painted Bowser 14 panel hoppers.
With all the cars I cut the end cage stringers out and replaced them with brass wire. I also cut the rope pulls off and replaced them with brass wire. The trucks were replaced with Kato 70 ton solid bearing trucks. Couplers were replaced with Kadee scale head whisker couplers. I also replaced the brake wheel with a Kadee Ajax brake wheel. The coal load is real crushed coal over a commercially available load. The first car has a larger lump grade of coal applied. The other two have a smaller grade added.
Now for the difficult part. The paint. I tried a number of mixtures to try and match the Bowser paint. I was going to go with the mixture I felt was as close as I could get. It was a 5:1 mix of True Color Paint TCP-019 Santa Fe Brown and TCP-251 Santa Fe brown 1945+. I was just not happy with it though, but it was as close as I thought I could get. I mixed up a batch at 200 drops of TCP-019 and 20 drops of TCP-251. At the last minute I made an addition and that nailed it. I added 10 drops of TCP-189 C&EI FRT Car Brown and two drops of TCP-005 White. It came out great as you can see. The trucks are painted as well as the ends of the car where the wire bits were added. After the paint was applied and it had time to dry I then gave the car a gloss coat to unify the paint and protect the finish. Once that dried it all got a coat of satin varnish. Then I added the coal load.
Now I searched and searched, but I could not find any verification on what color the trucks were supposed to be. Black or the same color as the entire car. Knowing that C&EI's standard was that the trucks got the same color as the car, I went with that. There is one exception that I know of. The 70 ton 9 panel car in the 1950's has black trucks and black underframe. That is the only exception I could find. Everything I have seen in the 1960's, was all painted the same color.
With all the cars I cut the end cage stringers out and replaced them with brass wire. I also cut the rope pulls off and replaced them with brass wire. The trucks were replaced with Kato 70 ton solid bearing trucks. Couplers were replaced with Kadee scale head whisker couplers. I also replaced the brake wheel with a Kadee Ajax brake wheel. The coal load is real crushed coal over a commercially available load. The first car has a larger lump grade of coal applied. The other two have a smaller grade added.
Now for the difficult part. The paint. I tried a number of mixtures to try and match the Bowser paint. I was going to go with the mixture I felt was as close as I could get. It was a 5:1 mix of True Color Paint TCP-019 Santa Fe Brown and TCP-251 Santa Fe brown 1945+. I was just not happy with it though, but it was as close as I thought I could get. I mixed up a batch at 200 drops of TCP-019 and 20 drops of TCP-251. At the last minute I made an addition and that nailed it. I added 10 drops of TCP-189 C&EI FRT Car Brown and two drops of TCP-005 White. It came out great as you can see. The trucks are painted as well as the ends of the car where the wire bits were added. After the paint was applied and it had time to dry I then gave the car a gloss coat to unify the paint and protect the finish. Once that dried it all got a coat of satin varnish. Then I added the coal load.
Now I searched and searched, but I could not find any verification on what color the trucks were supposed to be. Black or the same color as the entire car. Knowing that C&EI's standard was that the trucks got the same color as the car, I went with that. There is one exception that I know of. The 70 ton 9 panel car in the 1950's has black trucks and black underframe. That is the only exception I could find. Everything I have seen in the 1960's, was all painted the same color.
