Roundhouse MofW Hopper

Roundhouse MofW Hopper Roundhouse MofW Hopper...
Roundhouse makes a fairly good hopper that can be made quickly into a Chessie H-042 class hopper. Both C&O and B&O had these hoppers. There were Chessie C&O, Chessie B&O, as well as predecessor B&O and C&O paint jobs. They came in numbers 964000-249 for C&O cars, and 964250-499 for B&O cars.

They were used initially by the C&O and B&O for making money hauling rocks and other heavy material, but were used in the Chessie Era in Maintenance of Way service due to their unique doors on the bottom. These doors are perfect for pouring ballast on rails, since the contents of the hopper can be poured on either side of the rails. Normal hopper doors just dump the load straight down underneath the car.

Below is a pic of a real H-042 class hopper. Notice the white "9" and "MW" in the road number. These are evidence that this car wore number 64339 before starting a career in MofW service. Some of these cars were painted into Chessie colors after being in MofW service. These cars have yellow "9"'s, like the one I did.

Charles Bogart pic

How to:
1. Purchase a Roundhouse undecorated kit.
2. Prime the frame with an enamel primer. It is metal so it needs primer to prevent the acrylic paint from flaking off. The shell is plastic, so no need for primer on the shell.
3. Paint the frame and shell flat black.
4. Spray the shell with gloss coat, to provide a smooth surface for decaling.
5. Decal with Herald King decals or Champ decals. Both make a good set for Chessie hoppers. I used the HK ones on this project.
6. Spray the shell with dull coat. This will provide a good rough surface for weathering.
7. Assemble the car as per the instructions.
8. Paint the wheel faces rusty colors.
9. Weather the car with oversprays of light grey and tan. These cars hauled ballast primarily, so they will not get covered with black coal dust. They get covered with grey colored dust from the ballast.
10. Weather the inside with swirls of light grey and rust colors.
11. Seal the car with dull coat.
12. You are done, enjoy your car.

Below is a pic of the hopper right out of the box.

Below is pic of the completed hopper. Notice the concentration of white dust around the bottom of the car where the ballast dumps out. This is one of the cars taht got repainted into Chessie colors after it entered MofW service. You can tell because the "9" in the road number looks identical to the other numbers. If it was a car that was renumbered into MofW service and not repainted the "9" would look very bright and out of place (see prototype photo above).