Notes on Modeling Freight Cars

In compiling and revising my roster, the roster page provided by the Friends of the BN website has proven to be invaluable.  At first glance it might appear to be a bunch of nonsense, but to anyone who’s studied a BN grain train or two, the patterns in the numbering series begin to make sense. 

I’ve tried to be as correct as possible with the models, but when I started out modeling these cars I had a ton of Athearn’s Pullman Standard hoppers on hand.  When I’d begin working on modeling a particular car, I’d just grab one and give it a good soaking in the brake fluid vat.  As long as it looked like a PS-type car, I used it.  Frankly, I didn’t notice the differences between the 4427 high side₁, the 4740₂ and the 4750₃ at that time.  Now, instead of going back to redo some of these cars now, I’m pressing forward until all the cars are modeled.  Then I can begin replacing the cars that I’ve painted incorrectly. 

The same was true of the ACF-type cars.  The vast majority of the ACF-type grain cars in the Bottineau train were 4650 cubic foot cars, but in 1991, there was only one HO scale model of a Plate C 4650 cubic foot ACF Centerflow hopper – the then defunct and hard-to-find Front Range model.  Of course, I didn’t notice the differences between the 4650₄, 4600₅ and 5250₆ cubic foot cars, although now the differences are obvious.  On top of that, I had already exhausted my supply of Front Range three-bay hoppers (a whopping two) at the time I began this project, so the only other starting point I was aware of was cutting down the Athearn 4 bay chemical/pellet hopper underframe from four bays to three.  Even this method ignored the incorrect outlet gates and length differences, but was the only way to get close to a Plate C car.  You know, they say ignorance is bliss….

Notes on Modeling Locomotives

The locomotives were a tough project the first time I attempted them.  I took only a couple photos of the incoming train, since I wanted to save my film for the structures and the really interesting cars.  Well, my first time using a 35mm camera was a learning experience.  No, not all those “extra” frames you get “before zero” after loading the film turn out to be extra pictures.  One of them ended up being about half of the pair with the rest of the frame exposed.  So, a little modeler’s license was used along with a pair of factory painted Athearn GP38-2s in BN and Conrail paint.