# Cheap and Dirty Coal Train Project (2/9 Done!)



## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

So, I want to make a coal train similar to the ones that roll/rolled through Chicago in the modern (80's to today) era. I'm thinking specifically of the drab black or grey examples that seem quite common around here.

I'm also under a really tight budget. I came across a fellow selling a whole bunch of the classic Tyco Virginian Hoppers for $2 each. Ignoring the Virginian Livery, would a car similar to this have been used as a coal hauler? If so, what's the years that such a hopper could conceivably be -or have been- seen operating through Chicago?

They aren't perfect models and probably not prototypical, but after removing the lettering, maybe repainting, relettering weathering and adding coal loads I think they could look pretty good. 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Below I attached a picture of the car I'm considering.


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## LateStarter (Mar 12, 2016)

Probably Burlington for sure.
Also likely NS, CSX, BNSF, and late Pennsy N&W, GN & RI.
Some Clinchfield maybe.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Thanks!
I'd probably lean toward CSX and BNSF, but what about UP? Would a UP coal train wind up in Chicago?

UP is attractive because my son already has a UP engine he likes alot and it looks like UP operates silver colored coal hoppers with colored ends that I like the look of as well as black and red bodied examples. Assuming I can get the Virginian markings off, I could just add color to the ends and then weather them.


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## LateStarter (Mar 12, 2016)

I suppose it's not a stretch for UP hoppers in the Chicago area... or anywhere in the Midwest, but not as likely as the others. However, the SP operated in Chicago, so I guess the UP might also.
BTW, those 'colored ends' are probably rotary coupler hoppers... all the colored ends should go in the same direction -- either all toward the front, or all to the rear. The prototypes were never intentionally flip-flopped.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Thanks for the info on both issues. 

I think I'm going to go ahead and buy a batch of these. Even if it all goes south I'll still get some practice repainting on shells that are the next best thing to free.


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## ebtnut (Mar 9, 2017)

Those four-bay, 70-ton hoppers date from the 1940's - '50's. There were likely some still in service in the '80's, but all coal hoppers were being replaced with the big 100-tonners seen today.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

ebtnut said:


> Those four-bay, 70-ton hoppers date from the 1940's - '50's. There were likely some still in service in the '80's, but all coal hoppers were being replaced with the big 100-tonners seen today.


Yeah, the size is a bit smaller, but I'm going to fudge it for the price factor and might even look better on my small'ish 9x5 layout.

I just heard from my friend who is going to give me 3 DCC engines. They're all Union Pacific so I think I'll be going with Union Pacific reporting marks and some from various leasing companies that are common UP lines. Any suggestions for good reporting marks to use?

I probably won't even put any logos on these as I rather like the look of the long drab trains I see so often and it will be less visually jarring if I use them with engines of other lines.


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## 1905dave (Sep 18, 2016)

Those are pretty close to a variation of the 1926 ARA 70 ton offset hopper design, that was used by dozens of railroads in the mid-1920's and early 1930's and they lasted until the 1960's when they were replaced by 90 and 100 ton cars. Pretty much anything with an offset side like that screams 20's-30's design and most were built before 1950 and retired by the 1970's.


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## 1905dave (Sep 18, 2016)

I do remember seeing some of them in the 1980's, the CNW, MP and MKT all took some, put a cover on top and made covered hoppers for company sand service.

You also have to remember that it wasn't until the late 1980's that the UP even had access to the Powder River Basin to move that coal. Prior to that only the BN (not BNSF) had access to the coal.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Eilif said:


> Thanks!
> I'd probably lean toward CSX and BNSF, but what about UP? Would a UP coal train wind up in Chicago?
> 
> UP is attractive because my son already has a UP engine he likes alot and it looks like UP operates silver colored coal hoppers with colored ends that I like the look of as well as black and red bodied examples. Assuming I can get the Virginian markings off, I could just add color to the ends and then weather them.


I have personally witnessed both UP and Burlington Northern hoppers on a NS train outside of Pittsburgh. Cars regularly leave home rails as they travel to their destinations.


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## 1905dave (Sep 18, 2016)

The UP had coal fields in the Hanna Basin in SW Wyoming and off the Utah RR via Provo. But little of that went to Chicago, most went west.

The UP started powering coal trains with multiple SD40/U30C/C30-7, then added C36-7's and C40-8's. That lasted until AC engines were available then the UP went to all C44AC and then in the last decade or so added additional 4000 hp AC's to the mix, but the C44AC or C45AC are the main power for coal trains.


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## 1905dave (Sep 18, 2016)

Eilif said:


> Thanks!
> I'd probably lean toward CSX and BNSF, but what about UP? Would a UP coal train wind up in Chicago?


The railroads have a mix of their equipment and private owner equipment. Some contracts required the UP to contribute cars or the railroad might inject a train of their cars if the private cars aren't available to cover a loading. A utility might lease a cut of railroad owned cars and both BNSF and UP cars might get mixed. At some point, when empty, the trains will get "purified" and the foreign cars switched out. They also inject railroad cars in private sets of cars to cover bad orders.

The mines schedule loadings and the loadings are apportioned to the UP or BNSF based on the contracts the mines and utilities have with the railroads. The goal is to always have an empty train ready when a loading is available. If railroad A doesn't have a train ready then they are cases where railroad B can offer one of their sets and "take" the loading from railroad A. So the railroads will inject their own cars to make sure they get all the loadings they are due and maybe steal one from the other railroad if the other railroad stumbles.

Up until the UP/CNW merger the CNW handled trains from the Powder River Basin to Chicago, after the CNW was merged into the UP, the UP handled it.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Nice to see someone else taking an interest in Tyco cars. I'm actually building a line around the operating 2-bay hoppers but I have a few one the 4-bay models that you're talking about. Have you considered replacing the horn-hook couplers with Kadee's? Not quite as easy on the 4-bay, the existing structure doesn't quite line up for the coupler height -- but they do look so much better.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Wow, lots of great info here. I'm learning alot today. Anyone have any suggestions for private owner Reporting marks that would be seen on UP trains in Chicago or even on BNSF?

Shdwdgn,
I am likely going to put kaydees on these but I'll probably be doing the shortcut of putting them right on the trucks using 212 talgo adapters. If that ends up unsatisfactory I can always move them to the bodies later, but this isn't a project I want to spend a ton of time on at first and since I'm already fudging the era of the cars I'm not too worried about the coupler location accuracy. 

Probably going to pick up the cars tomorrow or Friday.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

FWIW, it probably is not worth the expense of converting to the truck-mounted kadees other than appearance. I think the main point of body-mounted couplers is for more control of the train, especially when backing up. Hopefully someone else with more experience will chime in on the issue though.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Went back to the shop today and he offered a good price so I bought 20 of them!

Quickly disassembled them which was easy-peasy. Then spent a while this evening in front of the TV with rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs. removed just the "Viriginian" name, reporting mark and number, leaving the rest of the text in place.

There was a surprising variety in the way the paint reacted to the rubbing alcohol. About 2/3 of the time the letters came away relatively easily leaving the silver paint in place. About 1/3 of the time somewhere between all to a quatrter of the letters removed ended up taking the sliver around the letters with it necessitating taking the whole area off. Not too bad though since the grey of the body (or maybe it's primer?) looks alot like a color of grey one might use to cover up a previous road name.

The trucks, weights and cross beams will get a quick soak in Purple power to remove any grease and dirt. The bodies will get a light cleaning with dish soap and then I'll start weathering.

Pictures to follow...


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

I believe the more difficult ones are actually the older cars, probably from the 60's. I've run into that a couple of times myself, except in my case I was trying to strip ALL the paint completely. I tried 90% rubbing alcohol which worked great for the newer cars, but the stubborn ones I even tried soaking for several days in brake fluid (which normally takes off everything!) but it barely even touched the lettering. I never did find a solution for those, I just ended up making my changes over the top and I'll have to hit them with a coat of primer to hide the original paint.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Shdwdrgn said:


> I believe the more difficult ones are actually the older cars, probably from the 60's. I've run into that a couple of times myself, except in my case I was trying to strip ALL the paint completely. I tried 90% rubbing alcohol which worked great for the newer cars, but the stubborn ones I even tried soaking for several days in brake fluid (which normally takes off everything!) but it barely even touched the lettering. I never did find a solution for those, I just ended up making my changes over the top and I'll have to hit them with a coat of primer to hide the original paint.



That sounds very reasonable but what little I've read suggests that these are all 70's examples or later. That said, I've got alot of experience stripping paint from hundreds of wargaming miniatures and there are some hard enamel paints that bond strong enough to plastic that solvents that will remove the paint will also damage the plastic. In some cases you can use acetone applied lightly enough to get the paint off without doing damage to the plastic underneath but even that doesn't always work. For painted metal figures and die-cast cars a bath in MEK nearly always does the trick, but for plastic with invulnerable paint the solution for me is usually just to paint over.

As for the couplers, I wouldn't bother with the swap except that that I do want to do magnetic uncoupling and the DCC engines my friend is giving me have Kaydee's. At this point I'm thinking of making 2 sets of 8-10 cars, one set with coal loads and one without to simulate the dropping off of empties and picking up of loaded cars.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Here's some pics of the shells so far. Some cleanly removed, messily removed and ones I haven't gotten too yet.
After counting it looks like I was mistaken and less than half of the ones I've worked on have had the markings come off cleanly. 

Going to work on the last batch and see how they come out. I haven't decided yet but if enough don't come clean I might go back and buy out the rest that were for sale rather than spend alot of time re-painting.


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## time warp (Apr 28, 2016)

Just mask them and shoot the bad spots with silver. The prototype does it all the time. Some of those Tyco cars were U.S. made, some in Hong Kong or Tiawan, and others in Yugoslavia, which may account for the paint variation.
I would be careful using Purple power on the metal parts, because any residue left is mildly corrosive. A triple rinse using dish soap would be a good idea.
Also, any Tyco quad hoppers you might have with the "Virginian" lettering applied with an odd spacing are rare "error" cars and are worth bucks to Tyco guys. Just sayin'


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I am still in the process of doing the same thing with the Tyco hoppers. In fact I bought some from time warp a year or so ago.
I too plan to have 2 strings of these, empties and loaded. I have to reletter them for MP. As someone mentioned MP had a ton of these. They were black or boxcar red. So all my hoppers have to be repainted. Any road names are used but the lettering and numbers need to be removed. Some of my hoppers are painted and some are molded in a color. Here is one I have painted black.
I think this one was a yellow UP car.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I forgot to add, these cars will get accurail trucks, intermountain metal wheels, and kadees. For probably less than 6 bucks total each, they will make nice cars. Very happy with how the paint is coming out.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

time warp said:


> Just mask them and shoot the bad spots with silver. The prototype does it all the time. Some of those Tyco cars were U.S. made, some in Hong Kong or Tiawan, and others in Yugoslavia, which may account for the paint variation.
> I would be careful using Purple power on the metal parts, because any residue left is mildly corrosive. A triple rinse using dish soap would be a good idea.
> Also, any Tyco quad hoppers you might have with the "Virginian" lettering applied with an odd spacing are rare "error" cars and are worth bucks to Tyco guys. Just sayin'


Good to know, thanks! I'll see if I have any silver spray and might experiment with other colors of paint-over too.

As for the misprint cars, do you have a link to any pictures of them. I've only got two left that haven't had the letters removed, but I could mosey over to the shop and see if any of the ones they have are the "rare" variety.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

mopac said:


> I am still in the process of doing the same thing with the Tyco hoppers. In fact I bought some from time warp a year or so ago.
> I too plan to have 2 strings of these, empties and loaded. I have to reletter them for MP. As someone mentioned MP had a ton of these. They were black or boxcar red. So all my hoppers have to be repainted. Any road names are used but the lettering and numbers need to be removed. Some of my hoppers are painted and some are molded in a color. Here is one I have painted black.
> I think this one was a yellow UP car.
> 
> View attachment 394162


That does look nice!

Did you remove the lettering before spraying? I just tried an experiment with two of them I oversprayed in rust red primer one that had the letters removed and one that didn't and I can't see any evidence of the letters showing through. I did use regular rustoleum paint which is fairly thick, bit it didn't seem to kill the details on the shell. I'll snap some pictures and put them up later.

Are you mounting the couplers to the body or trucks?


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Couplers to the body. I don't know how yet. Not much there to attach to.
I removed the lettering because I thought it would show under the new paint.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

mopac said:


> Couplers to the body. I don't know how yet. Not much there to attach to.


I hadn't thought of this but I took a look and you're abosolutely right, There's basically just a slim bar. I'm pretty sure there's an entire kadee box you can glue in there but I'm even more sure now that I'll attach the kaydees to the truck with 212 adaptors.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

time warp said:


> Just mask them and shoot the bad spots with silver. The prototype does it all the time. Some of those Tyco cars were U.S. made, some in Hong Kong or Tiawan, and others in Yugoslavia, which may account for the paint variation.
> I would be careful using Purple power on the metal parts, because any residue left is mildly corrosive. A triple rinse using dish soap would be a good idea.
> Also, any Tyco quad hoppers you might have with the "Virginian" lettering applied with an odd spacing are rare "error" cars and are worth bucks to Tyco guys. Just sayin'


Thanks again for this advice. I just tried this and it looks great. Didn't even bother to mask the specific area, just a strip over the dimensional info and bits I wanted to save. Used an old can of sliver aluminum I had sitting around (I think from back when walmart had their own brand...) and the color is pretty close. The transition in color is barely noticable and once I finish the heavy weather job it will be invisible. 

I left a few un-retouched because it has a nice painted-over look to them, but now at least 2/3 of them will not look like they previously had other letters on them.



mopac said:


> Couplers to the body. I don't know how yet. Not much there to attach to.
> I removed the lettering because I thought it would show under the new paint.


Coincidentally I was at the "Great Midwest Train Show" This morning and the bargain train guys had this exact hopper with kadee's attached in the $1 bin. bought it and the kadee box is glued and screwed to the center support bar (not sure what it's called) not to the box/gondola itself. I'll try and get a pic up of it tomorrow. Looks pretty sturdy actually.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Pic would be great. I know the center bar you are talking about. It almost has what looks like a coupler box on the ends of it. I have some kadee boxes that probably could be attached. I just don't know how close the height would be. Other adjustments could be made.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

mopac said:


> Pic would be great. I know the center bar you are talking about. It almost has what looks like a coupler box on the ends of it. I have some kadee boxes that probably could be attached. I just don't know how close the height would be. Other adjustments could be made.


I'm not sure either about the height, as I didn't compare it to any of the cars I have that came from the factory with knuckle couplers. It does look like they might have shave away a touch of plastic to make the level just right, where there is a slanting support tab on part of where a coupler box would have to be attached. They only have one screw but they both appear to be glued as well to keep from rotating off. The good news for eas of mounting kadees as well as the rest of my project is that these little cars pop apart really easily with no tools. I took 20 apart and only broke the bar on one and even that will probably glue together easily once remounted.

I only took pics of one end but here's front and back pics of the Kadee installed. Let me know if you need more and just for kicks, shots of 20 cars worth of disassembled and freshly cleaned (dish soapy water soak overnight) components.


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## time warp (Apr 28, 2016)

I'm glad this project is coming together for you, and it's good experience. I have no pictures of the irregular lettering.
The center sill is the part you are mounting the couplers to.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Got a question about weathering the wheels. 

Is it important that I not get paint on the edge that makes contact with the rails? 

I plan to weather the trucks themselves quickly with spray paints. I will be making a little cardboard jig so I can spray them en masse without getting paint in the hole where the axle hits. For the wheels though I am wondering if painting by hand is the only option to keep paint off the point of the axles and the edges.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Rusted up the Center Sills and Trucks last night. A pretty quick job with a simple bascoat of Rustoleum Camo Flat Black. Then followed by Rustoleum Rust colored primer applied in short dusting blasts from a good distance (2 feet maybe?) away so that it would delibrately cover unevenly and give a rough surface. 

I put it on just a touch heavier than I wanted, (ideally more black would show through) but the effect is pretty good. 

Heading to michaels this morning to get a rust colored paint marker for the wheels.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Got a brown paint marker from the craft store and colored the inside outer face of all 80 wheel sets. Looks quite nice. The paint dried satin rather than flat, but it doesn't seem shiny when on the truck so I might not bother to apply any flat varnish to it. Pictures coming tomorrow.

Now all that remains is to weather the shells and add the reporting marks and numbers.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Glue the weights in tonight. Each car has two weights, one under each angled end. They're only held in by pressure from the center sills but I thought that having them glued in place would probably be better all around and likely quieter. 

They're pretty close to the color of the bodies and after weathering they should look nearly indistinguishable

One issue that has come up. I bought these out of a bin and didn't check to see if they all had hand brake wheels. Over half don't. Now the question is whether to go buy/scavenge 14 of these things or just take them all off.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Kadee and others have packs of brake wheels fairly cheap. None will match the clunky look of the Tyco originals, but you can pick from several styles to match your line and era. Not quite an exact fit, but a little glue will solve that problem.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

That seems sensible. I bet my local train shop has some. I scavenged a few from my junk bin but I figure I'll need 8 more or so.

Mismatched types doesn't bother me, but a brake wheel does seem like a rather essential item for a bare minimum of realism.

Good excuse to visit the shop I think.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Or you can just say you're running a test track with an experimental electronic braking system, no manual brakes required!


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Here's the finished assembled trucks and center sills. It's not totally flat, but perhaps as a result of the positioning, the marker used on the wheel wells doesn't look glossy. Not hyper detailed, but also bad for a super-fast marker and spray can treatment.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Decided to wait on the reporting marks until I've got a beter idea where the layout is going so the kids and I had a weathering session. It was some of the most fun I've had in any kind of model making.

My son and daughter painted the cars with minwax polyshades "Tudor" a black tinted stain and polyurethane. My entire job was dabbing off the inevitable globbs and goops and touching up missed spots. 

Next steps are a 
-touch up to any unweathered spots
-matte varnish
-bit of rust stippled anywhere the polyshades is too thick
-possible addition of tan drybrush for dust.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Looks like you have some good helpers. They are into it. That is going to be some
good looking coal cars. Good job. Keep the pics coming.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

mopac said:


> Looks like you have some good helpers. They are into it. That is going to be some
> good looking coal cars. Good job. Keep the pics coming.


Thanks and wll do!
We'll see about the final result, but -especially with cheap cars like this- I'd defintely rather have a pretty good final product that involves my kids than a higher quality job I do by myself.

Went back and looked over the cars this morning. Looks like I don't have to do any additional touch-ups with the minwax. However, there are definitely quite a number glops and rough bits (looks almost like melted residue of latex gloves?) that are going to become rust patches.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Was reminded today of why it's great to support your local train shop. 

Needing some brake wheels I headed over to Zientek's Trains which is only about two neighborhood's away from my home here in Chicago. It's an amazing treasure hunt of a place with tons of HO stuff at good prices spread throughout an old Bar and 3 rooms of the upstairs living home. 

When I asked about the wheels, John the proprietor said "No Kaydee's but head upstairs and check the second room in the shelf by the window for a box that says Athern Parts". Sure enough there they were! I frequently find cheap cars with no wheels so I grabbed both of the packs of 12 wheels which look to be the same type and with the same diameter shafts as the ones I'm missing. They were only $1.00 each which I assume is probably a price from a few decades ago. Picked up some more #5 and #148 kaydee's as well and a spare boxcar door for one of my fixer-upper cars.

So all this to say, I got the wheels I needed for less than the cost of shipping and if anyone happens to find themself in Chicago, it's well worth the trip to Zientek's place.

Lastly, I'm new to all this and my needs may change over time but given my leaning toward cheap stuff I'm finding that between my local train shops and train shows (of which there are plenty of both in chicagoland) and this forum, I'm left with little reason to look at places like Ebay and other online shops. There are good deals there to be sure, but shipping costs -even when fairly calculated- are just not worth it when you're locally finding most of the rolling stock, buildings and such that you need for less (often much, much less) than $10 a piece.


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## trenes115 (Dec 9, 2011)

Zientek's is quite the treasure hunt as is Grayland Station on Chicago's northwest side. Have found some interesting things in both shops. 



Eilif said:


> Was reminded today of why it's great to support your local train shop.
> 
> Needing some brake wheels I headed over to Zientek's Trains which is only about two neighborhood's away from my home here in Chicago. It's an amazing treasure hunt of a place with tons of HO stuff at good prices spread throughout an old Bar and 3 rooms of the upstairs living home.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

trenes115 said:


> Zientek's is quite the treasure hunt as is Grayland Station on Chicago's northwest side. Have found some interesting things in both shops.


Thanks for the heads up. For some reason Grayland didn't show up in my last search for train shops but I'll be sure to check it out next time I'm up that way. I did stop into "Chicagoland" hobbies a couple weeks ago when I had to be on the north side. They have a nice big used section in back.

Tried to visit RAM also but it was temporarily closed due to illness. I wonder why there are 3 hobby shops within less than 3 miles of each other?


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Added knuckle couplers. Was planning on leaving them horn-hook and eventually adding kayee's (either 5 or 148) using the Talgo addaptor. However what I ended up doing was much more in line with the "Cheap and Dirty" ethos.

Yesterday my son and I visited the Blackhawk Railway And Historical Society For their Winter Swap Meet and a screening of a video about the Monon. As well as some other amazing deals, while there I found a fellow selling bags of E-Z Mate couplers at 10 for a buck. I made a deal for all the bags and wound up wth 100 couplers for $5. That's right I bought the couplers for less than the cost of the 212 Talgo Adaptors to hold them in place!

The EZ-mates drop nicely into the Horn Hook boxes but I had to snip just a smidge off the edge of each centering whisker/spring arm so they would move laterally like proper Kadee. I installed 42 of these (21 cars) easily during an evening of television watching.

The first pic shows how the coupler and adaptor looked after installation. The second shows what it looks like after I first colored the adaptor with a brown Sharpie paint pen and then went over that with a wood stain finish touch-up marker.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Sorry to say, but there's a reason EZ-mate couplers are sold so cheaply. Plastic is not metal, and many people find that those couplers give out over time or when hauling long trains.

But hey, they look really good and they get you started at a low cost, so wait and see if they work for you and just replace them as needed.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Replaced all the missing Brake wheels tonight and reassembled the cars putting sills and trucks (now with couplers!) back on the bodies.

This project is moving right along. Next I've got to sit down and stipple and/or drybrush a bit of rust colored paint anywhere that the minwax went on too thick or the matte spray reacted badly.

After that I may drybrush on some dust. Not sure yet if it will be necessary.



Shdwdrgn said:


> But hey, they look really good and they get you started at a low cost, so wait and see if they work for you and just replace them as needed.


Thanks, I'm liking the look too.
Yep, that's the plan. I don't forsee trains longer than 10 cars (probably shorter actually) or a quick death for these, but I've no problem replacing them when they get bad. Putting Kadee's on all of them at this moment isn't quite feasible as my hobby money goes into other things but I'm eager to finish this project up for now and move on to others.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Made some Coal loads with the kids over the last week.

We started by putting bumps of clay on top of pieces of foam board:
After a couple days the clay had dried, cracked and was sitting loose. It was a simple matter of pushing the sections together and gluing themdown

Then we painted them with black craft paint.



















A couple days later we painted them with slightly watered down PVA and dipped them in "Black Blast" sandblasting medium. 


















I've still got to sand the sides a bit to make them drop in easier and I'll probably spray them with a varnish to cut the shine just a bit and make them more sturdy, but the look is pretty good I think. 








At this point all the cars need is a bit of rust paint stippled on to disguise the areas where the polyshades was applied to thick. I might not even bother with a dusty drybrush, but I'll consult some pics of prototype before I make that decision.


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## Vincent (Jan 28, 2018)

For $2, it's hard to go wrong with a car in that condition.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Vincent said:


> For $2, it's hard to go wrong with a car in that condition.


Indeed. Though they were even cheaper than that. 

I don't think I mentioned that when I went back and agred to buy 20 of the ones that were loose I got them for a buck each! 

As you saw, a few were missing the brake wheels, but otherwise, they were completely intact without even any broken stirrups after being stacked willy-nilly in a milk crate.


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

EDIT: Linked Pics (formerly between each section of text) not showing so I just loaded them all at the bottom.

And they're done!

11 Empties and 10 loaded.

As I looked closer most of them had serious cracking on the matte varnish, probably from spraying too soon after applying the minwax.

Drybrushing and rubbing brown paint took care of some of them, but the ones that have coal loads had really bad cracking inside the bins. A spray of matte varnish did cut a bit of the shimmer of the coal and stabilized the sand though so they're much more realistic and sturdy now.

Most, even those without big rust spots got a bit of bown drybrushed at the bottom edge an on the stirrups.

Luckily on alot of them the cracked finish looks like worn or flaking paint.

On two of them I tried an experiment. I sprayed the hopper body with ruddy brown paint after taping off the dimensional info. Then after the minwax, I heavily drybrushed the dimensional info with brown. Came out a bit messy, but better than I expected.

So it's clearly a bit messy after the matte varnish incident, but I'm happy with how I managed to salvage them and I learned alot about how model train cars react to my usual wargaming painting and weathering methods. Really looking forward to running these when the layout is at least half functional.


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## Homeless by Choice (Apr 15, 2016)

*Somethings Not Right*

I am seeing this all over your above above reply. Am I doing something wrong?

LeRoy

*Update:*
Thanks Eilif for fixing the issue.

LeRoy


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Oh poop. I must have brought the links in from the wrong folder.
Just uploaded them. Not as nice as having them next to each bit of corresponding text, but easier for sure.


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