Not sure which forum this should go in but I’d have a hard time calling it a traditional toy train so here you go. Just finished the first of four Reading 100 ton HTG/HTE hoppers that I’ve been working on. Dad and I had been holding out hope Lionel would produce these, but I got sick of waiting and took it upon myself.
These started out at CSX cars, which I carefully scraped the lettering off of with a flat x-acto blade before wet sanding off what was left with some P-2000. Before decaling commenced I applied a thin coat of Tamiya Semi Gloss Black out of a rattle can to even out the finish and hide the sanding marks where the lettering had been. The decals are from K4, I had trouble with their decals being fuzzy in the past but these turned out fine. Last step was applying a few thin coats of Tamiya Semi Gloss Clear followed by one coat of Flat Clear, I like my cars to be closer to flat but no so far that they look chalky. Weathering will bring that look if necessary.
The HTGs were the last hoppers ordered by the Reading, delivered in late 1975. They spent almost their entire lives on the Conrail system, a few even lasted into the early 2000s still in revenue service on Norfolk Southern. I know of one survivor and it is laying on its side without trucks, paint basically nonexistent.
I couldn't be happier with how these turned out. I’ve custom painted/decaled a lot of 3D printed N scale freight cars lately and I think it’s brought my skills a long way since I last messed with O scale. Three more of these to come... if I remember I’ll come back with a picture of these on the layout.
And yes, it’s missing the ACI barcode. Dad has a sheet of them at home, I’ll get to it.
