Have you EVER had freight car infatuations? I tend to have these crushes---ONE AFTER ANOTHER!
Oh there were the M-53 boxcars I mulled over feverishly. And the side door cabooses and ore jennies with arch bar trucks. Oh--and the 36' wooden flatcars with truss rods and arch bar trucks---
Often my obsessions sparked a spate of scratch building or kit bashing. Isn't THAT all very wholesome and creative? I always thought SO.
Well now, the itch is back! Now I am interested in building boxcar/covered hopper conversions. You have seen them. Usually they have hatches added to the roof. Sometime, but not always, they have added hoppers. Sometimes they hauled grain, sometimes sand etc.
My situation is THIS----My modular switching layout is a small waterfront layout centered around a car float and funky kelp processing plant. I have a surplus of Weaver/Crown single sheathed boxcars. I'd like to add some hatches to these for "kelp hauling".
Was THAT prototypical for the single sheathed 40' boxcars to undergo this hopper conversion? Any source of articles concerning this specific conversion will be appreciated, as will some images of the "real thing".
Thank you fellow modelers! -Salty Rails-
