Railworks America

Hello all,

I've been building a couple of freight cars that I thought I'd share here. It seems like Train Simulator is a bit lacking in American rolling stock at the moment, so hopefully this/these will fill some gaps.

I have attached some pictures of a Trinity 5161 cubic foot covered hopper I've been working on. Introduced in 1995, this is the most common type of covered hopper in the US and can be found almost everywhere. The trucks and couplers are new; I built everything else probably 1 or 2 years ago. I hope to get this one wrapped up pretty soon, as the only remaining modeling tasks are the top hatches, walkways, and brake equipment, along with a couple small details like the foot stirrups and uncoupling levers at each end. Of course in my case "pretty soon" could easily mean this time next year!




Thanks,

Eli

Looking forward to this need some more CP hoppers.

Very nice looking trucks and shelf coupler!

Looks great!

Wow that is looking good! It will make a great addition to US rolling stock fleets.

Hello,

Thanks for the comments everyone! I finished building the shaker brackets and a couple other details last night, and I think I have collected enough references to finally start in on the roof hatch and walkways, so hopefully I can finish this project soon.

These cars are quite common in the US--according to http://www.atlaso.com/o5161hopper1.htm over 27,000 have been built--so they should fill a gap in our American roster nicely.


Thanks,

Eli

I might be able to get you some pictures of the roof tomorrow there were some at the local grain elevator today and I'm good friends with the manager of it.

Hello,

Wow, that would be a huge help! Some photos of the roof at the ends of the car and some detail photos of the top hatches would be very useful.

The basic construction of the roof details is pretty simple, but I don't really have dimensions for any of it. Is there any chance you'd be comfortable taking a tape measure up there? If not, of course, don't worry about it. But I have attached a rough sketch I made the other day (please excuse the poor quality) with some dimensions marked that I'd like to know (particularly the width and height of the raised section running down the middle of the roof). The construction drawings I'm using are really only accurate to within about an inch so they're a bit useless for smaller details.

But please don't feel pressured to do any of this--ANY help you can provide would be hugely appreciated.


Thanks,

Eli

Bad news the cars were gone but next time I see some I'll try to get pictures.

Bcbuhler wrote:Bad news the cars were gone but next time I see some I'll try to get pictures.

No worries, I'll look forward to hearing back from you. And thanks again for your offer.

Eli

Great model, already! Looks just like the many that I have crawled all over. Maybe some time I could stop at an elevator and get some pictures of the brake piping and control valves for you.

BNSFdude wrote:Great model, already! Looks just like the many that I have crawled all over. Maybe some time I could stop at an elevator and get some pictures of the brake piping and control valves for you.

Hi Anthony,

Thanks for your comments! Any pictures you could provide would be very much appreciated--I'll never turn down an offer for more references. I would go out and measure/photograph some of these cars myself, but the only examples around here are hidden away in a yard and there's no way I could get permission to go in there.


Thanks,

Eli