Arnold,
I've always thought of the gondola and hopper cars as a palate for modifying or repainting. Below are pictures of my 027 gondolas that were sliced in 2 the long way & reassembled to full O scale width. Then painted and lettered with custom made decals and individually weathered.
Next are some lionel gons that were painted and relettered to NKP using K4 decals. They'll be a good consist behind my NKP 2-6-6-2 mallet.
As for hoppers, I have a group of 12 WEAVER 2 bay hoppers that will also get the repaint and reletter to NKP.
Now if you were talking flat cars, that's another story. Here's a group that have been chopped, sides shaved, spliced back together, widened and turned into slab and billet carriers for my steel mill layout.
Too cold to paint them, besides I have 4-5 more waiting work.
Hope you enjoy them.
