ballast hoppers

I don't think the Atlas (or Lionel or MTH) bathtub gons are a good match the UP ballast dump cars. The UP ballast cars are drop-bottom hoppers as opposed to high-sided rotary gondolas. One of the exhibitors at the Western Prototype Modelers' Meet was modeling that particular train. Having seen the prototype, he nailed it.

The other type of ballast hoppers UP uses look similar to conventional Coal hoppers in the superstructure, but have different discharge doors as in the video below. I've also seen these run through Colton.

MTH did a rapid discharge hopper that might be suitable for bashing, but I'm not sure if the overall dimensions are close enough.

Lionel and MTH did side-dump cars and sometimes referred to them as ballast cars. I have seen them out on the old ATSF Pasadena Sub to dump a pile of ballast trackside for maintenance, but never on the UP/SP lines.

The bathtub gondolas have a good overall shape, but they'd need pretty extensive modifications.

Hope this helps.

Wow that UP model is fantastic from what I can see....very nice.

Dumping ballast has come a long way since when I first started on the road. We used to use fifty ton coal hoppers. A block & tackle was hooked to the each door and the the car. The men used this to control the flow of ballast. A crosstie was placed across the rail just ahead of the trailing truck of each car in order to smooth the ballast. This worked well until you came to a road crossing. Then you had to watch the ties carefully to keep the tie from getting crossed up as it went over the crossing that was higher than the top of the rail.

Compare that to where we are today with the HERZOG ballast trains that are GPS & computer controlled. Watch closely near the end of this video to see the doors automatically close before going over the road crossing, then open again after passing the crossing.

Nice shot of a working ballast train, Jim. I guess the UP green work colors to a hopper car could get the idea of a ballast train. If one/many don't know what a ballast car looks like I believe one can get away with a green paint job 4 UP RR.

Phil

No, it is done by GPS.

GPS? Now, that's what I call "command control".

The ACF Coalveyor would not be right for a prototypical Ballast Car. It is too long.

You would be closer if you checked the websites of Freight Car builders like National Steel Car, FreightCar America, Greenbrier, and Trinity RailCar for photos and illustrations of their ballast cars.

Use the information to Scratchbuild entire ballast cars.

Andrew

MTH Rapid Discharge?    http://www.mthtrains.com/content/20-97276

Walthers Ortner offers a nice description

https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/932-7051

Sorry, had to copy and paste, the "insert link" above wasn't active for me to use it (?)

Atlas makes very nice Heart selectable service 70 ton hoppers in HO.  I would love to see them in O.  They are great for the late steam and early modern era.  When new, many western railroads used them for coal service in winter and MOW work in the summer.  The western roads also used GS gondolas for coal and had customers who were set up to receive coal in cars that discharged to the outside of the rails so the HK hoppers were no problem.

This a situation that calls for a Resin Cast model or a 3D printed model of the Ballast Cars.

Andrew

What i find nice about a ballast train is they aren't too long so one can have it fit well on an O scale layout.

I've been looking for the Amtrak version of these in the 6-pack without success (I have 4-5 of the separate sale ones). While doing some sleuthing, I found that another variant of the ballast hopper looks like a roof-less version of a PS-2 hopper. MTH and Weaver make these, unfortunately the roofs and sides are one piece.

Upon examination of the Weaver car I have, I concluded it would be easier to scratchbuild roof-less clones than kitbash the existing ones. Painting and lettering them would be a bit more of a challenge though.

---PCJ

Thanks rto my son for looking further and found these interesting shots.

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/...1095@N03/3918365874/

http://www.rrpicturearchives.n...ture.aspx?id=2167282 

Phil

The Union Pacific coal gondolas were built by Berwick Forge & Foundry.

It would be great if Atlas O would have those paint schemes applied to the Berwick coal gondolas on the ACF Coalveyor gondolas as regular production runs, but the rule is most of the time they have to be exact schemes for the exact freight car.

Andrew

See, they all look the same to me so all I have ot do is find ones with yellow ends and find a decal of UP to mark it. Dust it up real good. I'll be happy and unless one is a rivet counter one will never know.

Phil