One of my goals is to have a fleet of “heritage fleet” hoppers representing each of the railroads purchased by the Southern and L&N in the 50s-70s. I’ve already got plenty of Interstate RR hoppers from the previous layout, but this is my first completed Central of Georgia hopper. Most of these were repainted into the Southern’s 74000 series, but some kept their CofGa reporting marks well beyond the merger. This model represents a car showing a lot of rust and wear and ready for the shop.

It’s a stock, factory pained Atlas Trainman hopper with some detail upgrades including shaved-down grabs and a few wire details like the homemade trainline hoses and coupler cut bars. I spent most of the time on weathering. It’s mostly drybrushing to get the rust effects including the subtle ring inside the car. The data is supposed to represent a shop patch job, but it didn’t turn out as distinct as I would have liked. Lesson learned for next time.