The next installment in the “heritage fleet” of hoppers is an original Norfolk Southern 70T car still in gray paint. The NS wasn’t acquired until 1974, so this represents a car most likely in “yellow ball” captive service to the Appalachia, VA transloader in the late ’70s.

The model is a factory painted Bowser hopper with some detail upgrades. Because it will be a light gray hopper in a sea of black and brown, I figured it would catch the eye more than most cars, so it has a higher level of detail than most of my cars. I removed the molded-on grabs and replaced them with wire, upgraded the brake detail, and added coupler cut bars and a trainline. Weathering if primarily drybrushing for the rust spots. I’m pretty happy with how the inside turned out–it’s two colors of rust drybrushing (dark rust for most with light rust around the paint edges) and a little black airbrushing.

These heritage cars are a lot of fun! I’ll need at least one 55T fishbelly hopper in NS gray as well.