Added another hopper to the roster today. This car is one of the hand-me-down hoppers given to the Interstate in the early ’60s when the INT was under Southern ownership but still operating independently. The independence didn’t stop the Southern from specifying a Southern-inspired paint scheme. This model started life as an Athearn blue box model–it was a hand-me-down from an old friend and mentor who got me into model railroading as a kid, so the body of this car must be 40 years old! The toughest part of this model was modifying the angular peaked ends to the oval version seen here. The cars in this series were a hodgepodge with various ends, so photos are helpful. Other details include DA steps, tichy grabs, and some homemade tow loops. The decals came from K4 Decals, and the unit received moderately heavy weathering to reflect its age and status as an end-of-life car.

After 1965 when the Southern consolidated its operations at the Interstate’s Andover Yard, most of these cars spent the rest of their lives in captive service between the Interstate and St Charles area mines and the Westmoreland Transloader that was build on top of the Southern’s old yard in Appalachia, VA. These cars became known as “yellow balls” because many of them had a large yellow circle painted on the side. This is actually my first time actually applying a “yellow ball” to a model hopper, and it’s definitely something I’ll duplicate in the future as it makes these cars very distinctive!