Weathering Old Coal Hoppers

CofGa 50T Offset Hopper

It should come as no surprise that someone who runs a site called “Appalachian Railroad Modeling” loves modeling coal hoppers! While unit trains dominate the rails today, a few decades ago it was common to see coal hoppers of all different vintages running together, and the condition of cars ran from “nearly new” to “how is this thing still on the rails!” Last year I wrote a shorter article on weathering a specific hopper using some of the same techniques, but in this article, I’ll go through each technique step-by-step because modeling variety in your hopper fleet requires the combination of many weathering techniques. Not all hoppers get every technique, but most hoppers get most techniques, especially those that … Read more