More hoppers and a switcher

I’ve managed to get some actual modeling done lately (in addition to mudding and taping drywall), both projects were picked up at the Granite City train show in St Cloud, MN last weekend. The switcher is a Proto 2000 SW9/1200 (CNW 1125), it’s actually my Dad’s. My job was to find and install a decoder. I went with the NCE SW9-SR decoder, it fit perfectly in place and hooking up the power and motor was a piece of cake. It runs like a charm which I suppose is a pretty good achievement since it’s spent it’s entire life in the box in someone’s basement till now. I’m not sure when these were originally released but the instructions were fairly yellowed.

The only remaining task for the switcher is to get the lighting figured out, NCE says it can’t use the forward light because the resister would generate too much heat and melt the shell, but they can use the rear light. It appears though that this is technically true but not the best solution. When I find replacement lighting for the forward light I’m planning on replacing the reverse light as well.

The hoppers were a little bit of a surprise when I got them home. It appears they also were from someone’s basement “hobby store”, but at a glance appeared to be a pair of hoppers that I could put into service at my concrete plant. When I got it home I was annoyed to find that both cars were the same number until I realized (a.k.a. looked at the instructions) and found that they were an 84′ Paired Airslide hopper which I enjoyed for learning about a new prototype.

The kit was pretty much what I’ve come to expect from an older Walthers rolling stock kit, a paint to put together but worth the effort. One of the tricks I’d recommend is using a small drill bit and a pin-vise to ream out the holes that the pins to hold the hatches go in. That really made them go in a lot easier.