I am wanting to model a few southern center flow hoppers. Did the southern have any of the 55 foot hoppers like athearn makes? Also, do you know anyone who offers black decals for hoppers? All microscale has is green lettering.Any info would be greatly appriciated. P.S., thanks for the info on green paint schemes for engines.

-- Tobin Fulmer (cherokee81@hotmail.com), March 12, 1999

Answers

From all I can tell, the largest centerflows Southern owned were 4000 cubic foot versions, with three bays only. I have modelled them using the old Front Range and McKean models. (The McKean car has the "drip-strip" along the upper side of the body. (SR had both styles). I used Microscale decals for the letters and numbers, and pulled "look-a-like" data from Herald king sets. My large data block for wheel size,springs etc. came from the HK set for Hillsdale county centerflows #H-1242, yeah it's not perfect, but gives a good effect. There are some very good shots of these cars in THE SOUTHERN RY COLOR GUIDE TO FREIGHT & PASS EQUIPMENT by James Kinkaid.

-- Chris Howard (chrreg@tricomp.net), April 25, 2000.

I have seen an article in MR some years ago where a modeler shortened an Athearn some 10 scale feet to create the 4000 cuft car. Doing that would yield a plate C car, as would using the Front Range cars.

Black lettering (at least the SOUTHERN) is available on one of the Microscale sets. The data is available on one of the data sheets or from another covered hopper set. The reference to the Southern book in the other answer is good advice also. It really helps......... George

-- George Walker (Gwalker1111@aol.com), December 13, 2000.