Bowser 100 ton hopper

Bowser 100 ton hopper Bowser 100 Ton Hopper...
Bar none, this is the most prototypically accurate hopper on the market. They come in C&O, B&O, Chessie C&O, Chessie B&O, and (I think) Chessie WM. The Chessie System Historical Society also offers them in C&O and B&O. The CSHS ones are in road numbers never before produced or decorated but without a road number.

This would be a first rate car on a Chessie coal train. Sprinkle in some older and smaller hoppers like the Steward 3-bay or Athearn 2-bay cars and you'll have a prototypical coal train.

They retail for around $9-10 each and are usually found cheaper if you buy in bulk. I got four at a train show for $35, so that is $8.75 each. Bowser offers so many road numbers for each paint scheme that you will probably never need to do any renumbering for this class.

Below is a Dean Heacock pic of a 100ton hopper.

Bowser hoppers are so good, all you have to do is assemble and weather them. I usually give my predecessor ones a good overspray of dark grey followed by a tan on the bottom 1/4 of the car. The Chessie ones I try to keep the weathering lighter since they are most likely newly painted.

Below are several pictures of my cars. I currently have 11 C&O, 2 B&O, 1 Chessie C&O, and 1 Chessie B&O, so I won't bore you by posting all the pics again. If you want to see them all they are on the freight cars page. The two Chessie ones are pictured with the McKean hopper topper. These plastic lids were put on cars to turn them into temporary covered hoppers. I have only seen Chessie painted cars with "hopper toppers".