Update on the icebreaker car

It was a good weekend. The weather cooperated, so I was able to lay down the basecoats on the proof of concept icebreaker car to see how my skills held up. The verdict for now is ...so far, so good. Below are a few pictures to give you an idea of what the finished product should look like.

I started with this dilapidated American Flyer 2 bay hopper that had seen better days. It was a cast off from a fellow club member. It's already been repainted once, the steps are missing. It was missing one truck and the other truck was a link coupler attached with a screw and had no wheels.  It's the perfect fodder to construct a MOW car.

Here's one of the car bodies after I've applied several coats of Krylon yellow.  Starting to look a little more MOW-ey.

Here's the proof of concept car after I've installed the trucks and applied a coat of weathering to the car. Comparing it to the prototype, I think it needs more rust!  I also need to use dirty/grime black on the underside of the car to match the prototype.

The same car shot from a lower angle. It still needs lettering and some more weathering. The more I think about it - I should do some more detailing and add the brake wheel and a few more details. Maybe on a future version.

Ice Ice Baby...

One of my winter / spring projects is to model an ice breaker car similar to those used by the New York Central back in the day. It's nothing more than a 2 bay hopper with a raised truss made of "I" beams designed to knock the icicles off of tunnel mouths and ceilings, thus protecting the locomotives and cars from damage.

These cars have been around in O gauge and HO for a while, but I've never seen one in S. It seemed like a simple modeling project that matched my simple skill set. 

I finally found a color picture that clears up what color the car is supposed to loo; like on the website of the canada southern website.

NYC Icebreaker car

Now to finish the project!