Cement car rebuilds.

[e-paw]

I finished up the cement cars today, " hooray "!!! The last few things that I wanted to add were the closing mechanism and to fill in some of the damaged sections from earlier.

In this shot you can see the chain type of closure on the hopper bottoms.     I got the idea from a N&W prototype seen here.     My version is just a little less involved. I wanted these cars to represent an older design so I felt they were fitting.

Two of the cars got damaged when I was taking them apart , The glue just wouldn't give . So rather than fix them before painting I went with an idea that was used on anthracite cars well into the 50's. As seen here in the upper left cornner.     In order to keep the cars rolling until a proper repair could be made, straw mixed with resin would be packed into holes as a quick fix. To do this I cut some fibers from a straw broom, mixed them in some white glue, and shoved them in. Not all that different from the prototype method.