Ever wanted a car for your favorite railroad, but it is either out of stock at the manufacturer or it’s never been made? Have you considered making the car yourself, using an undecorated car and decals? It isn’t as hard as you might think.

As many of you know, I am an SPF (Ed. Note - Slobbering Pennsy Freak). While the PRR was the "Standard Railroad of the World," most of the cars were peculiar to only the Pennsy. But, the PRR had lots of cars; they had hundreds of thousands. There were over 200,000 freight cars with PRR reporting marks up through 1949. The Pennsy was a coal hauler, with hoppers accounting for over 35% of the freight car in 1949.

Looking at my fleet of cars, I had very few hoppers. The only hopper that has been close to a PRR car in recent years was the Micro-Trains rib side hopper. The cars have been sold out for a while, the supply that John Drye and I bought up in Strasburg in May was the exception. But, I noted an undecorated car in Klein’s, a Micro-Trains twin hopper with composite sides, and decided to check it out.

Looking at references, I found that the PRR had started to build a modern class of twin hoppers in 1941. The war stopped the program after only 711 cars were built. But, an additional 500 cars were built as composite steel-wood cars, similar to the Micro-Trains Hopper. By 1953, the year I am modeling, 266 of the cars were still composites; the other 234 had had the wooden sides replaced by plate steel. Between a Model Railroading article on the car class and the 1953 Official Railway Equipment Register, I knew the number series for the cars.

The most expensive equipment used in this project was an air compressor and air brush. With the car being undecorated, I needed to paint it. Airbrushing is the way to go. Fortunately, Donna makes use of the airbrush from time to time too, so it wasn’t as hard to justify the purchases. And a good airbrush and compressor will last for years.

This was a great airbrush learning project, because I really didn’t need a perfect paint job. The undecorated Micro-Trains car was black styrene. Hauling coal in a wood sided car, with boards that ran horizontally, meant that there was going to be lots of coal dust on the cars. So, I mixed up my version of PRR Freight Car Color (box car red to non-SPFs) and began painting.

I use Polly Scale paints because I like cleaning up with water. My base color was Oxide Red. Very few cars are the same color, especially older ones. I lightened the paint for one car by adding some Light Gray Undercoat; another was darkened by adding Roof Brown. I thinned the paint with water (about 1 part water to 3 parts paint) and set the compressor for 35 psi.

After the paint dried, I gave both cars a coat of Testors’ DullCoat from a spray can. I should used GlossCoat before decaling instead. The gloss coat would lessen the difference in reflection between the decal film and the car, while helping the decal adhere. I’ve learned my lesson and will do this in the future. (It only took me about 10 cars, not all hoppers, to convince myself that the books are right!)

Now, all I needed were decals. While MicroScale doesn’t make decals that I could use, I found that Northeast Decals did have a set for PRR open hoppers. C-D-S has a dry transfer set for the hopper, but I had decals on hand.

In the middle of the decaling part of the project, I discovered something else I should have noticed. The film for Northeast decals covers all the backing paper. I needed to trim the decals much closer to the printing than I did. With MicroScale decals, the film is very close to the printing and you don’t have to trim as close. Keeping the film close to the printing means there is less reflective area.

After cutting out the decal from the sheet (an OptiVisor or "Geezer Goggles" as invaluable at this point), I dip the decal in water for around 15 seconds and then set it on a damp paper towel. I usually cut out all the decals for one side of the car. If the decal is small, I will dip it and set in on the towel while I cut out other decals. When I am ready to apply the decal, they are all ready to slide off the backing paper.

With MicroScale decals, I place the decal on the car using MicroSol solution. With the Northeast decals, I use MicroSet. The film used by Northeast is a little thicker; the more powerful MicroSet will help get the decal to adhere. As long as there is fluid on the side of the car, I can float the decal into a final position. I tend to use a paint brush dampened with the solution to place the decal. In fact, I found with the Northeast decals that it was easier to pick up the decal from the backing paper with the brush than trying to push the decal off onto the car. I used a scribe or a dental tool to nudge the decal into the final position.

This takes some time, especially to ensure that lines are parallel to edges or to piece numbers together. It has taken me a half hour to decal one side of a car, trying to line up numbers and pieces. I am probably slow, but patience pays off.

My trick for putting together numbers is not new. I try to cut out as much of the number as possible from the sheet. Most sheets have a spot where the numbers are random. Putting a 6-digit roster number together from 2 pieces is MUCH EASIER than from 6 pieces. I assembled the class markings from a plain white RR lettering decal set from MicroScale.

After getting one side done and after the MicroSol or MicroSet has evaporated, I went back over the decal with Walthers’ Solvaset. You want the decal in its final position when you do this. Trying to move a decal after Solvaset is applied will make a mess of the decal. Solvaset will make a MicroScale decal adhere like paint and shrink tightly into crevices and over rivets. A thicker decal like those from Northeast doesn’t get the same results, but all the air bubbles go away. I left the car overnight and came back the next day to do the other side.

After the decaling was completed, I sprayed the entire car with DullCoat. Very few cars are shiny; these hoppers show heavy wear and aren’t shiny at all. I went through about 3 weathering sessions on these cars and still have some work to do on the trucks.

This was a three night project, excluding the research and the weathering. One night was spent painting and one night each for decaling each side of the car. But, I now have unique cars and I doubt that next month’s product announcements will include them.