From the Firefly Shops

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Why wouldn't they work? Ok, dangerous and all, but those were different times.......

I always thought a brakeman would work a series of cars, walking across the tops of them, setting handbrakes. Nothing to stand on for a hopper, let alone walk across end to end, at least if empty.

But I see the platform that Roger mentions, and I also take note that these cars appear to be air brake equipped. I was thinking of the high brake wheels as being a vestige of the days before air brakes.

Well, yes, there was that time and the evolutionary progress, but even later when hoppers had the brake wheels (Ajax) or levers (Miner) on the ends, crossing an empty hopper was just as entertaining as before.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Something I took in trade; had plastic wheels so those are gone and it was terribly light. So there's not a little leftover load in the ends with some sheet lead under it.

[rogruth]

Very nice.
What road will it be?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Very nice.
What road will it be?

That's where I am faced with a conundrum - since it's already weathered, then I'm faced with adding brand new lettering over that weathering and then I have to back date the lettering and blend that all in together. I guess that's all doable but it also comes with the very real chance that I'll muck everything up. I have to see what I have in lettering sets in the shop and what I might find from Clover House that will work reasonably.

[rogruth]

I do remember gondolas and flats around steel mills on the PRR and B&O that had no discernable lettering.
These were not on mill tracks but on the roads named.

[J. S. Bach]

That's where I am faced with a conundrum - since it's already weathered, then I'm faced with adding brand new lettering over that weathering and then I have to back date the lettering and blend that all in together.

Why not patch out the "old lettering" and put the new markings over the patch; a purchase of a used gondola with your roadname added.

[bob turner]

Or Try dusting with chalk before you burnish, and see if you can blend them?

[Robert]

I vote for either no lettering as in completely weathered into unidentifiable oblivion or perhaps the most subtle nearly invisible leftover marking of no certain designation.
A car of this character if still in service in say the late steam era isn't going to look very identifiable owing to it's complete lack of maintenance and decades of hard usage.
I find decrepit rolling stock, even those no longer in service, to be very appealing relegated to a siding rarely switched.

Bob

[Rufus T. Firefly]

how bout letterboards

That works. I can letter them and distress / weather them to match and then apply them w/o making a mess of the existing weathering.

Or....

I vote for either no lettering as in completely weathered into unidentifiable oblivion....

and just weather those wheelsets!

[John Webster]

Great looking gondola. Any idea what kit it was?

How much of its rolling stock did the CVRR buy used? If it was used they might have painted patches and put new lettering on them (as already suggested).

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Great looking gondola. Any idea what kit it was?

I was told it was a Mullet River kit - not familiar with this specific car or kit.....

How much of its rolling stock did the CVRR buy used? If it was used they might have painted patches and put new lettering on them (as already suggested).

No sure - suspect a lot was supplied through the PRR as they were a subsidiary and towards the end they looked very much PRR with CVRR on the sides of engines and cars.

[rogruth]

In the 1940s and 1950s, I don't recall much, if any, rolling stock being "patched". I do remember being able to read the previous name under
a hasty paint job. I'm thinking of where a car just has a name or letters painted over with some dark color and others applied. The old markings
usually would be painted out with nearly matching paint before the new marks were applied.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[rogruth]

Very nice. Will there be walkways on both sides of the cupola?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Very nice. Will there be walkways on both sides of the cupola?

Nope! All done and maybe going off to a new home in the near future.