I have another article in this month's O Gauge Railroading magazine involving upgrading new-tooling woodchip hoppers just released last year by Ready Made Trains (RMT). I ordered them in early 2022, and being new to O scale had no idea that waiting four years wasn't normal. But, RMT wanted to make sure the cars came out right and that meant working with the factory to revise the trucks which initially had issues.
The cars are nice, but lacking a few details that I prefer such as lower corner stirrup steps. To enable bent metal ones to be added, I had to modify the frames of the cars to prevent the trucks from swinging too much (which would have allowed the truck-mounted couplers to knock off the stirrups). The plastic load that came free with the car also left something to be desired to I upgraded it with real chainsaw woodchips. Weathering finished up the cars.
For $30 a car, they are pretty nice models and will work well for my New England themed layout. It was a fun project and I hope it inspired modelers who also purchased these cars to spend a couple of minutes making them appear more realistic.
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