LXOH 68 - Part I

While awaiting the next release of undecorated U18B's in August, a new project will be undertaken in the meantime to keep my interest up. In this case, an addition of a 1996-2011 freight car for the future layout is the center of my focus.

The car in question is rather unique in itself, LXOH 68, which was one of the few (if not the only) covered hopper car that wore a full Gulf & Ohio railways paint scheme:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1270017
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1406819

Gulf & Ohio railways maintained a sizeable fleet of 4740 and 4750 covered hoppers, although most were a close match to the Pullman Standard version, many of them were actually built by Portec, a new defunct freight car manufacturer. These cars were numbered LXOH 1-84, inclusive.

When Genesee & Wyoming took over the Wiregrass Central, many of these hopper cars were also sold and quickly stenciled to "WGCR" reporting marks. LXOH 68, however, has not be spotted for many years now.

Primary spotting features of this car to me seem to be the angled roof, rectangular jack pads, and an air line running along the side of the car. An undecorated Tangent 4740 was selected for this representation, as the features more closely match that car than the 4750 version. Through the available parts for sale on their website, I chose to order the "alternate" jack pad kit which includes accurate ones for this model.

Fortunately this model is fairly straight forward - charcoal black paint, white stencils, reflective markings, and data from Microscale, and a bit of styrene to build the logo mount. The largest challenge here is locating suitable decals for the G&O wings logo.

At the moment, the project is waiting on an order from Tangent to be filled. Two undecorated 4750 models were also purchased in order to represent LXOH 24 and LXOH 39 at a later date. Currently the only work I have been able to accomplish is replacing the stock wheels with Proto:87 wheelsets.

Parts List:
Tangent - Pullman-Standard PS-2CD 4740 Covered Hopper (RTR, Undecorated)
Tangent - PS4740 “Alternate” 1969+ jacking pad parts
Tangent - PS4740 Grab Irons and Other Parts
Testors - Charcoal Grey Enamel Paint
Microscale - 4", 7", 8" Stenciling Decals
Microscale - Pullman Standard Data - White
Microscale - 1990+ Lube Plate Data
Microscale - 2005+ Reflector Striping - Yellow
Proto:87 Stores - 36" 100 Ton Wheelsets
Sergent Couplers