Sugar Hoppers!

O

ocalicreek

Member
May 4, 2005
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Puyallup, WA
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In the same vein as the recent billboard reefer thread, a recent find at my LHS turned up this gem:
P1000115sm.JPG

I can't find a maker's mark on there anywhere so I'm hoping somebody can help me out. It has a metal reservoir inside. The long screw knob is for opening the flow hole above the slider pad. The short is a fill cap. It's a heavy car even without any cleaner.

Rubbing alcohol seems to make the metal 'dusty', with a white powder that forms around the opening on the bottom. This accretion clogs the hole...so I'm not sure if I'm going to use the liquid cleaner function at all. It works just fine as a track slider, just unscrew the bottom plate, insert a piece of cloth or folded paper towel, tighten the screws and there you go.

I have already changed out the wheelsets and removed the truck mounts for the couplers. The trucks are the same, just reamed out with 'the tool'.

Here are the other two already in my collection:
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P1000117sm.JPG

The Jack Frost I bought off a fellow club member at a swap meet when he was thinning down his rolling stock. I'm pretty sure I picked up the Spreckels at a show somewhere, but it's been a while. I was searching for VGN drop bottom hoppers (not too hard to find - they're on every tyco bargain table from FL to CA!) when I stumbled across this beauty.

The Jack Frost is an MDC/Roundhouse kit that has not been started at all. The Spreckels...as mentioned, it's Tyco, but check out the roof...it's basically an extension that drops into place, but look at the ribs - they don't match up at all.

I'd love to rework these cars someday with nice wire grabs and stirrup steps and those great etched metal walkways. For now, though, I just look at them occasionally and dream. Sweet sugary dreams. tooth1
 
I had one of those track cleaners at one time. I don't know what happened to it. I think it was made by either Lifelike or Model Power. I did find that I had the same problem as you with the orifice plugging up after it sat for a day or two with fluid in it. I may find it again when ever I get all of my model railroad stuff unpacked after this remodel is done. I bought an Aztec track cleaning car at the national train show at the NMRA convention.

My wife and I were up toward you folks last week, but didn't get quite that far North. We traded into a timeshare in Gleneden Oregon about 16 miles North of Newport, Or. We drove as far North from there as Tillamook and as far South as Newport in our explorations along the Oregon Coast. We also explored the coast on the way back South as far as Eureka. Just out of Eureka, the 101 turns inland and then a ways farther south it splits from the 1 with the 1 going back to the coast and the 101 going through the redwoods and into the wine country. I wanted to follow the 1 South, but the road is so winding and slow that it would have taken us an additional 3 days to get here, and we didn't have time.
 
Well, not exactly, Galen. Sodor uses British four-wheel multipurpose wagons for most loads. If the load needs to be protected from the elements, it is either placed in a roofed wagon, or in an open wagon that is then covered with a tarp.
 
The Spreckels...as mentioned, it's Tyco, but check out the roof...it's basically an extension that drops into place, but look at the ribs - they don't match up at all.
Click to expand...
Maybe that is prototypical. After all, open hoppers rebuilt with extended sides sometimes have mismatched ribs.
 
mismatched ribs

hmmm...perhaps it is prototypical. Good point!

Thanks everybody for the comments. Has anybody else got a sugar car they'd like to add to this thread? I told my wife now that I had three that perhaps I'd start collecting additional sugar cars as I found them...she just groaned.:cry:
 
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