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Like many of us Bob got his start in model trains as a child. In 1950, when Bob was 13, his parents bought him an American Flyer® Sante Fe A-B trainset back. Over the years Bob became a master builder of model airplanes. He even built his own real plane that he flew. Bob eventually left airplane modeling, leaving his collection of over 175 planes to a local aviation museum. Bob returned to model railroading gauge about 7 years ago when he decided to build a model railroad with his young daughter. He picked up some Lionel trains and got started. But when he rediscoverd the AF set his parents gave him Bob quickly sold off the Lionel and got started in "S" gauge once again. With a good deal of modeling skills under his belt Bob enjoys building the trains. Currently Bob is converting well used AF rolling stock to scale equipment.
This is a fine example of Bob's modeling skills at work. Above is an American Flyer® S gauge hopper than has been converted to scale. Bob got the idea from a photo he saw of an Erie ribbed side hopper. Note the raised ends which were added with scrap styrene. Bob added Kadee 802 couplers, scale trucks, wheels and ladders. He painted the car black and added dry transfer lettering from CDS.
Editor's Note: I'm told by Chris Zizzo that American Hi-Rail, when you can find them, offers a painted, RTR, Gulf tanker that is a dead ringer for the 1 and 3 dome AF versions. Chris says he saw and handled them at York.
Editor's Note: A ribbed side hopper is one that has exterior vertical supports. This keeps a clean interior so they don't interfere with the load being shipped. On northern roads like the Erie ribbed side hoppers were used to keep the load from clinging to the ribs on cold days. American Flyer® only made offset side hoppers bulged out so they could have more capacity. A third style hopper is the panel side.
