PC: RE: Penn Central N-scale hoppers

[Mike Pennie <mpennie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I had the same problem with these hoppers. As I need a bunch of them,
the work was just too much. I stopped buying them, and will stay with
the Atlas 3 bay as my main coal hopper. Unfortunate, as the MDC's are
nice cars. The MDC's are being used mainly for variety. 
Does anyone know if the MDC PC car is accurate? I couldn't find a
picture of it in the color guide.

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	ddevene [SMTP:ddevene -AT- udata.com]
	Sent:	Wednesday, June 24, 1998 6:56 PM
	To:	penn-central -AT- smellycat.com
	Subject:	PC: Penn Central N-scale hoppers

	Roundhouse has released their three bay hopper in Penn Central
(Plus
	Reading).  While I have yet to see them, they should be a good
buy.  I
	have put together several of their previous road names and
except for
	one thing, they go together well.

	The center beam, made from metal, does not fit well inbetween
the hopper
	bays even after all the flash is cleaned off.  I take an X-acto
knife
	and carefully slice a some of the inside of the bay off.
Doesn't take
	much, and I feel one needs all the weight in N-scale one can
get.  You
	could also file down the center beam as well and achieve the
same
	results.  The cars I have run fairly well and they do add a nice
period
	touch for older layouts.  The PC version is out of my time
period,
	Nickel Plate up until 1964, however, peotic license suggests
that my
	motive power requirements stop here, but I can go up to 1970
with the
	cars.

	For the money and the amount of time required to assemble these
cars,
	they are a good buy in my opinion.

	Dale A. DeVene Jr.