Back a few years ago I had a post on the modern hopper cars that Bill Johann put together from HO Tyco models. I’ve now constructed a couple more, with another coming in the shop.

The short version is this Tyco car is a pretty large (and cheap) HO hopper, with four bays, and the conversion is to remove a bay to give the visual impression in OO of a smallish 3-bay coverd hopper car. I followed the methods that Johann used, adding in styrene to build up the areas between the hoppers. I’m sure it is a bit undersized, but if it is all that you see on the layout the eye accepts the size as correct. They are both on the trucks that Bill Johann worked up from large HO roller bearing trucks, I have a small supply of these for modern era cars.

And of course I repainted the models. The original paint was somewhat stubborn to strip, so it is slightly visible on the cars in real life (but not visible in the photos). I lettered one car for my MQS shortline and the other using part of a NOKL set, as they own similar cars. That set was HO and usually HO sets look OK on OO cars, but in this case the reporting marks and numbers look somewhat small, I may re-letter the car at some point.