Great Northern 70104 Three Bay Hopper

In between the demands of all the other projects, I have managed to sneak in more work on our Great Northern hopper car lettering.

Reporting Marks

The reporting marks have been applied to the right side, showing the car's true identity for the first time at IRM.

The Last Large N

Dan Fenlaciki helped on this project all day Sunday, seen here peeling off some masking used on the final "N".

Northern

It is pretty tough to get a good image inside the barn with no elbow room to stand back and admire the work.  But NORTHERN is indeed completed on one side.

Great Northern

Here is an overall view of the banner lettering proudly displaying the railroad name.  This is a lot of hand painting and most of these letters have received the second coat of white.

PARTY HEARTY!

The Gang

We celebrated the milestone event of getting this car sandblasted and painted with a shop luncheon.  THANKS TO EVERYONE.  Lots of the volunteers helped on this, and none of the others were left out.  The highlight of the lunch was 7 pints of gourmet ice cream donated by the local CULVER'S.  Just think - pizza and ice cream.  All of the five basic food groups were covered.

Trucks

Ray Pollice started the process of cleaning the truck sideframes a few weeks ago, and Victor Humphreys added his efforts.  Then it was time to apply primer.

Old Grime

Nancy Ring is convalescing from a recent hospital procedure.  What is the best way to do that?  Come on out to IRM and wield a power wire brush to clean a truck on the hopper!

Reporting Marks

I managed a little more painting on the hopper, adding this block of lettering for the reporting marks.  We also added a second coat of white to more of the previous GREAT NORTHERN large letters.

Applying the lettering to any newly painted project can be maddeningly slow.  For our hopper there is a LOT of lettering.

GREAT

I am sure you agree that this string of letters looks G-R-E-A-T.

Next

Here is the capital 'N' and the start of the small 'o' being hand painted.

Smaller Stuff

We also began some of the smaller blocks on the car, here the built date.

Set Brakes

At the time this car was built, use of roller bearings were still a novelty.  Often a car would be switched to a spot, and the air dumped and crew would leave.  This note is a reminder to set the hand brake so the car would not later roll off by itself - and that often happened.

More Letters

There is always the need to do the next letter in line.

An H

To speed things up some letters can benefit from the masking of straight lines.  This needs to have a smooth car surface, among other things, and of course very careful placement of tape.  The body of the letter is filled in by hand painting and of course any curves are done completely freehand.

Suspicious Character

While some may think the "H" is suspicious, Jeff Brady came by and caught me in the act!

Almost Northern

And by late Sunday, much of 'Northern' was on the car.  I have chosen to add a second coat of white paint to all of these letters to make them more consistent and durable, and as you might suspect, that adds to the time required.  These large block slant serif letters were a trademark spotting feature on many GN cars of this time frame.

The day proved borderline too cold to risk applying some more paint on the hopper car.

GREAT

So we spent some time cutting additional patterns and transfer stencils and then applying them to the car.

NO-T----

In this way the images are already transferred to the car side and ready for paint on the next warmer day.

It is a 'process'.  We finally completed the milestone event of having the carbody repainted and it looks great.  Now, on to applying a fairly elaborate lettering scheme.  This began years ago researching the scheme, acquiring copies of old photos, tracing what remnants remained of the old lettering, redrawing most of it, some on a computer CAD system, getting that printed full scale, and cutting out transfer patterns and stencils.

It Begins

Finally it was time to put the icing on the cake.  The first transfer pattern is positioned in place on the car.

Big G

And the first letter painted on the car!  The bright white lettering provides a marked contrast and snaps out the red.  The car remains inside Barn 4 for the time being, so some of these shots will be color challenged in the dim light.

Next Patterns

The patterns for the next three letters have been placed on the side.  Can you guess what this string will say?

Big N

Each letter is painted by hand, in this case with a  half inch brush and premium lettering enamel.

The First Four

Here is the progress as of Sunday night.  It is starting to take shape.

CHAPTER 3

  !!!   RED    !!!

Monday dawned with a clear blue sky and the game was on.  This entire project was beset with hurdles to be conquered and in this case the supplier did not have the color mixed or the quantity needed.

B End

The underbody and hoppers are done, and started on the end.

B End

Frank Sirinek had to shoot an image of me in my paint spattered clothes.

B End

Moving Along

The A end has been painted, which you may see toward the far end of the car.

Left Side

As they started on the left side, you really had the impact of this color, for the first time.

Closer

Closer

Almost done with the left side as we remained in the safe zone, fascinated and unable to stop clicking the shutter.

First Coat Almost Done

WOW!

Next Morning

The car is being pulled out of the Barn for the next day's work, resplendent in shiny red paint.

Second Coat

Almost Done

The second coat really popped out the color and made a big difference.  And for those of you asking (many did), we did not paint the inside.  I have the specifications for the car as built, and no, the inside was not painted when new from the factory.

Yaremko Photo, Staffan Ehnbom Collection

You may ask what is next, so here is a very old faded color image of a car in the same series, fully lettered as we intend to do.  Please help out with your donations.  Money is needed, and we spend it carefully, this is an active project.  Fund R 70104

   Friday, October 7 saw the weather holding with good temps and clear skies.

Chemistry Class

John Mc Kelvey watches as the several components of this special primer are being added and mixed together.  It is a light gray color and no option to tint it with this system.

First Squirt

Not much to see but I could not help taking a pic as the first bit is sprayed on.

Hoppers

The painter began on the hoppers and underframe, the hard parts to reach.

Hoppers Done

B End

Left Side

Left Side

At the end of the day, the entire car and ends, underbody had been prime painted with a two part epoxy product that included a rust inhibitor.  The car was returned to Barn 4 to remain clean, dry, and under roof.

TO BE CONTINUED  -  -  -