I thought I'd finally take the time to show off what has been underway in the backshops at Broadway Limited Locomotive Works.
Having a desire for 1950's era coal traffic in my version of Rail Simulator and Railworks, I decided that it was time I try my hand at a piece of freight equipment. below is a near-accurate rendition of the Pennsylvania Railroad's most numerous coal hopper: the H21a. Built from 1920 onward as a batch of 10,000 cars, these cars rode on Crown Trucks and held down a maximum capacity of 70t. After 1940, they could also be found hauling seasonal ore traffic. The last were retired from revenue service around 1990, with a handful in captive MOW service.
In this shot, I've got as far as beginning texturing the hopper doors (which operate), and have started examining setting up the coal load for loading and unloading, which brings me to my question: does anyone know how to setup a working coal load to be loadable and able to be emptied?
The next stop after this is adding the cut levers, taming the auto-numbering system (which will use accurate PRR numbers),