Bachmann Hopper Tips
I purchased this Bachmann Hopper at a local GATS show for $25.00 no tax or shipping! Brought it home and installed Aristo-Craft couplers on it then put in the consist of freight cars behind my Lionel Atlantic. It looked plain empty but looked even worse with the very toy like plastic drop in coal load. I did not want to make it heavy with real load, so I thought about how I could add a real load with out making it to heavy. I thought of Styrofoam with a load on top, but thought it my be to top heavy or settle or shift, then I thought what if I just added a real load to the top of the plastic drop in load? So here is what I did, I think it looks good and it is not very heavy and can still be removed if I chose.
I picked up some black aquarium gravel at the local Petco.
The gravel is a bit on the large size but will work.
Purchased a bottle of Titebond II at the local Lowes.
Liberally poured the glue onto the plastic drop in.
Spread the glue around for complete coverage. Be careful it tends to flow to the low spots.
Covered the whole thing with the gravel, patted it down, and let it dry overnight.
Shook off the excess gravel and now it looks much better.
I will probably coat the whole thing in Krylon Frosted Glass paint to dull it slightly.
