ONE HUNDRED Little Blue Hoppers!

Now four years into the project and the "Little blue hopper fleet" has reached the revised goal of One Hundred hoppers.

(Please note I do not need any additional hoppers)

The winter of 2002 and spring of 2003 saw a rapid influx of hoppers from several sources, I had friends and family all looking for these "little blue hoppers" at trains shows, flea markets, swap meets, etc. I even received a few in the mail as gifts from fellow collectors that knew about my collection.

In April of 2003 which a large batch of hoppers packed and ready to head up north to Liberty, ME for the special expert weathering, I received a phone call from a collector that had just found three more hoppers at a train show in Maryland. I have purchased several hoppers from him and he had been on the look out for more. His phone call with the addition of three more hopper brought the fleet total to Ninety Eight.

Then he called back the next morning to let me know that he had found two more...

That was it! The fleet has now reached One Hundred.

(These photos are the group of twenty hopper delivered to Wayne in April of 2003)

(click on images to enlarge)

This photo has the first three GP-18's that Wayne has already worked on, the new bicentennial engine from my wife, Grandpa's original little blue hopper that was the inspiration for this insane project, and the custom BM caboose that Wayne build and weathered to match the rest of the hopper fleet.

(click on image to enlarge)

These next photos are of the beautiful BM bicentennial engine my wife gave me for Christmas 2002, with two additional BM custom bicentennial engines, and a custom work caboose. With the fleet now numbering over 100 hoppers I had to expand the motive power. Wayne also has this group of engines for some of his expert weathering and detailing along with the hoppers.

(click on images to enlarge)

I found this GP Engine and custom work caboose on eBay, the caboose had been cut down and painted, then I installed all the hardware before bringing them to Wayne. These additional bicentennial units will increase the fleet's motive power to six engines.

(click on images to enlarge)

You can see most of the fleet in these photos. The beautifully weathered GP-18's that Wayne painted, along with the first thirty two hoppers that have already received Wayne's expert handy work. Eventually all of the hoppers will be modified...

(PHOTO)

(click on image to enlarge)

The rest of the hoppers will all be slowly modified with my new road numbers, Kadee couplers, and Wayne's magic touches. These close-up photo show several of the hopper with my new fleet road numbers just before weathering.

(click on images to enlarge)

Now the fleet has new labels, "Little Hopper Fleet" Box one of five (20 of 100 hoppers).

(PHOTO)

(click on image to enlarge)

This page was last updated on 05/31/09. Enjoy your visit to "My Trains"

Return to Little Blue Hopper Home