Mention ‘hopper’ to a railway enthusiast and they will probably think of wagons (cars) used to transport loose, bulky loads such as coal, grain and ballast. This post isn’t about those hoppers 🙂

Work has started on detailing the buildings on Thomas and Sons, specifically the gutter hoppers and down pipes.

The gutter hoppers were made from rectangular section styrene. I filed one end to give a more angular shape, added small pieces of strip to create a lipped edge and put a rectangle of plasticard inside the section to make a base.

The down pipes are brass tube. The pipe collars are white metal castings from S&D Models (their ‘Building Bag’ range is very useful). I could have soldered them together but that seemed a little ambitious (!) so I used epoxy glue instead.

They look quite good on the buildings. They’re not perfectly straight but this is an old factory so I reckon that’s OK.