NGPF grain hoppers arrive

2022 has seen the re-release of a swag of popular Australian grain hoppers, notably the South Australian AHGX's and New South Wales' NGTY/NGKF plus NGTY/NGPF, models that each would fit my early 2000's era layout but have been out of stock for a number of years. With Philden Street Yard's fleet becoming equally divided between my fictitious HO broad gauge and standard gauge, (yep, they're essentially both 16.5 mm gauge standard HO scale track anyway), I thought I'd better add a short standard gauge grain rake to even up the score against my Victorian broad gauge rake of VHGY/VHGF's.

This is my early 2000's era Freightcorp/Pacific National set of four NGPF grain hoppers.

I opted to grab two packs of the Auscision Models NGPF grain hoppers with ground operated lids and roof walks removed purely because I've seen plenty of photos of these hoppers on domestic grain services in and around Melbourne. Plus it helps that I really like the look of these cylindrical hoppers with their straight sloped ends. I bought one pack with the blue Freightcorp logos, and the other with the white Freight Rail Grain logos with the sole intention of creating a mixed set for myself to haul from Southern New South Wales to Philden Street Yard behind my motley collection of standard gauge leased power in the form of JL406, FL220 and B80. I'm ultimately still a NSW boy at heart, and this lets me model some surviving NSW models in Melbourne in the early 2000's.

The standard gauge B Class and grain hoppers now need to be weathered up over the summer!

I'm quite happy with how they look, although in my latest clip on YouTube, both B80 and the string of NGPF's look way too clean. I'm planning to fix that this summer and weather both the B Class and all 8 NGPF's, even though I'm only keeping one box of 4 for myself. I might really do a job on my grain fleet and try and match some photos from the time period in question as a last minute inclusion in the new book I want to start early in the new year.

I also have a pack of Trainworld V/Line VHGY/VHGF's to feature soon in another post, and some recently re-released VLCX vans arriving this week to add alongside my existing Freight Australia ones, so I'm already lining myself up with even more weathering projects for the New Year. Shopping wise, I think I'm now done. My rollingstock roster is now at capacity, being that I now have enough wagons to fill my staging shelf and sidings twice over.

That leaves only the National Rail C Class I have pre-ordered to arrive sometime next year, and maybe, just maybe, either a G Class or a BL Class to add as my layout's final purchase. I locked my C Class order in early, but procrastinated, then ultimately talked myself out of ordering a G or BL before pre-orders closed. I'm hoping that they won't all be sold out when they are finally released in 2023, and I'll just let fate narrow it down to which liveries are left for me to choose from. Likely it will either be a National Rail BL Class or Freight Australia G. My preference has changed week by week for the past year!