| I started building LEGO trains by building the | | | | I have seen. I also chose to use reddish-brown |
| refrigerator carfrom the instructions in Jacob | | | | LEGO parts, because |
| McKee's "Getting Started With | | | | I always imagine gondolas to be rusty and well |
| LEGO Trains" book. This is still the basic design for | | | | used. Thereddish-brown brick selection allows you |
| the currentrefrigerator cars I build, but I changed | | | | to capture that rusticlook, but still look good. |
| the side details to betteraccommodate my | | | | My latest MOC was inspired simply by the fact |
| stickers. | | | | that it seemedthat the rest of the world, unlike |
| I have always favored box cars, so I adapted the | | | | me, is crazy for grain hoppers. |
| refrigeratorcar design to build my custom freight | | | | I still prefer box cars, but I started looking around |
| cars. This freight car wasintended to be a less | | | | for a Santa |
| costly design that also looked a little | | | | Fe grain hopper design, and found exactly what I |
| morecontemporary, while the refrigerator car | | | | hoped for. Idon't think reality could have provided |
| was meant to have amore classic look. This | | | | a better design for meto recreate as a LEGO |
| allowed me to go to a much cheaper slidingdoor, | | | | MOC. It was also very fortunate that LEGOcame |
| which is also more readily available. I would prefer | | | | out with its large space shuttle set a while back, |
| touse a black door, but due to cost and | | | | and thatthey went on clearance at all the Targets |
| availability, the gray dooris a compromise. | | | | about a year and a halfago. This created a |
| Next, I started looking at what to build, and I saw | | | | massive surplus of the required parts at |
| that peopleseemed to like gondolas, so I first | | | | supergood prices! I couldn't believe my fortune. So |
| created a MOC gondola on a | | | | I ordered the parts |
| 6 x 28 train base. I didn't find this design to be | | | | I thought I would need and wanted to try using, |
| very popular, andthe gondola always seemed a bit | | | | and after gettingmy first couple of BrickLink |
| too large to me, so I took thedesign and adapted | | | | orders, sat down to build. Witha picture of the real |
| it to the shorter 6 x 24 train base. This | | | | grain hopper in hand, and a pile of parts infront of |
| designlowered the cost and seemed to be a hit. I | | | | me, the design came together in about 2 to 3 |
| have to admit, Iwas a bit surprised, but happy. | | | | hours; itfelt like it almost put itself together. This |
| This design is not really based onany Santa Fe | | | | has been the designthat I think really started to |
| designs, but I tried to give it some real detail on | | | | get my trains noticed out there, soneedless to |
| theends, which I felt was not very well done on | | | | say, I'm really pleased with it. |
| other MOC gondolas | | | | |