These hoppers will hold over 250 1x1 round bricks, and dump them pretty quickly. Now we just have to build an elevated station so we can use them. These versions are 30 studs in length, and have several variations in the car end detailing, and the interiors.

The interior slopes are a combination of, well, slopes, along with regular 1x4 bricks and the rotating 1x2 hinge bricks. The 1x4s give the smooth surface and the hinge allows the angle. The smooth surface greatly reduces interference during unloading. The sides have 1x8 plates attached to technic half stud /pin connectors to simulate external ribs.

Inspiration, credit and thanks go to Larry Pieniazek as I first read about these two techniques on his web site. Getting the triangular geometry correct was a bear. It took me a lot of fiddling to get something that worked well, while still looking somewhat prototypical. For references on details and general appearance I have also used a set of books I found in a used book store: The Best of Mainline Modeler's Freight Cars, Vols I,II, and III which are awesome in their detail, including plan and line drawings, photos, dimensions, etc. Anyone know if they did a series on engines?

I am really happy with the way these turned out. I think I have enough parts on hand or coming to do 6-8 more. Woo hoo!

Yellow Hopper

Grey Hopper

The classic "Blue Hopper" in comparison to the Twin Bay Hopper

And a Twin Bay Hopper in the 4536 color scheme