During a recent visit by my parents, a bag of dirty old stuff from their basement come to me. Inside was a few odd things from my youth, including several HO scale frieght cars. Most were trainset type stuff and tyco cars with oversized molded details, which can be put into service with just a change of trucks. One car in the mix is pretty beat up and I was thinking that it would be a good "busy work" project.
I can't see any manufacturer's marks, but as you can see, its missing one complete end and the other is broken up.
Is anyone aware of a company that make appropriate ends to replace these? I have been poking around the web, but not knowing what to search for, other than HO covered hopper ends, makes finding what I need tedious.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I don't believe I have ever seen "ends" for such a car sold as a separate product. Was it me, I'd think about building up the ends from scratch, using angle stock, wire, ladder stock, and brake assemblies. I'd try for some prototype photo's, or even better, plans to guide my work. I'd probably want to rebuild both ends, to get them to come out the same.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
My in itial advice would be to try and find an Intermountain kit to build. You'll end up with a much nicer looking model than the car in your photo would ever end up being unless you put an awful lot of work into it.
That said, when Intermountain started out they offered kits that included those end frames and ladders as separate parts. It would be a long shot, but you could contact them and see if they happen to have any old stuff hanging around. I think they offered kits for both Pullman Standard and ACF cars.
Also, Detail Associates offered a 2-bay ACF car kit. The end frames and ladders were also separate items in that kit. They also advertised a separate item called Endframe Ladders - ACF Centerflow Hopper. I looked in the 2005 Walthers catalog and it is listed as 229-6431. Here is the Walthers link:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?quick=229-6431&x=10&y=15
Actually, Walthers says they have some of these in stock. Price is $4.40. (Price in 2005 was $3.50)
Please note that I can't guarantee that any of these parts will fit your model.
A quick search of ebay reveals it's an Accurail kit #1035. There were/are several on ebay, presumably with complete parts.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Looks to me that 1035 is the entire kit? Or am I wrong?
Looks like an Athearn car. What you are looking to do is something I've done often, but will need to be done in a kitbash or scratchbuild manner. Unless a piece of rolling stock is severely damaged (scrapper) I'll make a 'best try' at restoration.
Plastruct has some fine structural shapes in styrene that are small and thin enough to recreate the damaged and missing pieces...even K&S if you want to give metal a try. Do a parts match up from photos of that type of car and get the material and go to it. But...but...by all means. Take your time and have patience.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
May I suggest you use your car for a flat car load?
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
You've had a couple other guesses posted, but I can tell you for certain that's not of Athearn or Accurail heritage. It's a Front Range/McKean model of the ACF 4650. I've built several.
Plano still has etched walkways for these cars http://www.planomodelproducts.com/frames.html , but I'm unaware of anyone offering replacement end cages specifically to fit. Assemblies intended for the Intermountain (4650 cu ft, not the lower height 2-bay car), Atlas, or Details Associates cars might sorta fit, but I wouldn't guarantee it.
Here are a couple of these cars in service on my layout. They weren't too awful for their day, but the details were pretty clunky. I added wire grabs and brake piping to most of mine.
Rob Spangler
crhostler61 Looks like an Athearn car.
Looks like an Athearn car.
Its definitely Accurail. Accurail had a bunch of covered hoppers with end ladders not cast into the body (I forget who they inherited that molding from) and there's a screw holding the coupler on. Of course, the screw could be aftermarket, but that's got Accurail tells all over it.
NittanyLionIts definitely Accurail.
Accurate Finishing, something of a precursor to Accurail, sold some of the former Front Range/McKean kits under their own name for a time. They didn't have screws for mounting the draft gear box lids, so that's definitely a user modification. Accurail later modified some of the old tooling into boxcars they still make today, but their ACF 4600 hopper appears to be entirely new, sharing nothing with the Front Range cars.
This image is small, but I think it shows one of the OP's GTW hopper kits with its original Front Range box.
*EDIT* the image won't display, so I'll provide the search terms instead. It's from a lot of three Front Range hoppers on ebay. Paste "front range gtw hopper" into Google without the quotes.
"Brakie" Larry has a good idea in his post, or maybe get some ladders and parts that are kind of close, bend them up and fix them to the car and place it on your RIP track.
Bob Bochenek
I have a Accurail car setting in front of me, and the OP's car is not a Accurail. Besides if it was it would say Accurail on the bottom.As for repairing the end cages Detail Associates has the basic cages but there are no side ladders.I would check with Intermountain if it were me to see if they have the parts in HO.
wp8thsub NittanyLion Its definitely Accurail. Accurate Finishing, something of a precursor to Accurail, sold some of the former Front Range/McKean kits under their own name for a time. They didn't have screws for mounting the draft gear box lids, so that's definitely a user modification. Accurail later modified some of the old tooling into boxcars they still make today, but their ACF 4600 hopper appears to be entirely new, sharing nothing with the Front Range cars. This image is small, but I think it shows one of the OP's GTW hopper kits with its original Front Range box. *EDIT* the image won't display, so I'll provide the search terms instead. It's from a lot of three Front Range hoppers on ebay. Paste "front range gtw hopper" into Google without the quotes.
NittanyLion Its definitely Accurail.
Front Range/McKean was who I was thinking of. There's a picture of an unassembled two bay hopper from them in HO Railroad Start to Finish, which I've read so many times that practically every image in that book is burned into my memory. One of which shows the end ladders for a covered hopper on the sprue.
maxman Looks to me that 1035 is the entire kit? Or am I wrong?
Entire kit AFAIK.
Just going by the description posted. Y'all sort it out, but the guy insists it's Accurail:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACCURAIL-HO-1035-ACF-3-BAY-CVD-HOPPER-GRAND-TRUNK-WESTERN-138142-KIT-NIB-/191640307509?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c9ea70735
Accurate Finishing maybe,Accurail no way.This is a Accurail 3 bay center flo.
And this my friends is a Accurate Finishing center flo. Any questions?
Looks like Accurate Finishing is the source, as there was another pic available on the page linked above that clearly shows the box label.
The part #1035 is the Accurate Finishing kit number.
wp8thsubAccurate Finishing, something of a precursor to Accurail, sold some of the former Front Range/McKean kits under their own name for a time. They didn't have screws for mounting the draft gear box lids, so that's definitely a user modification. Accurail later modified some of the old tooling into boxcars they still make today, but their ACF 4600 hopper appears to be entirely new, sharing nothing with the Front Range cars.
So in a sense, it IS an Accurail kit, as I guess Accurate Finishing was a predecessor company. What's Rob's answer leaves uncertain to me is was this a FR/McKean LO or something else?
Obviously trying to identify what the right part is for the OP here.
mlehmanWhat's Rob's answer leaves uncertain to me is was this a FR/McKean LO or something else?
I can say with 100% certainty the OP's car is from the Front Range/McKean tooling. I've built a bunch of these and know them inside out. I also included a photo of two such cars from my layout in an earlier post.
Just going by the description posted. Y'all sort it out, but the guy insists it's Accurail...
That seller may be confused. One of the kits he has labeled as Accurail is another Front Range car, WP 11914, that I also have and built from an original FR kit when it was offered new. The seller may have old FR stock that was repackaged in Accurate Finishing boxes and somehow thinks they're Accurail cars.
If I'm recalling this right, Accurate Finishing was like CM Shops or Bev Bel, selling custom decorated cars manufactured by someone else. There may have been something of a transition period when they sold either FR stock or painted FR bodies using the same printing, perhaps with some upgrades like consolidated stencils. Eventually they morphed into Accurail and began manufacturing their own cars.
OK, that is all pretty confusing in general. You may very well be right that it's a mixed up boxing, which can happen with estate sales when the person who best knew is no longer with us.
However, I think we've determined that a end assembly from another Front Range/McKean LO of the same type would likely yield the part needed.
mlehmanOK, that is all pretty confusing in general. You may very well be right that it's a mixed up boxing, which can happen with estate sales when the person who best knew is no longer with us.
I realize I'm veering off topic, but I think much of the confusion revolves around how the original models were sold. I've run across a number of cars of obvious Front Range heritage in Accurate Finishing boxes, with new labels. They still turn up at train shows. My guess is Accurate Finishing ended up with some old stock after the demise of FRP and sold it under their own name until it ran out. Since the Accurate Finishing boxes and labels look so much like Accurail's, it's easy to assume they're one and the same. I haven't seen any examples, but I suppose it's possible Accurail labels ended up on a few of these old kits at some point, which would muddy things even worse.
As all these product lines get sold off and re-branded, it can sure make it difficult to correctly determine replacement parts!