I am looking for good pictures of the gray Frank Brothers Feed & Grain covered hoppers from the mid 70’s. Bev-Bel did one of these cars and Herald King did a decal set. Both the Bev-Bel car and the decal set are sized for an Athearn PS 4740CD covered hopper(about all that was available back then). I have some Herald King decals and would like to apply them to some ‘correct’ covered hoppers.
Jim
What are the reporting marks (NAHX, PTLX or whatever)? I suspect the cars may be documented somewhere like the George Elwood Fallen Flags site http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/ or Railcar Photos http://www.railcarphotos.com/ReportingMarkCount.php and could be located under the lease company or Frank Brothers itself.
Ron,
I have looked through those sites(as well as rrpicturearchive) - no dice. The Bel-Bel model and the Herald King decals appear to have MAHX for the reporting marks - nothing really good to go on. The prototype cars roamed around southern Minnesota in the mid-70’s, and then vanished(I suspect the lease expired and was not renewed).
I am hoping someone took a picture(I thought I did,but cannot find it) I can get a scan of…
Jim
Doing a quick search suggests the HK decals used NAHX reporting marks, but I couldn’t decipher the exact number series from the images of the set I could find. Further searching suggested the Bev Bel car used USLX. In the former case, if the 1973 date listed on the HK decal set approximates the build date, a PS 4750 or clone seems a likely candidate (it likely post-dates 4740 production), and the same car could also have been leased through USLX given that other similar cars wore USLX marks and the apparent build date would seem to pre-date the Evans 4780 cars also leased under USLX. This isn’t a full answer, but may help further the investigation…
Rob,
The USLX cars followed later and were red. I agree that the Bev-Bel lettering is incorrect and should be NHAX. I too suspect a 4750 or clone as 4740 production ended in late 1972 or early 1973.
Oh, back to the simple days when we had just the Athearn PS 4740CD and ACF 5250CF to choose from! If I can get some pictures, I an sort of hoping for a Thrall 4750(I believe Atlas did that car).
Jim
To add a little more information, the HK decal set is PR-22. The car shown on the lettering diagram is NAHX 53692. Looking at the HK catalog image with an Optivisor, the cubic foot capacity appears to be 4750.
Look at canadianfreightcargallery.ca. Has listings for all types of cars. Could not find your specific card identification, but lots of good info.
I got the two sets of Frank Brothers decals today(and found two more sets in my ‘stash’ of decals). I reviewed the lettering & they are indeed NAHX in the 53600 series as suspected. The also have lettering for cu ft 4750, so they are not PS 4740 cars - even though the Herald King diagram is for a PS 4740 car. And of couse, the Bev-Bel car is all wrong.
I reviewed several web sites and looked at NAHX cars in that number series - No Frank Brothers cars, as the picture dates are mostly in the 2000’s. But all of the cars appear to be PS 4750 cars(arched roof/cupola) and 18 ribs. It appears that the Intermountain car is the correct model to use.
Intermountain’s web site list undec ‘kits’ - Has anybody put one together? My Intermountain experience has been fixing loose roof walks & detail parts that have fallen off. Still looking for ‘pictures’ of the cars!
Jim
I have used about 30 Intermountain kits of the PS 4750 to paint and decal elevator & coop hoppers from Iowa. I am currently waiting on some more from IM. They do not have the metal roof walks available to make up more kits right now.
Some of the issues I have encountered are: 1) You have to do some fileing on the bottom of the chutes in order for the three hatches to fit on flat. 2) There is some flash around some of the ladders which needs to be removed carefully. 3) The metal roof walks need to be installed with a glue that is somewhat flexible (no CA) because the difference in expansion between plastic and metal will make them come loose otherwise. 4) You need to look at prototype photos and see if the one you are modeling had shakers or not. If they did not you will need to fill in the holes on the chutes where the shakers are supposed to go. 5) The plastic wheels which come with the kits are terrible! Definately plan on replacing them with metal wheels. The IM 36" wheels work very well. 6) You will need to add weights to the car since IM does not provide any. 7) On the “B” end of the car do not install the side ladders until after you have installed the brake equipment. 8) It is difficult to attach the plastic grab irons that go on the roof walks. The holes in the metal roof walks are to big and it makes it difficult to glue. I have made metal grab irons with long legs and attached them to small holes drilled in the plastic under the metal roof walk.
I like the kits. Some of the good points are: 1) The plastic that IM uses to make the kits is a little bit flexible. This allows the ladder stucture to bend slightly and not break as
I have two of the cars “in service”. One I believe I bought assembled and has the buckled roofwalk due to differential expansion that omaha53 mentioned.
I’m pretty sure I built the other car. This kit did not have the metal roof walk. The roof walk assembly was a plastic piece. I looked at several unassembled kits I have, and they also have the plastic roof walk assemblies. Must be an earlier kit version.
I remember this kit as being somewhat fiddly. Everything went together well, but there were a lot of small parts that don’t like shaky hand glue application. Assembly wise, the P2K covered hoppers (not the model you need) were easier for me to assemble. If you’ve ever put any of them together, I think you’ll find the Intermountain kit just a tad more difficult.
Yup. It seems IM switched to etched running boards sometime after they made the transition to selling mostly RTR cars. I have seen relatively few IM kits with the etched parts.
I’ve assembled both IM covered hoppers and P2K, and would agree with the above. One thing that helps is to core out all of the mounting holes with a drill before attempting assembly. Some of the cast holes are a bit small for the parts intended to fit into them.