[QUOTE] That is a very interesting AHM car. It does have a prototype or at least a solid prototype-suggestion…
Believe it is correct only for NYC and related roads. AHM did roadnames like Frisco and your Enjay Plastics, but some flavor of New York Central is the only prototypical paints to be applied according to what I know. They were custom made for the New York Central and/or their subsidary Merchant’s Dispatch in the mid/late '60s by ACF.
They are known as “Flexi-Flow” Hoppers…
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On the Plano website, you can also see Sean Steele’s build. I think it was Sean’s project that prompted the “kit”. Sean used stock walkways and railings, and did an extensive article about it, which I believe was on the “Diesel Detailer” site, but now you can buy the kit from Plano.
I bought 2 kits last winter. They are still waiting. [(-D]
I do recall one problem with these cars,…that external piping down below on the side was always subject to damage. Most often when you find these cars used that piping is cracked or chunks missing.
If you try to repair just simply cracks in the piping, it is not so easy? I don’t know that I have discovered an adhesive that works well here, but then I have not yet done that much experimentation. Several ones I tried were not that sucessful.
I think if I had one, or a number of, those cars, and the piping was damaged, the best repair might be to re-do the whole works in brass, using wire and, where necessary, tubing. Soldered together, and pinned in-place, it would be a lot stronger. To simplify things a bit, the plastic fittings could be salvaged, then drilled-out and re-used.
Wayne, that’s exactly what Bobby Pits and Sean Steele did during the rebuilds they did of these cars.
The molded tubing/piping on the original cars are flat on the inside.
This thread is going to inspire me to get back to my rebuild of a couple of these cars. I’ve had the Plano kits for a year, or so. [(-D]
Except, I have a Case 988 rubber tired excavator (on the bench now), 10 spine cars that need decals and weathering, and 4 tank car projects/rebuilds using Plano parts and the 50’ MDC/Roundhouse side ladder tank cars, ahead of anything else!
Of course, I could just set up another table/bench…mmmmm [swg]
I was just looking back at Bobby Pitt’s description of his rebuild (that I referenced earlier in this subject thread), and I did not see the specifics of what he did?.
Perhaps a result of my not being a member on that forum, I could not view all the photos in big format? I just joined that forum a few moments ago.
I would have thought there would have been some separate photos of his piping construction?..or did I just miss them??
Yep, Bobby did a killer job on that flexi flo hopper.
Welcome to Atlas Rescue Forums btw.
I guess you have to decide whether some cheap toy train set cars are worth the effort. IMO, some are simply not, like the box cars with the roof walk molded on. There are often much better alternatives availalbe so you don’t have to spend all that time which could be used for one of the other many projects a layout in-progress will be demanding.
The flex-flo is defintely one of those models you can’t buy off the shelf and have a decent looking model without upgradeing the toy train version, or laying out a lot of money on brass.
Click on his name and you can see his recent threads and post, maybe you can track it down that way.
Heck, send him a PM. Maybe he’ll send you a link. I haven’t looked lately, and I don’t remember what photo hosting site he uses, but you used to find all of his stuff just with a Google search.
Hello guys. I’ve been a member of this forum for years, but all of a sudden I couldn’t log in on my tablet. I thought I’d been given the boot. I found out I could log in on my wife’s I phone. I didn’t know that this good stuff was on the layout part, but was told it was. I’ll be happy to answer any questions about my Flexi-Flow.
Hi Bobby, is there a link and/or photos of the build process any where?
And, did you replace the molded on plastic tubing and piping on the bottom of the car, with brass?
Plano now has a kit for these cars, but I don’t think it includes the piping. I know Sean Steele did a build of this car too, and his pictures are on the Plano site.
It’s another one of your great builds, that I for one, never get tired of.
I thought I had done it by clicking on the “copy image location” and placing it here. But obviously that didn’t work,…or perhaps I forgot to hit POST,…done that before [:^)]
…did you create that larger size manifold piping that hangs down off the one side (the piping that aways seem to get broken on the stock model car)? I didn’t see where you made reference to that on the other forum??
