7mm Richards P48 US Thread

richard carr

richard carr

Western Thunderer
I picked this up from UK Ebay and I have to say it is a very nice hopper car
It is a Pullman Standard 4427, I was wondering if anybody on here knows anything about them, there doesn't seem to be much on the web.
Most appear to have been built in the mid to late 60s, there is some suggestion that there are still some in service today ?

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I was also wondering what the colour of BNSF hopper cars is the brown colour, is it available as an acrylic or enamel ?

Richard
 
mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Probably the most numerous make of covered hopper ever (happy to be corrected), search for PS 4427 covered hopper and your world is enlightened.

Nice find and weathering, is that the Atlas model, looks to be the later series with wire grab irons.

I'm sure I had some journals or books on these, can't locate them just yet, there was a run of articles in one of the US modeler mags I picked some up off a web page somewhere but can't remember where...the web page or the download mags are...not a lot of help really :p

If you P48 can I put a tab on the trucks please, in exchange for some shekels.

No idea what colour the brown is but I've heard people use Warship hull red oxide...there are several different hues from what I've see on the ship model groups but no idea how accurate that colour is.
 
richard carr

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Hi Mick

Yes this is an Atlas model, there are many on US Ebay and new ones are also still available from a few hobby shops.

Unfortunately I have used the original Atlas trucks to convert these to P48 as Protocraft have run out of 100 ton roller bearing trucks. They say they are getting some more made but have no idea when !

So a while back I did draw up some replacement parts for the Atlas bolster that are the correct width for P48.
It doesn't take too long to change things over

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I did though find my stash of surplus trucks, are you after any type or just the roller bearing variety ?

Richard
 
mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
I'm not/wasn't an overly big fan of rib sided hoppers, but they're kind of growing on me though I have more than enough hoppers to suit my needs three times over at present. It's high cubes and tanks I'm in need of and most tank cars are poor renditions with over thick hand rails and poor joint lines in the tank itself. I do have a plan (one of many many plans I have) to 3D new domed ends, roll brass tubes and then detail as required.

Roller bearing type please, 100T Barbers preferred but 70T is close enough for the time being, I've got a dozen or so covered hoppers, all without trucks.

What resin is that you're using, almost translucent.

MD
 
mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
richard carr said:
Hi Mick

That resin is Siraya tech Build black.

I'll check just how many trucks I have

Richard
Click to expand...
Looks good and I can't see much warping or bowing over such a long length, I've heard good things about it as well as being a bit of a handful to work with. I'm nearly out of FNG so might pick a bottle of this up next.

I'll take as many spare as you have, right now my covered hopper fleet looks like the aftermath of a big derailment, all on their sides with no running gear :))
 
JasonD

JasonD

Western Thunderer
mickoo said:
I'm not/wasn't an overly big fan of rib sided hoppers, but they're kind of growing on me though I have more than enough hoppers to suit my needs three times over at present. It's high cubes and tanks I'm in need of and most tank cars are poor renditions with over thick hand rails and poor joint lines in the tank itself. I do have a plan (one of many many plans I have) to 3D new domed ends, roll brass tubes and then detail as required.

Roller bearing type please, 100T Barbers preferred but 70T is close enough for the time being, I've got a dozen or so covered hoppers, all without trucks.

What resin is that you're using, almost translucent.

MD
Click to expand...

That long train of 5250 smooth, curved hoppers needs the occasional rib-side to bring us back to reality. Atlas' Trinity hoppers are gorgeous (mid 90s though) so Richard's PS2CD works for me. They always had wire grabs, it was the Atlas Trainman 4750s that had the deep plastic grabs, etc.

Tank car kits with brass tubes and domed ends, eh? Yes, these are old ones by ...er, oh it's raining, so next time I'm in the garage ... the tubes might be too small a diameter, originally for west coast oil industry, but ....
Jason
 
JasonD

JasonD

Western Thunderer
Lobaugh, knew it had a B somewhere. Anyway, these are the dome ends measuring 9 scale feet across, or as Jordan and I feel Okay with: 2-1/4". A bits small I expect. The SP Crude Oil kits have 8ft / 2" domed ends and rolled wrappers with rivet lines for a roughly 40ft tank car.LobTankDomedEnds.jpg
 
Big Train James

Big Train James

Western Thunderer
mickoo said:
Probably the most numerous make of covered hopper ever (happy to be corrected)
Click to expand...
I'd stake my money on the most numerous being either the Pullman Standard 4750 cubic foot cars that came a few years later than the 4427's, or the ACF Centerflow 4650 cubic foot cars. These two cars would represent the two most common designs on the rails from the early 70's through the bump in allowable gross rail load that happened in the latter part of the 90's.

I don't know exactly where to find the data for all cars, but Tangent (an HO manufacturer) has a historical blurb on the 4750's that says they were the most produced car of this type. Gorgeous models, I wish we had something of this caliber in O scale.

As to whether the 4427's are still in use today, it's very likely that some are still running around. Although they would be right in the time frame when their service life in non-rebuilt form would expire. I can say that I saw a few in use when I still lived in Denver, probably in the 2010-2015 period. I left Denver at the end of 2015, so it was before then. The seven years in between is right on the cusp of the service life expiration, which is either 45 or 50 years from build date. So they may have come off the rails in the meantime. No matter what, most if not all 4427's would have been sold off from the class 1 carriers and be in service with secondhand owners like railcar leasing groups. I just checked some photo sites, there are pictures of 4427's in limited use up to as recently as June of this year. So they can still be found occasionally.

By the way, the roof walk extension brace at the "A" end (non brakewheel end) of the car needs reattachement. This is a common part to come loose, it would be prudent to check the Atlas 5161 cu. ft. hoppers for the same issue.

mickoo said:
I'm nearly out of FNG so might pick a bottle of this up next.
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You might consider getting the big 5kg jug of Navy Grey if you are going continue using it. You do enough printing that I doubt it would expire on you. It's a bit cheaper in bulk than in the 1kg bottles.

mickoo said:
It's high cubes and tanks I'm in need of and most tank cars are poor renditions with over thick hand rails and poor joint lines in the tank itself.
Click to expand...
Given what I understand about your era interests and your evolving sense of pragmatism, I think you might want to reconsider some of the Atlas tank cars. This is the Atlas 17.6k gallon car, frequently used for corn syrup service. But adaptable to other ladings as well.

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I think the walkways and steps could use a bit of help, possibly the end-to-body join as well. But I think they present fairly well. Of course, getting them in the UK might tip the balance in favor of making your own.

Riveted tanks like Jason mentions would have gone out of fashion by the 80's, at least in common usage. That doesn't mean you couldn't use the ends if they were the right size. Picking a size and shape is tricky though, I find the variety of tank cars and detailing a bit overwhelming. There are so many types and uses, and corresponding sizes, that I find it hard to know which one's I should be aiming to model.

Jim
 
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mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Jim,

My Atlas tank car looks similar, you're right it needs all new etched gratings and other details replacing, my biggest niggle is the joint line in the tank to allow the bottom to drop out, by the time you've cleaned all that up and blended it smooth you may as well roll your own tank, 3D print some truck bolsters and recover what else you can.

Pragmatism, had to look that up, you're right, the Atlas tank is on the crossover between pimping out what's in the box or building your own, probably both take the same amount of time and effort truth be told.

I've no idea what most US tank cars carry, they roll past and it's mind boggling the variations in what look like similar carts but clearly not. I do have to confess to making a mental step back when the nasties with lots of Hazmat labels roll past.

My size is limited to what I can switch, bigger than 17.6K is probably impractical.
 
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