Upgrading Accurail's ACF 4600cf Covered Hopper

For many years the only option to model an ACF 4600cf covered hopper has been Accurail's model. This model came along between the "shake-the-box" era of well-designed but marginally detailed models from the likes of Athearn and MDC Roundhouse and the early superdetailed era of much more detailed but complex and difficult to assemble kits from Intermountain and Proto2000.

The Accurail kits are neither superdetailed nor too basic. Even the molded on details are crisply rendered and can look good with weathering. But sometimes molded on detail just isn't good enough. I'll admit to using several Accurail cars as-is where I'm modeling unit grain trains, but for those cars that will be spotted and pulled from elevators and feed mills I'd rather have something a little more detailed.

Athearn Genesis released a very nice model of the ACF 4600 in several versions, so it's easy to get cars of this type that are already detailed and painted nicely. Arrowhead Models has also announced the ACF 4600 in what promises to be the ultimate fine detail version. The Athearn models can be found between $40 to $50 and the Arrowhead model will likely be priced above the Athearn model.

Accurail's ACF 4600 kit is comparatively cheap at $19.98 and it can be found even cheaper on the secondary market, such as at train shows and on ebay. I already had several of these on hand from many years before the Athearn release or Arrowhead announcement back when they were the only game in town, so in my case the cost was irrelevant. But if you're going to upgrade the Accurail model to fit in with similar models from Athearn Genesis, ExactRail or Scale Trains, keep track of the cost and decide if it's worth it to you. By the time you've upgraded the wheels, stirrups, grabs, running boards, paint and decals, you'll end up pretty close to the cost of the already upgraded Athearn model. So it's helpful if you already have the models on hand or can get them less than retail.

The worst part of the Accurail model is the molded on running board. It's not horrible, but it's solid plastic so no light shines through onto the roof. Fortunately, Plano Model Products has designed some products specifically for this model. And you can use Plano's part no. 119 with any of those running boards if you want to model an earlier car. I did exactly that for one of my pre-BN merger cars below. Even if you only replace the molded running boards with the etched Plano parts, you've made a huge difference to the model.

So the first step to replacing the running boards on the Accurail model is removing the molded parts. It's pretty easy to trim off the vast majority of the running boards using rail nippers. But you're still going to be left with the portion of the running boards that's in line with the trough hatch at each end. There's no easy way to remove that part except by sanding or filing or a combination of the two. I don't recommend carving this part off because you can easily gouge the roof. Instead, remove the trough hatch and set it aside, then start sanding taking care not to damage the end cage. You'll want to check periodically as you sand that you're following along with the profile of the roof as seen at the end taking care to match the contour under the trough hatch. Best practice here is to sand a little then check the model. Adjust where you're sanding and repeat. If you go too long you might find yourself having to build up the roof.

After the heavy work is done, clean up the rest of the roof where the supports were trimmed. Use the drill template from the Plano kit and install the supports. I like to attach the running board to the supports from the inside working outward toward the ends. I have always used Loctite liquid super glue, but lately I've started using DAP RAPIDFUSE. Either one works fine.

Another area you can address using the Plano kit is the crossover platforms. I like to carve the molded parts up into supports for the etched crossover platforms that are included in the Plano upgrade kit. A sharp no. 11 blade makes quick work of the solid crossover platform.

The ladder rungs on this model aren't as heavy as on some other models, but these are also easy to upgrade. First, using that sharp no. 11 blade, slice off the grabs taking care to run the blade along the inside of the ladder stile. Once all the ladder rungs are removed, cut Plastruct 0.010" styrene rod to length and attach using liquid plastic cement. Make sure the styrene rod lines up with the remaining ends of the molded ladder rungs still on the stiles.

It's also a good time to replace the cast on drop grabs at the corners with wire parts (I like the drop grabs from Tangent) and the stirrups with A-line's Style A part. If you like, plumb the reservoir using some 0.012" brass wire bent to fit between the reservoir and control valve.

For these Burlington Northern cars the paint and decals are pretty straightforward. I damaged the BN logo on mine, but that's not really a problem since the cars I'm modeling were pretty well worn by the late 80s.

The Accurail ACF 4600 represents a late production model. Since Fort Worth & Denver is my home road, I also wanted to build one of their cars. This was made difficult because they are all of the early type with a single triangular stiffener rib on the carbody. The pressed plate that's present just under the car eaves on the Accurail model is correct for the late production model but it must be removed to represent an early model.

After those modifications were made, building this model was just like the others. I substituted the early style running board supports (Plano no. 119) for the supports included in the Plano kit. 

It's worth mentioning that I swapped the Accurail fiberglass type trough hatch with one from an Athearn (ex-MDC Roundhouse) Gunderson 4700 covered hopper. The hatch from the Gunderson hopper represents one of the early stamped metal trough hatches these cars were originally equipped with. 

The model was painted with Model Master Flat Gull Gray then lettered with Microscale decals. I haven't found a good match for the red-orange lettering and frame around the Burlington Route logo, but when I do I'll paint out the weight data and replace it per the prototype. 

I have a few more of these cars that are going to need similar upgrades. Santa Fe's ACF 4600 hoppers had Gypsum expanded metal running boards, which are thankfully available from Plano. I'd like to avoid repainting those cars, so I'll have to find a good match for the paint. But if that doesn't work out the one color dip paint job certainly isn't difficult to recreate.

Next time I'll go over some of the upgrades and modifications I made to MDC Roundhouse Gunderson 4700cf covered hoppers. MDC Roundhouse was acquired by Athearn, who later released these models as upgraded RTR versions and they are quite nice. It doesn't take much more effort than shown here to upgrade the older MDC Roundhouse kits to match Athearn's RTR model.

Bottineau Grain Train

Station sign Bottineau

In the summer of 1991 I took a trip to North Dakota with my brother, sister, mom and stepfather to visit my grandparents at their home in the quiet town of Bottineau. We caught the county fair, played at the lake, visited the family farm and played lots of card and dice games. Even thinking back to the pre-internet world that probably sounds boring, but my grandparents were a fun couple who loved to laugh and dote on their grandkids.

After our vacation concluded and we were about to leave, I chose to stick around and hang out with my grandparents for another week. I had graduated high school and didn't have anything pressing to do that next week, so why not? I'm really glad I was able to spend that time with my grandparents and get to know them as a young adult about to start college.

Anyway, there wasn't a whole lot going on during the lazy days so I chose to grab my sketch book and draw. I was going to be starting on a degree in fine arts in a few weeks so I was determined to draw what I could around town.

Like many small towns in North Dakota, Bottineau is home to a grain elevator complex situated alongside a railroad branchline. It wasn't long before I was drawn to the facility and began to study it. I took in the cylindrical and prismatic structures, the piping and wires connecting the various buildings, the contrast of the older sheet metal clad wooden elevator and the modern slipformed concrete silos and head house. Some things I can still remember clearly: the coolness of the shadows against the radiant concrete in the high sun and the ripples and waves in the slipformed walls when the evening sun set the buildings afire with red light.

And then one morning a train arrived.

Two geep thirty-eight types pulled fifty-two empties into town followed by a caboose. The train rolled into town quickly, then paused and started off again. The crew cut the crossings and tied the train down in four cuts, then stashed the power behind the depot. Before I knew what was going on the crew hopped in a taxi for a ride back to Minot.

In Texas I was used to the trains near my house flying by on the main, or coal trains struggling up the hill, or when things would get congested holding off crossings waiting for a light to get into town. The trains I'd see in Saginaw seemed static as we'd fly over the yards on the freeway. Even the jobs working the elevators and mills seemed to always be at lunch. I certainly hadn't seen anything like this.

ILSX 1366 and BN 454511

There wasn't much down time before the elevator crew fired up the old SW1 and started spotting cars in cuts of three at the barley house and at the durum house. As each car was loaded the switcher shoved them down the storage track, filling it up and eventually having to cut the crossings. Throughout the day and into the next the process repeated until the loaded train was set up in four cuts ready to be put back together and air tested.

I missed the train getting put back together, but I did see the caboose roll away behind the train and disappear into the twilight as the crew dragged it through the fields of grain down to Rugby to rejoin the main line.

It occurred to me that this process repeated itself over and over again. There was no time to rest, not for the rail crews that brought the empties in or took the loads out, not for the drivers bringing tractors, pickups, wagons and semi-trailers full of grain to the elevators, and certainly not for the switch crew at the elevator, who now had given up their switch engine duties to join in the effort to refill those silos.

Trucks lined the streets waiting for their turn through the head house. Fans and motors and machines made a constant droning sound around the complex. Clouds of grain dust floated in the air tinging everything with gold. The town was filled with that warm scent of cut summer grass.

21 years after the merger and still seeing Big Sky Blue

I had sketched and I had photographed and I had taken notes. I had a record of the locomotives, the railcars and the caboose that came to town and left. As many times as this process must have happened in towns across the midwest every day it seemed really insignificant. But those are the things nobody ever seems to take down, and soon they fade away as if they never happened. Two small town elevators combine into one complex. One town thrives and one fades away. Whatever would happen I wanted a record of that week.

Besides pre-merger hoppers, BN was grabbing every retired co-op car they could

It wasn't long before I began to make models based on those photos and notes and sketches. I soon became aware that exact models simply weren't available for most of the cars. And by exact, I mean as far as I knew there were rib side three bay hoppers and there were cylindrical shaped three bay hoppers. I could tell there were differences between many of them - some "missing" ribs in key places, some with high or low sides, some with a barrel shaped body and others almost completely cylindrical like a tank - but I didn't know how the differences broke down into capacity or manufacturer. But over time two things happened: I learned who made which car and manufacturers like Accurail, Intermountain and Model Die Casting brought out models to supplement the Athearn Pullman Standard and ACF hoppers that made up my first attempts at this train.

I took a crack at the caboose using a factory painted Athearn model. I eventually realized the Athearn model is too short, that it's a flawed model of a Rock Island caboose and not much of a match for the BN caboose I saw. Eventually I bought an Atlas caboose. Much better!

Atlas caboose modified with one of my 3D printed cupolas

Same thing with the locomotives. I bought two Athearn GP38-2s, one in BN green and one in Conrail blue. I fired up my airbrush and coated everything with a cloud of mud colored dust. It was brutal. Those locomotives eventually got stripped and repainted, then again stripped and cut up to become a pair of Mopac GP38-2s I still need to finish... I found a shell at a train show that looked pretty much how I remembered the ex-Conrail geep, so I bought it and found a drive for it. I picked up an Atlas GP38 decorated for BN later on.

Time for some updated photos!

Over the years I've replaced nearly every car I originally bought to make a model of this train. Some of them have been repurposed into models for this train and some for other subjects. More manufacturers have produced even more models, so I'm able to dial in the models closer and closer to the real thing. I even became a manufacturer myself of sorts when I worked up parts to model the caboose more accurately. I've covered some of the cars modeled in my blog previously, here, here and here.

To this day, nearly twenty-seven years later, this train remains a work in progress. I'll probably never finish modeling it. But by pursuing it, I keep it alive. I keep that summer alive. Making big bets at the card table in my grandma's house doesn't seem that far away.

My brother and I, both of us are engineers now

Now that I've been an engineer for some time, I can relate so much to that crew that tore into town, cut that train up and flew back to Minot in the cab. How many times have I done the same thing itching to get out of the seat and make it home for some time with the wife and girls before they go to sleep? Yes, you still have to dot all the I's and cross all the T's and do it safely, but an experienced and motivated railroader can do it quickly.

The older I get the less I rush like that. There's too much you can miss if you do. You end up doing it twice or more unless you take your time and move with purpose. You only learn that the closer you get to finishing something, when you can finally see your mistakes, missteps and oversights.

Who knows? Maybe one day I'll eventually get it right.