Any Accurail kit builders here? Post your photos here!

[sd40dash2]

As the subject line requests, does anyone here have photos of Accurail cars they're built through the years? Any era or railway, it makes no difference, the car can be upgraded and refined or simply assembled. Post your photos and detailing stories here!

I'll start with kit #3533 purchased for fun in 2010. It was upgraded by removing the running boards and adding new metal wheels, couplers and brake lines. Today I would go further and add uncoupling levers, air hoses and nicer stirrups. This car was sold on eBay in 2011.

[wp8thsub]

I modified an Accurail PS4750 into a closer representation of a UP car.



Prototype photo from rr-fallenflags.org/up/up-flo.html

To better match the prototype, I added the reinforcing angle along the top of the car, and the angle that wraps around the bottom of each of the three bays. I moved the mounting for the brake fulcrum lower, and fabricated some stand-alone piping and roof grabs from wire. I used some bits of styrene for the trainline mounting brackets along the side. The slides for the hopper gates were shortened. I added decals for the ACI labels and have since weathered the thing.

[sd40dash2]

Hi Rob,

Nice work. What did you use for wheels and couplers? Your project sounds like a fun and straightforward one, which is what I like about Accurail kits. Thanks for sharing.

[wp8thsub]

May 26, 2018 18:54:59 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

Hi Rob,

Nice work. What did you use for wheels and couplers?

I used my standard issue Kadee #148 couplers and Intermountain wheelsets.

[fr8kar]

Way to kick it off, Rob. Beautiful work!

Let me start off by saying I love Accurail kits. They are simple but well detailed and always wonderfully engineered. The design of the PS 4750 kit is outstanding.

Nearly all my Accurail cars are covered hoppers, but I picked up an open hopper earlier this year that went together easily and looks great. I took this photo before I added couplers to it:




I built this Mopac hopper a little while back. It led to four more PS 4750 kits:




The Accurail kits I'm most familiar with are the ACF 4600 covered hoppers. I've upgraded several with etched Plano running boards and new ladder rungs made from 0.010" styrene rod. I backdated one to the earlier style with the stiffening rib on the cylindrical body side.














I'm sure I'll be adding many more in the years to come. Lately I've been thinking I could use some cars for Burrus Mills. Santa Fe 4750s and 4600s would fit the bill nicely.

[sd40dash2]

Very nice work, Ryan. The Plano running boards and weathering on the CNW hopper look great as do the details added to your other cars.

One thing I have noticed about Accurail is that if you want one of their cars, it is best to get the kit when it is first released as re-runs of a particular scheme can take many years. Older runs do not often show up on eBay, suggesting customers are keeping their stock.

Thank you for sharing!

[fr8kar]

Thank you.

I'm learning the same thing about past schemes. I'd like to find a PS 4750 in Milwaukee and some of those ACF 4600s I mentioned in Santa Fe. Neither scheme is easy to find.

[Great-Northern-Willmar Div]

Rob,

I really like that UP car. The scenery on you layout is fabulous and helps to make a really great model pop.

[Great-Northern-Willmar Div]

Ryan,

Really like what you've done with the Accurail cars. The billboard or original BN scheme is always a welcome sight to my eyes. That FW&D car is one of the Hill Lines and is eye candy too!

When Burlington Northern simplified its freight car scheme with a small BN logo and no "Burlington Northern" spelled out, I thought the cars were being put into witness protection. They were hiding in plain sight. But the BN green is so much more attractive than the mineral that BNSF uses on its cars. Santa Fe ditched its colors for mineral before the merger. BNSF just kept the train a rollin'.

[riogrande]

As kits go, Accurail can be nice rolling stock for a layout and are some of the better designed. Mostly what I have bought and built in the past are the ACF 4600 covered hoppers but more recently I have found some of the 40' box cars can be good matches to some of the fallen flag box cars I need for a late 1970's layout.

Great photo's Rob and Ryan. I bet removing the roof detail to redo the roof walks etc on the 4600 was quite the project.

[TBird1958]

I really enjoy Accurail stuff, sometimes it's fun to just build them up pretty stock like these two U.P. combo door cars.





At times it's really rewarding to start with an undec and scrape off a few things too.

[dti406]

Did a few CNJ 40' RB's that were used to move Ballantine's Beer from NJ. I removed the cast grabs and sill steps and replaced with metal grabs and A-line Sill Steps, also built up a Fishbelly underframe as these were rebuilt cars leased from North American. Painted with Scalecoat II Reefer Orange, Pullman Green and Boxcar Red paints. Lettered decals from Tom's Model Trains.









Rick Jesionowski

[wp8thsub]

May 27, 2018 8:18:49 GMT -8 TBird1958 said:

I really enjoy Accurail stuff, sometimes it's fun to just build them up pretty stock like these two U.P. combo door cars.

That UP 127099 is most definitely an Athearn car!

[look4trains]

This one started out as a Florida Tile model. Logo removed, a little weathering, and kadees/IM wheelsets.

[TBird1958]

May 27, 2018 10:25:32 GMT -8 wp8thsub said:

May 27, 2018 8:18:49 GMT -8 TBird1958 said:

I really enjoy Accurail stuff, sometimes it's fun to just build them up pretty stock like these two U.P. combo door cars.

That UP 127099 is most definitely an Athearn car!

  D'oh! 

[look4trains]

Here's one more set showing the as-built and weathered versions of the same car. Again only changes are wheelsets and couplers. I will want to try and do some further mods as shown in this thread when I get the chance. Thanks all for sharing, and to those who look!

[ChessieFan1978]

Here's an Tri-Level open autorack that I added panels to.

Trains by Matthew Fisher, on Flickr

[sd40dash2]

Really nice modelling, Matt. Thanks for sharing.

P.S. I was unable to link to flicker photos. Is there a trick to doing that?

[ChessieFan1978]

May 27, 2018 16:21:10 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

Really nice modelling, Matt. Thanks for sharing.

P.S. I was unable to link to flicker photos. Is there a trick to doing that?

Click on the Flickr photo and there is a Share arrow.  Copy the BCC code then paste it on here.

[sd40dash2]

Thanks. Still can't do it. Oh well.

[ChessieFan1978]

fullsizeoutput_52c by Matthew Fisher, on Flickr

In the lower right corner are for icons.  Edit, Share, Download, and Full Screen.  Click Share (second in from pic)

[ChessieFan1978]

fullsizeoutput_52d by Matthew Fisher, on Flickr

Left click the BCCode and hit copy.   Go to Forum and start thread or reply.  Left Click paste.

[ChessieFan1978]

May 27, 2018 17:02:50 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

Thanks. Still can't do it. Oh well.

See pictures I posted below

[sd40dash2]

Ah now I see, thanks Matt.

The problem is I was trying to paste that BBBCode into the Insert Image box of this forum's reply options. Now I see that is supposed to be pasted into the body of the reply.

Back to Accurail photos!

[jbilbrey]

As TBird1958 stated, the good thing about Accurail cars is that one can just build them out-of-the-box or use them as the basis of a super-detailing project.  And, I have done both.

Frisco Wood-sheathed Boxcar by James Bilbrey, on Flickr

The Frisco boxcar is one where I carved off all of the grabs and rungs, replacing them with wire, as well as scratching a non-fishbelly underframe and addding new brake gear.

ACL gondola by James Bilbrey, on Flickr

The ACL gon got new ends, wire grabs, and new lettering (letting the old lettering "bleed through").

For every Accurail car that I super-detailed I probably have another one that was built stock or nearly stock. I also probably have the most expensive Accurail P-S 4750. It's a "club layout" car where durability was more important, but it has a Ring Engineering FRED on one end.

[sd40dash2]

jbilbrey, thanks for posting your details. Awesome weathering on the wood box!

Is the kit fishbelly u/f not accurate for that car? I believe Accurail has a part 106 (40' straight u/f) that should be a drop-in replacement for this model.

[jbilbrey]

May 27, 2018 19:49:46 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

jbilbrey, thanks for posting your details. Awesome weathering on the wood box!

Is the kit fishbelly u/f not accurate for that car? I believe Accurail has a part 106 (40' straight u/f) that should be a drop-in replacement for this model.

Thank you.  While the body of the kit in the question is very accurate for a SL-SF boxcar, the fishbelly underframe is not correct for the car.  See the attached link:

SLSF 148038

I did pick up the #106 underframe when I built the SLSF boxcar only to realize one key detail that I had overlooked.  The PS-1 boxcar (and thus the underframe) is wider than the the SLSF single-sheathed boxcar.  Therefore, a direct swap of the parts was out of the question.  I would post photos showing the car's new underframe, but I have since sold the boxcar.

[valenciajim]

The quality of these models is really quite good to simply outstanding. It sort of makes you wonder why we pay so much for those super-detailed models. I'll bet the people who built the Accurail models had a lot of fun doing so. My hat's off to everyone.

[sd40dash2]

May 27, 2018 20:28:52 GMT -8 jbilbrey said:

Thank you.  While the body of the kit in the question is very accurate for a SL-SF boxcar, the fishbelly underframe is not correct for the car.  See the attached link:

SLSF 148038

I did pick up the #106 underframe when I built the SLSF boxcar only to realize one key detail that I had overlooked.  The PS-1 boxcar (and thus the underframe) is wider than the the SLSF single-sheathed boxcar.  Therefore, a direct swap of the parts was out of the question.  I would post photos showing the car's new underframe, but I have since sold the boxcar.

I am faced with this problem currently so I appreciate your input. You saved me the time and money buying the 106 -- thanks!

How about the Tichy USRA clone u/f part 3019. Does it fit the Accurail car?

Otherwise, to use the existing frame one could try removing (or not installing) the two fishbelly bars or else grinding them down with a dremel followed by filing and sanding?

[jbilbrey]

May 28, 2018 2:52:59 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

I am faced with this problem currently so I appreciate your input. You saved me the time and money buying the 106 -- thanks!

How about the Tichy USRA clone u/f part 3019. Does it fit the Accurail car?

Otherwise, to use the existing frame one could try removing (or not installing) the two fishbelly bars or else grinding them down with a dremel followed by filing and sanding?

Honestly, I didn't think about trying to adapt the Tichy USRA underframe. Instead, I cheated since I was building the SL-SF boxcar as a "runner" vs. a "contest quality" model. I replaced the fishbelly center-sill parts with some Evergreen styrene channels. It wasn't 100% accurate, but as long as one was viewing it from the side, no one would be the wiser.