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Modeling Atlantic Coast Line K-9, K-10 and K-17 gondolas


posts completely, the railroad simply cut off the extra posts at the top chord, giving the car an unusual appearance of having six additional external posts. ACL did not remove the fixtures from the remaining 45 cars and the reason for this is unknown; perhaps they were to be used for logging service elsewhere or for pole or pipe loading. These cars remained largely in their modified con- dition through the Seaboard Coast Line merger in 1967.


1940 AAR design were delivered to the Atlantic


Line by Bethlehem


In 1948 an additional 300 cars of the Coast


Steel. These cars, class K-15, series Nos. 94600 – 95399, were dimensional- ly similar to the K-9 and K-10 cars and featured a steel deck like the K-10 cars. The only noticeable difference be- tween the K-10 and K-15 class cars was the addition of wire lading anchors welded externally near the top of each panel. The K-15’s maintained the same appliances and paint scheme of the K- 10 cars but were equipped with A-3 trucks.


In the mid-1950’s, 15 K-15’s were modified to haul Ferro Chrome con- tainers, changing them from AAR des- ignation GB to LG. According to the 1957 Official Railway Equipment Reg- ister, the cars modified were 94683, 94781, 94879, 94938, 95004, 95164, 95261, 95267, 95276, 95369, 94703, 94863, 94916 and 94943.


Atlantic Coast Line acquired its last


40-foot AAR-style gondolas in 1951. American Car and Foundry delivered 400 cars, number series 95400 – 95799, class K-17, with an all-steel body and steel deck. Similar in dimensions to the K-9, K-10 and K-15 cars, the K-17’s fea- tured modified Dreadnaught ends and a wire lading anchor welded on the top chord on the car sides. Other features included AB brakes, Miner brake wheel, Morton brake step, and AAR trucks with 33″ diameter wheels, and ACL’s all-black paint scheme with no Prismo blocks. The order history of the K-17’s is worthy of note. ACL ordered 500 cars (ACF lot 3618) on October 13th, 1950, but only 400 of the cars went to ACL. The remaining 100 cars went to the Georgia Railroad.


Modeling the ACL K-9 and K-10 gondolas Accurail’s HO scale,


41-foot AAR


steel gondola is the starting point for this easy modeling project. You can also model these cars using the Sun- shine Models kits, which can be or- dered from Sunshine Models, Box 4997, Springfield, MO 65808 (reference kit No. 67.7 for the K-9, kit No. 67.8 for the K-10, or kit No. 67.9 for the K-10-


70


The weathering process began with the replacement car floor. First it was cut to fit, then taped to a piece of cardstock and painted with Testors Flat Black. Model Masters Raw Si- enna, Leather and Russian Earth Brown were then used to weather the wood. The three colors, visible in the lower right of the photo, were streaked with a brush across the boards until a subtle contrast was achieved. Once it was dry, it was simply popped into the model–no glue was necessary. A few scrap pieces of wood blocking left inside the car will provide good contrast to the dark colors on the completed model.


MARCH 2012


The cast-on details were left in place on the finished model of ACL K-9 No. 93276 (above). The author usually equips his rolling stock with freestanding wire parts, but wanted to fin- ish one car with the cast-on grabs to demonstrate the high level of detail that can be ob- tained with a minimum effort. The kit’s AB valve, reservoir and cylinder were used on the underframe of the finished car (below), but the plastic linkage was replaced with brass rod. The train line or connections from the train line to the valve were not included. The under- frames of the rest of the cars in this article were constructed to the same standard.


A).


In addition, a nice, very low-cost version of the 1940 AAR gondola was offered for years by Tyco (and later, Mantua) that can still be found at swap meets. This model is a good start- ing point and can be made into a very respectable model with a little work. Accurail should receive an award for delivering one of the most technically- accurate easy-assembly kits produced to date. This model is practically a dead ringer for the Atlantic Coast Line’s K-10 class all-steel gondolas, and it’s a 99 percent match for the K-9


and K-15 cars. I decided to build three cars, one K-9, one K-10 and one K-17, for this project, and I used different construction philosophies with each car. On the K-9, I retained all the cast- on grabs and factory paint and added additional wire detail parts only where necessary. On the K-10 and K-17 mod- els I completely stripped all cast-on de- tails and paint and re-finished the cars with wire details and new decals. I also used different couplers and coupler boxes on each model to demonstrate the adaptability of the Accurail model


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