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sanded smooth, I added a small piece of .020″ styrene as a new mounting pad and glued the Kadee No. 78 coupler box to it.


Unfortunately, I ran into big trouble with the Sunshine decal set. The decals did not fit between the ribs as expected and I had to cut the decal apart when it was wet! I eventually substituted let- ters from a Microscale set to achieve a desirable result. If I were to do this project again, I would use the excellent decal set made by my friend, Jerry Glow, specifically for this car. Jerry’s decals can be found on the Internet at: http://home.co mcast.net/~Jerryglow/ decals/decals.html. I used the Sun- shine set for all other lettering, but did not apply any decal chalk marks. Inci- dentally, Jerry also produces a set of decals for the Georgia Railroad version of this car.


As with the K-9, I weathered the in- terior of the K-10 with a variety of Bragdon’s powders and used Model Masters Raw Sienna to initially weath- er the exterior of the car. I highlighted the car with Russian Earth Brown and went over it with black and Raw Sien- na to blend the colors together.


ACL K-17 No. 95593 After modeling the K-9 and K-10


models, I decided to explore the utility of the Accurail model by converting it to an ACL K-17. The conversion re- quires replacing the ends with Im- proved Dreadnaught ends and model- ing a wire lading anchor on the top chord of the car’s sides. Before I began the project, I exam-


ined several options for modeling the Improved Dreadnaught ends. The Im- proved Dreadnaught ends on the pro- totype are characterized by four major corrugations with three minor corruga- tions (one between each major corruga- tion). The minor corrugations appear as a line interspaced between the ma- jor corrugations. Furthermore, three “darts” were stamped on the extreme ends of the panel between each of the three major corrugations. To correctly model the ends, I used aftermarket parts made by Detail As- sociates, part number FC6221, GS- Gondola End, Dreadnaught. I consid- ered modifying boxcar ends from Branchline and InterMountain, but they were either too wide or were not correct for this car. Unlike the boxcar ends, the Detail Associates end has the correct pattern of major corrugations, minor corrugations and darts, and also has the interior detail desired for my model. To replace the car’s ends, I removed


the Accurail end (it’s a snap-on piece), and substituted the Detail Associates part. The Detail Associates end re- quired a little bit of shaping–it was about two scale inches too wide, so I scraped it lightly with an hobby knife blade and sanded it with fine steel wool until it fit. After gluing the ends in place, the top joints were filled with Squadron putty, sanded smooth, and finished by gluing a Tichy No. 3063 cor- ner gusset in place. Also, I removed the poling pockets from the Accurail end, trimmed them, and fixed them in place at the end corners.


Since I had to replace the car’s ends, I stripped the car of all cast-on details and replaced everything with plastic and wire aftermarket parts. On the un- derframe, I retained the kit’s brake gear components but added all new rods and linkage made from Detail As- sociates No. 2504 .012″ diameter brass wire. On the car’s sides, grab irons were installed per the prototype using Westerfield No. 1198 straight 18″ grabs, except for the bottom grab on the right side of each car where West- erfield No. 1197 18″ drop grabs were used. I also added A-Line No. 29000 Type A stirrups, but didn’t modify the car’s finely-detailed interior. Detailing the ends was the most complicated part of the upgrade. Since the Detail Associates ends were not marked for grabs or the addition of other appliances, I had to first measure the ends for the application of all the required equipment. Most important was the installation of the .010″×.030″ batten strip required to hold the grab irons in place. Once installed, Wester- field No. 1198 straight 18″ grabs were added to the ends, except for the bot- tom grab where I used Westerfield No. 1197 18″ drop grabs. I also drilled and applied Detail


Associates nut-bolt-


washer castings at the appropriate lo- cations for each grab, including on the batten strip. The uncoupling device is a Detail Associates No. 6215, fixed to a Detail Associates No. 2206 eye-bolts mounted near the poling pocket. On the B-end I also added a brake gear housing and chain from the Tichy No. 3013 AB brake set, a Kadee No.


The kit’s end has been removed and a Detail Associates Improved Dreadnaught end has been fixed in place on the Accurail model (above left). It is a good fit and matches the prototype end very ac- curately. Note that the cast-on grab irons have also been removed.


RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN


Here (above right) is the B-end with the new aftermarket ends with wire details installed. An Accurail Protomate coupler and Accurail scale coupler box were used on this car. The new Precision Scale Company air brake hose mounting is prominent in this view.


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