Kitbash

IAIS 9719 started life as a Kadee PS-2 covered hopper in ATSF paint.

In order to avoid breaking the many very nice details, disassembly was my first step.  However, beyond removing the roofwalk and hatches, the rest of the process wasn't intuitive to me.  A call to Sam Clarke at Kadee led to Sam emailing exploded diagrams and disassembly instructions that were a great help.  In case anyone else would like to tackle a similar project, here's the info he shared:

There is a sequence of undoing some of the small parts and ends to allow the body to be separated from the chassis.

In step (1) carefully lift out the pegs at the ends of the roof walk that holds it to the ends. Lift out the top of the retainer valve next to the brake wheel. Lift out the end of the coupler lift bars, or uncoupling lever (part of the airline).

(2) Note the ends are a one piece mold with ladders and side grab bars attached to the frame work. The top and bottom are pressed into the top of the body and the underframe at the bottom. Carefully pry the top and bottoms outward untill you see how it really fits then carefully proceed with the removal of both ends, also the tops of the side ladders are pressed into the body.

(3) Once the ends are off you can separate the body and chassis.  When you remove the trucks the centerbeam will come off the inner chassis.

Following those instructions, things came apart easily...

...and the kitbash proceeded much more quickly.  Step 1 was to use styrene clippers to cut through the open roof hatches, slowly opening up sections of the roof to match the prototype.

My initial results are ugly, but the addition of C-channel to line the perimeter of the new opening will clean things up nicely.  I plan to have those in place Saturday, as well as having the hoppers cut away and replaced with M-K ballast gates I ordered from Shapeways designer Boxcar Models at https://www.shapeways.com/shops/boxcarmodels?section=HO+Ballast+gates&s=0 .  Here's an illustration of a set of those gates:

Stay tuned!  More to come Saturday, Lord willing.

Cool

Looking forward to watching this one develop!

gs malcolm

Looking forward

Progress

A customer issue kept me at work until 4:30 this morning and consumed a lot of our Saturday, so I didn't make as much progress on the 9719 as I'd hoped.  However, I also came to the realization that there wasn't going to be a lot to do. 

Step 2 after the roof was opened up was to add the bracing around that opening.  I used Evergreen C-channel on the sides and 0.010" styrene strips on the ends, as well as adding 0.010" gussets to each corner:

Step 3 was to remove the bottom portion of the hoppers:

My plan for Sunday is to cut new hopper bottoms from 0.015" styrene, attach those, and then attach the Morrison-Knudson ballast discharge gates to the styrene.  With that, all that'll remain will be the addition of a center bulkhead inside the car and grab irons to two corners of the roof, then sourcing Santa Fe (or rather "S___a Fe") decals for one side, plus accurate trucks.

Hi Joe,       I did not think

Hi Joe,

I did not think anyone made the ballast gates, thank you for sharing the info. Great project, I would like to make a small number of those for my pike.

Best, Scott

H34 Ballast Hoppers

Very cool Joe, I'm working on the same project can't wait to see your results. For an alternate source for the hopper doors check out Circus City Decals:

https://circusdecals.ecwid.com/Ballast-Door-conversion-kit-HO-scale-p49958497

Also, you're braver than I am... don't think I'd have the intestinal fortitude to cut up a Kadee hopper, I used some of the old roundhouse covered hoppers for my conversions.

Update

Scott, glad to help. 

Ben, thanks for that tip.  I think those Circus City gates are actually closer to my prototype (and cheaper!) than what I ordered from Shapeways. Still, I'm already this far down this path, so I'll stick with it.

Here are a few pics from my progress the last couple days:

Styrene patches for the hopper bottoms:

Center sill temporarily set in place to help with locating the ballast gates:

Ballast gates installed:

Hoppers completed, mated to center sill, and reinserted in the shell:

Added false bottom and center bulkhead with gussets:

Ready for new roof grabs, paint, decals (once I find them), trucks (once I find them), and weathering.                                                                                                                                                     

Very nice

Looking good Joe!

Another great looking build. How do you plan to paint it? Will it be a patch out or a complete paint job.Kevin

Vince and Kevin

Vince and Kevin - thank you both.

Kevin, I removed the Santa Fe heralds and reporting marks, and plan to just touch up paint on the new parts, add "S___a Fe" decals to one side and IAIS patches all around, and then weather.

Great thread

I really enjoy these ‘build along with me’ type posts. I need a ballast car or two and will follow this closely. Great job so far. Make sure you get a tetanus shot before you weather it to look like the prototype. 

Ballast hopper

WICKED GOOD!

sorry for shouting. I get excited when I see something so cool.

That's great! I'm also

That's great! I'm also planning to do some for POTB’s MOW train. I already built some ballast gates from sheet styrene, but now I think I'll look after the detail part ones. I didn't even search for them since I had no idea how they are called.

I'm going to use this as a guide for my cars!

Thank you

Thomas, thanks for your encouragement.  I never really thought about any other way to blog about my projects, mostly because I'm so slow, meaning I'd have very little to post if I waited for the finished model.   Also though, I've found it to be valuable to share as I go so I can make adjustments as I learn from you all.  Folks here and on the Proto-Layouts list have saved me from my own mistakes more than once.  At work we call that "agile" development - releasing code to customers in frequent bursts so you can course-correct sooner based on feedback.  However, given the pace at which I work, I don't think anyone would buy it if I tried to pass myself off as an "agile" modeler.

Rick and Jan, I really appreciate your feedback as well.  A lot of people here have mentioned wanting to build up their ballast hopper fleet, and the IAIS has some really cool second-/third-hand examples I'm really looking forward to building - including a couple ancient, tiny little cars I'll need to build from Funaro & Camerlengo resin kits.  I have a couple other projects I'd like to knock out first, but I'm hoping to get back to more ballast hoppers before the end of the year.

Neat project.

  Does the longitudinal  center piece stick up into the load area where it would show on empty cars?  Is it a weight?  .....DaveB

Reference Site

Hi Dave,

Here is a reference site with some great photos of these type of converted ballast hoppers. Now Joe is modeling an ex-ATSF hopper so I'm not sure what the interior of those hoppers are. However, I am well versed on PC/CR equipment those railroads converted a ton of these cars (no pun intended) mostly the H34 class and there is a great reference site for them: http://conrailphotos.thecrhs.org/ConrailEquipment/MOW/BallastCars

So in most there is no center piece dividing the bays. In fact if you go through the photos on some cars they added an exterior rib that they riveted in place and in some they did nothing, on some of the cars the welded a bar across the top of the car across the center to probably keep the side from bowing out. Point is that with MOW cars I don't think there is any "wrong" unless you are modeling a specific car and want to be 100% accurate on it's configuration.

Here is a photo of the open top of a car:

Notice the center rib on this car (some have it some don't):

Frame

Dave, are you referring to this piece?

If so, that does show on an empty car, as do the weights. That’s why I built the false bottom, to hide those gaps and support the load. 

Thanks Joe

Yeah, that's what I was looking at. I was wondering if it was left in and if it could be removed to model an empty car....DaveB

Empty car

I think it’d be fairly easy to cover the gaps in that frame, but the bigger problem would be replacing the weights somewhere other than in the hoppers. Personally, I like the looks of the ballast load anyway, and it’s easy to justify these cars moving around between multiple stops under load. 

MOW and Ballast trains

Done

Thanks to Dave North on the MFCL list, I was able to confirm the decals I needed for the "S___a Fe" lettering on the B-side - the smaller font in Microscale set #87-1264.  Ordered them Monday, got them Friday, and finished the car Saturday.

Here's a before image courtesy of Kadee:

...and some prototype and model comparison pics.  Yellow striping and "65 ton" markings were added after my era:

Prototype from June 20, 2005:

Erik Rasmussen prototype photo, July 19, 2019:

Before I started weathering, I decided to try to replicate the rusted out, fragmented appearance of the brace above the center bulkhead by carefully scribing and splitting the C-channel there. I like the way the ballast collected there on the prototype during loading, so that was fun to try to recreate.

Erik Rasmussen prototype photo:

 
Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until I was looking through the pics that I forgot to add new capacity data in the black patch next to the reporting marks, so that’ll be corrected shortly.

Wow!!

Joe that turned out fantastic. Your construction and paint work are spot on.  Neat subject for a model to begin with and you pulled it off well.    Now for a full ballast train of these?

steve

Steve

Thank you Steve! I really love beat up MOW equipment, so the IAIS is a good fit for me.

I think I have 5-6 more ballast cars on deck, but this is the only ex-ATSF that appeared on my prototype during the month I model. Lots of neat variety though.

Excellent Work

Well done Joe,Looks Fantastic! Kevin