Body mounting intermountain 4750 covered hoppers

[SD452XR]

Has anyone body mounted an Intermountain 4750 Covered Hopper Grain Car? It looks like I am going to have to scratch build something to fill the gap so I have something to mount a coupler to.

Steve

[Ike the BN Freak]

I was hoping someone could develop a pad of some sort (shapeways, metal, resin, etc), and that way I could buy a hundred or so...

Nscalekits said he might be interested in it and do it in pewter if there was enough interest.  But I think the biggest issue would be getting it all right so you can glue it in and not worry about to much modification to the car or piece.

[SD452XR]

I came up was a solution last night with just a simple piece of styrene. Will post some pics in a few days.

[kalbert]

That's how I did some old PM cars. Stuck a strip of styrene between the bolster and end frame to screw the coupler box to. Here's one roughed in:

[SD452XR]

That's pretty much what I did. I used thinner styrene however. When acc'd in, its a lot stronger than I thought it would be. I thing I did do was order some shorter 00-90 screws so they do poke out so bad.
Steve

[johnt48618]

I also mount M/T 1015's on my covered hoppers using a thin piece of styrene (0.060") and ACC. I drill/tap a hole into a scrap piece of styrene of the same thickness and then screw a coupler to the scrap piece. Then I clip off as much of the screw's end as possible and file the screw end flush with the styrene. Presto - a screw the exact length needed that will not protrude above the top of the styrene piece mounted on the C/H. I do test fit the coupler to the car beforehand using a small dot of Hob-E-Tac to ensure the coupler will be at the correct height when mounted. If necessary, I'll add a styrene shim of the necessary thickness to both the piece mounted on the car and the scrap piece. 

[Peter Amling]

It's been quite a long time since this thread was posted, but it seems like a solution is still needed.

Has anyone come up with a better/easier/more convenient solution than a small piece of styrene? This is a very popular model of car, and I'd imagine there's a fair amount of pent up demand for a solution. Something like what Trainworx did a few years ago for the Atlas 90/100 coal hoppers. Does anyone have any contacts to put in a part request?

I'd likely want to do a tank car solution as well.

And just to make this more complicated, I wouldn't be opposed to a solution that supports the TSC as well. 

[ai5629]

On Shapeways, Keystone Details makes a body mount adapter that it says is for the IM 4750 cars.  See link below.  I bought some of these last year, but have yet to try them.  Too many projects ahead of them in the cue.  Thanks.

Jeff

https://www.shapeways.com/product/ZSMECK8AP/30x-body-mount-adapter-tool-4750?optionId=58939357

[Peter Amling]

Thanks Jeff, for pointing me in the right direction. I'll give these a shot.

[dmidkiff]

Precision Masters actually made a body mount coupler pad for these cars. I do not have any IM cars to verify, but they should fit well, if not perfectly. The owner of PM also told me that the cars ride at the correct height and the step in the end cage is to accomodate a truck or body mount coupler with the pad to keep everything at the correct level. I have hundreds of these at home and can likely get more, although I do not know how many total he has stashed away. 

See this thread in the Trading Post.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=46202.msg603430#msg603430



Doug

[cbroughton67]

I made some coupler mounting pads for mine by layering styrene strips together - 0.010" on the bottom and 0.020" styrene strip on the top. I notched the back part to fit around the protrusion on the bolster, and left a lip so the 0.020" part butts against the inside-end of the car for support, and the 0.010" piece extends under the end of the car. I made them in batches, painted them, drilled the holes for the screws, and glued them in-place with CA. They've worked great, and I did all of my 30+ 4750's in this fashion.


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[SD452XR]

That’s pretty much what I did with my fleet. Just some styrene, CA, and a screw for the coupler. 

I made some coupler mounting pads for mine by layering styrene strips together - 0.010" on the bottom and 0.020" styrene strip on the top. I notched the back part to fit around the protrusion on the bolster, and left a lip so the 0.020" part butts against the inside-end of the car for support, and the 0.010" piece extends under the end of the car. I made them in batches, painted them, drilled the holes for the screws, and glued them in-place with CA. They've worked great, and I did all of my 30+ 4750's in this fashion.


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