Improving Walthers Mainline 54' PS 4427 CF Covered Hopper

 A few years ago, I acquired a few Walthers Mainline covered hoppers for a good price. Though it was a bargain, it was also an ill-advised purchase since I had a lot of trouble finding a use for them. It didn't help either their end cages were from 1960s-1970s quality with very thick grabirons. However, the paint job was crisp and generally accurate and they sat in my stash until a few days ago.

Removing grabirons with a pair of nippers

I still have a hard time find a purpose for them on the layout, except for a nice dark green Chicago & North Western car that was still in use back in the early 2000s at least.

New Tichy and wire grabirons primed in Tamiya Gray primer

It's not the first time I have to deal with lesser quality cars. Not that I hate them per se, but they do look silly when running with higher quality cars. Let's face it, mating a Walthers Mainline hopper to a top of the game Tangent one isn't particularly a winning formula. However, there is hope an here is what I did in less than 3 hours.

Phosphore bronze grabirons are easy to make and look great

Keep in my your friend when doing this kind of work is to use Tichy #3062 18" ladder rungs. They are perfect to replace grabirons on cars because you don't have to drill a gazillion minuscule holes through flimsy plastic members nor care about precise alignment. Sure, they have their limitation, but for covered hoppers, they can truly save you some sanity.

Modified VS original

Another big offender are the longer grabirons which must absolutely be replaced, well before you start wondering about the ladders. They can be easily replaced with phosphore bronze wire. In this case, I used 0.015" wire from Tichy.

Painted wire grabirons VS molded plastic ones

Finally, I replace the roof corner grabirons too, using Tichy parts and photoetched eyelets sold by Yarmouth Models.

End cage now look like a real steel car

Matching paint was a matter of mixing blue, yellow and a touch of black to get a similar dark green color. There is no need to mix a perfect match since heavy weathering will be applied, but trying your best to be close enough always pays in the long run.

The completed model ready for weathering

I won't claim this car is perfect because a thinner photoetched roofwalk would make it shine better. I could add cut levers (you know, that fancy detail that is the craze among prototype modellers) and other stuff like that, but I think I've reached the sweet spot. 3 hours is equivalent to a nice evening spend at the benchwork. No need to drag the project for longer.

The car now has a finer silhouette which match my higher end model and it makes a huge difference, one big enough that I want to keep the car on my layout. More detail work will be done in the future (decals and weathering), so stay tuned to see this car find a new lease on life.