AC 8331 at Steelton Yard in 2004. Chris vanderHeide photo.

One interesting variation on these cars was a series of 10 cars, AC 8330-8339 that were rebuilt in the early 1990s with side-discharge gates suitable for ballast service.*

You can see the marks on the side of the car where the modified slope sheets have been welded to the sides, so you can see how the inside of the car peaks in the middle.

This would certainly be a neat variation to model, and an interesting kitbash, although this is several years outside of my modeling time frame of 1985.

Has anyone reading this blog ever modeled a similar sort of ballast service rebuild?

*I’ve seen video however from the early-mid 1990s of a couple of these rebuilds mixed right in with other hoppers on the branch train to Wawa/Michipicoten. It seems they were still used in regular service when not used for ballast service.