Large Scale Central

20 ft boxcar in 20.3

Since my railroad is mountainous and curvy and requires mostly short line type cars, I decided to build
some 20ft in 20.3 scale boxcars, I am not into precise scaled or trying to make an exact replica of true prototypes.
IMHO most people watch models go by on a track and never pay alot of attention if the handles or queen post are made like the real ones.
They look for 2 seconds and coment “nice” and look al something else.
I would rather obtain 2 more cars, in my building time, as to have them look exactly like the real ones, when most obsevers dont know if they are modeled exactly, or looks like a boxcar going down the track. I dont do the airtank, or airlines for braking.
I am in for speed inorder to get a couple moe cars done.
I do own a laser so my parts are cut on a laser machine,

close up of the queen post, will not be as noticable after painting

body frame all assembled, I use titebond 3 glue and 3/8" headless pins from a Grex pinner

Ends are in place

I glue and nail a block in each corner, this add alot of strength to the box

Cool. looks like they are going to be real nice cars. And the laser cutter sure speeds things up from hand cutting the parts, or making them on a modeler’s table saw.

This picture shows a beam placed on top of the corner blocks, this really stengthens the edges giving a substace for the roof and wall connection.

I did not get a picture but I also fasten a beam in the center for the roof support, glued and pinned on the ends.

The center roof ridge board can be seen in the holes, the roof is glued and pinned to the side beams and ridge beams.

The center blocks for the roof walkboards and the the roof supports are cut out of one piece, glued and pinned in place

all the roof walk board supports are in place

The roof boards and the end walks are installed

a closer view of the underside

Dennis

As always nice work!

Looks great !

Nice job Dennis, you do wonderful work with that laser. Impressed as usual.

Devon

I appreciate your compliments.

A laser is only a tool, a tool can only perform as good as the operator knows how to make it perform.

I have been told,“if I had a laser I could build models like You”, well that is true for some people, some people can

design and draw things to fit together, most people can not. What you see here is over 10 years of cnc experience.

The laser run time for a model like this is around 20 minutes. The design time and fit time 10-15 hours. This is the

one of the reason why kits are costly.

Dennis

Dennis,

I have tried using sketch up and I cant make anything with it. I don’t know about other programs. I can appreciate the talent it takes to make your laser do its thing. You are a craftsman in every respect. For me it is harder to try and visualize how things would go together than just cutting them and fitting them by hand. So my hats off to you.

Devon

What type of pinner do you use?

I use the 22 gage headless Grex Pinner, I love it

Dennis

Dennis Rayon said:

Devon

What type of pinner do you use?

I use the 22 gage headless Grex Pinner, I love it

Dennis

Mine is a cheap central pneumatic from harbor freight. While I am not a huge fan harbor freight tools I asked for this for Christmas figuring it was inexpensive and would get me started. It takes the 23 gauge headless pins. Says 1/2 to 1" but I am shooting the Grex 3/8 pins just fine. So far no complaints it is doing the job just fine.

Nice, Dennis. We’ve called these kind of builds “Operational Quality” models. Looks close enough to a real boxcar, unless you’re going for 100/100 in a modeling contest. Great build!

Nicely done, Dennis! Your directions are clear enough so I could follow the procedure if I made one. Thanks.

Thanks for the compliments

Devon that is nice to know the CP nailers will use 3/8"

I use alot of 3/8"

Lou do you have a laser?

Dennis

I was wondering, what software do you do your designs in? Does a laser take vector files directly or do you have to generate tool paths or how does that work?

Martin

I draw/design in sketchup pro, I explode all the walls or parts export into DXF format.

I go into a CAD progam and prepare the parts for the laser.

A laser will read straight from a CAD file in dxf format.

We use the program EngraveLab that operates the laser. The laser is treated as a printer

a solid fill or like a box, that is rastered, that is where the laser removes the surface .

A printer adds on to the surface, a laser removes from the surface.

The Raster uses the color of black, can use other colors for different heat/speed settings

Then on a vector line, it is a red colored line.

Engravelab will take vector lines, of different colors, that can be set for different speeds and different

heat settings. Vector lines are .003, anything bigger than .003 will be rastered.

Coral draw program is widely used by laser machines.

Engravlab is a little more robust program, with lots a capabilities for pictures.

Hope this answers your questions, if not hit me again

Thanks Dennis

What is the era of 20 foot box cars? I’ve never seen one in real life and know little about them. Is this early railroading equipment? Was it used in Colorado Narrow Gauge more than other places?

Thanks, yes, that helps. Interesting. I appreciate all the posts you make, CNC is quite a learning curve, mostly on the design side. I’m finding my router will happily cut out junk as well as cool stuff :slight_smile:

Ric Golding said:

What is the era of 20 foot box cars? I’ve never seen one in real life and know little about them. Is this early railroading equipment? Was it used in Colorado Narrow Gauge more than other places?

Good question! I got out my Carter Bros info (McGregor’s “the Birth of California Narrow Gauge”) and White’s “The American Railroad Freight Car”. Anything with archbar trucks (instead of wooden frames) was at least 24’ long.