Large Scale Central

7/8ths scale freight door latches - Grrr....

Modeling Rolling stock
#1

I’m working on my stash of kits and trying to get this 7/8ths scale combine finished. It’s slow work, as it was originally a Twin Mountain kit by Carl Malone that Ozark took over, and the instructions are, shall we say, deficient. The parts added by Ozark aren’t wonderful. (I got an early one, so maybe they are now improved.)

My current problem is making the feight doors stay closed in a reasonably prototypical fashion. I’ll glue them if I have to, but I would rather not. Here’s the freight door end, and you can just see the crossbar holding the freight doors shut.

Unfortunately the kit didn’t include any hardware for the door other than hinges. I squashed some brass tube and bent it into a piece that would hold the crossbar.

The problem is that the bent brass pieces aren’t well glued to the doors as they aren’t big enough. This morning when I was sanding the roof I inadvertantly grabbed it by the doors and half the brass bits dropped off and are lost. I can make some more, but I wondered if anyone had any thoughts on an alternative way to keep the doors shut and yet be able to open them if I wanted. (P.S. I don’t have a machine ship - a Dremel in a stand is the extent of the power tools on my 4’ long bench!)

#2

Can you bend some thin brass to make a latch which springs up against the top of the door frame? Perhaps you could pin (or bolt) that securely to the top of the door so that closing the door pushes the latch past the door frame and holds with enough force to keep the door closed. I am thinking about the smokebox latches on accucraft models. You would need one for each door unless you put a strip along the joint between the two so that one door can hold the other closed.

#3

How about tiny (weak) magnets?

#4

Eric, Mark,

Thanks for the ideas. I was hoping for something a little more prototypical - this is a big beast and already has proper hinges on the doors.

One thing occurred to me in the elevator (don’t ask.) The bar is not as long as the door is tall, so the bar could be pivoted on one door center frame and drop into a brass piece on the other outer frame. Then I’d only need one ‘hook’ for it to rest in. I have some tiny 1mm screws and bolts which might do the job.

(The ugly glue residue is ‘original’ Gorilla Glue. I hoped it might hold the hooks in place.)

#5

Pete,

Jumping to my mind is a piece of piano wire bent at 90 and then drill the door most of the way through and then glue in the wire. One each on the doors and one each at wither side on the frame.

#6

a piece of piano wire bent at 90

Devon, I think that’s more-or-less what my bent brass hooks are for. The issue is getting 8 of them identical and in the right place! The piano wire would certainly be more resistant to damage though.

#7

How about two nails or escucheon pins, one in each door, near where a door knob should be, glued into a pre drilled hole. Now a bent wire hook between the two to hold the doors closed.

#8

Tubing, a nail and wire in an L shape. Above the tubing goes the nail, turned one way and the wire drops into a hole on the deck, lifted and turned 180 degrees and the bent part rests on the nail, above the hole.

Bobs yer Uncle!

#9

Bobs yer Uncle!

And Charlie’s yer Aunt. . . Good idea John, but unfortunately this latch is inside the freight compartment and only accessible through the back door. I don’t think my thick fingers would be able to deal with such a neat little device.

What I ended up with was a variation of my original crossbar. I have some small screws, and some tiny screws. I didn’t look forward to drilling the 8 brass ‘hooks’ for the tiny screw, but just 2 of them were needed once the bar was on a pivot. The tiny screw and some CA give it a bit more strength that the original.

#10

And it’s done.

I sprayed the roof grey for a change - it is layered with regular 2" blue painters tape. And there are one or two construction “mistakes” which I decided not to correct.

Looks quite good with my 7/8ths Chaloner with his driver.

As I have exactly those 2 pieces of 7/8ths stuff, it is probably going to be sold to make room for the next kit. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

#11

Nice work Pete. I’ve used the masking tape roof idea too, and just recently was wondering if the adhesive is going to dry out and fail like masking tape does on old boxes. I’m hoping the paint seals it, and so far the model I made with it has survived in live steam service (gets wet and oily) for more than 5 years.