Well I’ll wait and see if there are plans. The National Capitol Trolley Museum apparently did an article about #26 many years ago, including someone’s memory of riding in the thing–I’ll call them later in the week and see what they have. If I can find a plan, maybe it’s a go
How hard can it be? (LOL)
the rings for the windows could be a slice of plastic off a PVC pipe…
Just a thought…
The problem with slicing a ring is that it’s hard (for me) to keep it even. Perhaps a band saw would be the appropriate tool. I also like Bob’s idea - just cut the hole as big as the O.D. and there you go.
Mike - the trick on anything like this is to break it up into easy to do parts. It also helps if you’re not doing a totally accurate model. Sometimes it helps to NOT have the actual drawings. When I did my motorcar, I didn’t have any drawings or accurate measurements of the prototype. My plans were based on how much of the Bachmann Rail Truck I had to keep. After that, it was cardboard mockups to see how it might look.
My advice is to keep it simple. 
The best book I have says it was 37 feet long and had Wason 25 trucks, and was built from a boxcar body
I’m thinking a USA trains reefer car might be just the ticket to start
Dammit! now I’m looking on ebay for “reefer” in G scale
There’s a bachmann reefer with a buy it now of 25 bucks…
And I’ve got a big pile of page proofs to read
But it doesn’t take long to buy it now! I think they’re about the same size as the USA reefer.
What’s your thoughts for the power trucks?
If you ask me, the sideframes on the hartman motor blocks look to be an exact match for the trucks on the pictures of #26…
but hey, I am old and need glasses…
hehehe
I was thinking of getting two aristo FA1 blocks, as in Bruce’s post, but the hartland line maintenance truck is just about perfect. Twice as much as two aristo blocks though–wholesale trains has the hartland at $155. Need to think about it
I have a Bachman boxcar from abig hauler set, I culd cut that up…
Bruce I’d want to go battery, so I’d have something to run at layouts that have gone over to the dark side
Also thank you all very much for the suggestions and encouragment–this is fun!
The key on the power MIGHT be the size of the wheel. I’m not sure the size of either, but I would think that you wouldn’t want a giant wheel.
Fun it is. To me, half the fun is in the planning; trying to figure out the best piece to use; or suddenly finding that you have something that would fit right in.
It’s also fun spending someone else’s money… and watching someone’s project come together…
I have a USA Reffer (Green REA) that I plan to remove from our inventory…but haven’t listed anywhere for sale?
cale
Interesting thread, and certainly puts me in mind to build something!
Well this is interesting–there are some plans. Herbert Harwood, who wrote a very good history of the W&OD, posted this: “…scale drawings of motor 26. The original drawings were done by David J. Williams and appeared in the September 1959 issue of the “Headway Recorder,” which at that time was the monthly newsletter of the Washington Division of the Electric Railroaders’ Association. The original drawings were done to “O” scale (1/4-inch), but showed no measurements. I don’t know whether Williams actually measured the motor or scaled his drawings from photos, but I did do my own measuring while 26 sat unloved at Bluemont Jct. in 1946, and I’ve penned these in on the Williams drawing. For some reason, I apparently didn’t measure the width, but I think you can use a standard boxcar width for that.” Cool eh? Here’s the drawings:
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/lownote/_forumfiles/d6e8.jpg)
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/lownote/_forumfiles/d5af.jpg)
Thank you, Mr Harwood! The wheels are too big on the drawing, and it looks a little short to me, from the photo. Harwood’s book gives the length at 37, but the plan gives the length at 34.5. I think maybe “who cares” is the right response Ok, so I’m going to do it. I think I need a suitable sized reefer or boxcar, and either two aristo FA1 motor blocks or that hartland line car. The hartland car looks like a better match–maybe hartland will sell me the power block/sideframes? Battery power Apparently there was basically nothing in the interior but the motor. They may have carried some freight, maybe milk cans. May have to just make it up. I may put a diesel engine in there to explain why it will never run from overhead wires
A diesel-electric would work. Looks like the thing could have gone either way.
I doubt if there was a motor in there if it ran off an overhead wire. Maybe some electrical panels that changed the AC on the wire to DC to run the motors, but that’s just a guess.
I sent Mr Harwood an email asking what was inside the thing. It has a small smokestack or vent in the roof, could be for a motor. It’s not on the plans but it’s in some pictures I also heard from the daughter of a man named Joseph Weyraugh, who worked for the power company that supplied the W&OD. She sent me these photos from his estate. He was also a model railroader and had plans to model the W&OD One of the great things about this is I’m learning a lot of local history. The W&OD was always a marginal operation except in WWII, when it switched to diesel and made big profits. There are some nice pictures of #26 hauling horses to Ft. Meyer. Its last job was hauling materials for the construction of Dulles airport
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/lownote/_forumfiles/side.jpeg)
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/lownote/_forumfiles/26end.jpeg)
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/lownote/_forumfiles/engineer.jpeg)
I especially like the last one, of the engineer. Ms Weyraugh told me that the window slid down into the frame, which explains why one window has a little “eyebrow” over it.
Whoa–I didn’t realize those images were so big
What is the little dingus on the top? Just over the right side “26” in the first image?"
To the left on the middle image you can see a sign for “cherry smash,” a local soda company that operated near the W&OD yard
If you really wanted to find the length, you could count 3" boards.
Neat to have the big detailed pictures. I may have to build this one myself
I was noticing that thing on the roof, too. Don’t recognize it as anything familiar. That’s another part of the fun in a project like this. Researching the local history. They have a rail motor over at the Strassburg RR that used to run on a line from Oxford, Pa to Quarryville Pa. It was called the Lancaster, Oxford & Southern. In local parlance, the Little, Old & Slow…when I first started working around here I could see parts of the old roadbed in places. My curiosity got the better of me and I finally came accross some articles published about the old LO&S. Seems this certain rail car was built in one of the RR workers garage for passenger service and too keep the mail contract.
(http://d_cathell.tripod.com/stra15.jpg)
Bruce Chandler said:
Wow, that interurban is almost twice as much as the line car.I’d go with the line car and build a new frame; the trucks just seem a bit too close to each other. I might just leave the trucks as is, or you could add a little strip on each end to make them appear longer.
And now a floor plan–Mr. Harwood, who was actually in the thing in 1946, made a crude sketch of the floor plan
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/lownote/_forumfiles/floorplan.jpg)
A coal stove, controls at each end, and some “tanks” under a shelf. He says he can’t remember what they were or how they were oriented. He also says there was a sandbox on each platform Anyone know if hartland will sell me the motor block/sideframe for that line car? They are only open tuesdays and thursdays
