Large Scale Central

Bachmann 22.5 rolling stock enhancements

Modeling Rolling stock
#1

Wanted to see what some of you would suggest;

I have a roster with Bachmann 22.5 boxcars, stock cars, reefers, flat cars, and a couple hoppers and tankers coming. My question is this;

What enhancements, upgrades, or changes can I make to give these kits/cars a little better look? A majority of them have been kits, and most have the Krylon red primer paint (boxcars and flats especially). I’ll be adding some basic block lettering decals, nothing fancy.

So what would some of you suggest as far as upgrading these cars/kits?

Michael

#2

First off all I did other than to lower the end platforms to conform with the roof line and shorten the coupler yokes was to paint, re-letter and weather the cars.

(http://lscdata.com/users/richard_smith/PhotoScenes/Lumpers06-Overhead-May22-05-Web.JPG)

(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/RichardSmith/PearceDray05-BoxcarConversation-Web.JPG)

However if you want to bring things closer to scale detail wise there are a number of Ozark parts to help. Body mounting the couplers, new brake staff and brake wheel, new grab irons and ladder rungs, new truss rods and turnbuckles and maybe some door hardware. Note that there will be a number of holes to fill where the older plastic rungs are fitted as they are oversize for robustness. Ozark also has cast covers for the axle ends on the Bachmann trucks as well. You could strip the cars of detail and re-sheath them with new siding to make them wider and more compatible with 1:20 scale to represent a shorter car than the regular 1:20 offerings of course. You might want to consider brass for the ladder rungs and grab irons though as the white metal ones from Ozark do bend easily when you pick the cars up. Personally I didn’t think the expense/reward to be worth it to upgrade the cars as they don’t look that bad after repainting & weathering.

#3

Metal wheels if they ain’t already got 'em. It’s real easy to tie up a small fortune in Ozark stuff, but air lines and brake shoes come to mind as a quick visible upgrade

#4

If you’re getting a fleet of them, I’d agree with Richard and just get them assembled and painted to get them in service. Then, you can pull them out one at a time to upgrade some of the detail parts, etc. The problem with doing a wholesale upgrade on the entire fleet at once is the amount of time it will actually take. To replace the grab irons, you’ll have to fill each of the holes, sand, then drill new ones for the new grabs, etc. Same for most of the other details. That’s okay for one or two cars at a time, but for a bunch, it gets tedious real fast as I discovered years ago when I acquired a fleet of Bachmann 3-bay hoppers I was going to “upgrade” to a more prototypical appearance. I got two of them done over three months. The rest never left the box and got sold off. Had I just put new couplers on, I would have had a nice fleet of “close enough” hoppers to carry me through, then I could have upgraded them slowly and not burnt out on the process.

Later,

K

#5

Agreed; I wasn’t thinking of upgrades or enhancements on all cars at once, just as time permits, so I wanted to see what some suggestions were to do some work on them.

#6

Get a box of colored chalks from Michaels Craft store ($10 for a nice color selection) and add some weathering as suggested. If you don’t like the results you wash the chalk off and start over. It will also give you some time with the cars and perhaps some other ideas, thoughts, or direction you want to go next.

#7

Make sure it’s real chalk and not the “oil based” crayonee like chalk. Been there. :frowning: :frowning:
Basically I just weathered mine with alcohol wash and leave them out all running season.

#8

One of the first things I do to mine are remove the trucks and give them a fine over spray of red primer and replace the larger wheels with the smaller b’mann metal wheels. I also paint the wheels with a combination of red primer and flat black. On some the end platforms get lowered flush with the roof and others I leave as is. Of course, while the trucks are off I’ll add a set of KaDee 820’s for couplers. Some cars get weathered heavily and some don’t get weathered at all. I use a combination of an airbrush and a regular paint brush.

(http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh58/rgseng/Operating%20session%20Fall%202010/fallops021.jpg)

On the flat cars I’ll sometimes overlay a wood deck over top the stock deck and replace the stakes with an H beam. The grab irons and brake wheel staffs I leave stock since they’re pretty robust and I’m pretty ham fisted…:wink: Like Kevin mentioned replacing that stuff can get tedious…

(http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh58/rgseng/Operating%20session%20Fall%202010/fallops027.jpg)

(http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh58/rgseng/Operating%20session%20Fall%202010/fallops026.jpg)

#9

Michael;
You might care to reverse the doors on the B’mann box car to a more standard practise. Most pikes had their door opening to the right. You might notice that there is a door stop cast on the sides, that would be in the proper place for the doors opening to the right.

#10

Richard, your comment - “You could strip the cars of detail and re-sheath them with new siding to make them wider and more compatible with 1:20 scale to represent a shorter car than the regular 1:20 offerings of course.”

This is an intriguing thought to me, especially for reefers. Your statement of adding sheathing to increase size sounds acheivable.

#11

Here’s one I did a few years ago.

(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TVRR207/TVRR207carmods.jpg)

(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TVRR207/TVRR207side2.jpg)

(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TVRR207/TVRR20711.jpg)

Later, K

#12
Ric Golding said:
Richard, your comment - "You could strip the cars of detail and re-sheath them with new siding to make them wider and more compatible with 1:20 scale to represent a shorter car than the regular 1:20 offerings of course."

This is an intriguing thought to me, especially for reefers. Your statement of adding sheathing to increase size sounds acheivable.


[b]I had thought of doing this at one time to begin converting to closer to 1:20 scale with available equipment. It is very doable as Kevin’s conversion shows. Also you wouldn’t necessarily have to increase the car’s height as an older shorter car would quite likely also be lower than a later longer car. Kevin’s is a non-revenue car with end doors and looks better with an appropriate height for 1:20 figures. Beautiful conversion by the way Kevin!

The controlling factor is the total cost of conversion including castings, etc. Unless you just want a shorter car(s) it might be almost as cheap to scratch build a more modern 30’ narrow gauge car or construct a whole new body on the frame for a shorter car.

I used the frame, trucks and floor from a Bachmann 1:22 box car as the basis for Caboose 01.[/b]

http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=12133

#13
Michael T said:
So what would some of you suggest as far as upgrading these cars/kits?

Michael


Boy did you open up a can of worms Michael! Seeing lots of great ideas for ya’ when your ready…no pushing… When will they be done?
:slight_smile:

#14

Well I have a couple of fires to put out first, but then some things should start calming down so I can get some work done.

#15
Quote:
... Kevin's is a non-revenue car with end doors .
Not in this case. This was called a "market car," and was most definitely a revenue car. When not being used as a regular box car, it was used as a "rolling farmers' market" of sorts, delivering agricultural products to communities along the line. If I'm remembering correctly, nearly all of the Tuscarora Valley's box cars were equipped with end doors and windows for that purpose. The East Broad Top also had a few early box cars similarly equipped.

Later,

K

#16
Kevin Strong said:
Quote:
... Kevin's is a non-revenue car with end doors .
Not in this case. This was called a "market car," and was most definitely a revenue car. When not being used as a regular box car, it was used as a "rolling farmers' market" of sorts, delivering agricultural products to communities along the line. If I'm remembering correctly, nearly all of the Tuscarora Valley's box cars were equipped with end doors and windows for that purpose. The East Broad Top also had a few early box cars similarly equipped.

Later,

K


Neat prototype Kevin. Thanks for the info. I’ve seen poultry cars where an attendant would ride in the car to feed, water and presumably sell the chickens sometimes enroute but not a car such as yours. I’ll have to see if I can find such a car used on the western roads. I really like that car. Maybe I can find one that peddled cranberries out here? :wink:

#17
Richard Smith said:
I've seen poultry cars where an attendant would ride in the car to feed, water and presumably sell the chickens sometimes enroute
HEY! That will be enough of that talk!
#18

An interesting thread which I either missed initially or glossed over. Whilst most posts have dealt with the ubiquitous boxcar and given a few useful, easy to achieve modifications, has anyone dealt with tank cars - particularly the cheaper Bachmann Big Hauler versions?

Would removal of truss rods and maybe lowering the tank (by removal of some of the flat bed) be an option which would still left the cars as appearing prototypical or at least plausible?

#19

Alan - A while back Ric Golding enhanced a Bachman tank to make it fit better with his 1:20 scale equipment. He widened and updated the deck. Not sure what else. He’ll probably chime in.

Several years ago, in collaboration with Bart, I began a bash that would mate a lengthened Bachman tank onto a scratch built flat to represent an early version of the EBT’s tank 102. I finished the flat and Bart did his magic lengthening the tank. When I went to match the two together I realized that I had decked the flat incorrectly. Rather then strip the deck of a pretty nice flat, I decided to start over on the tank car. No progress has been made since then. You can see the flat build details here http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=10358&p=3 - Unfortunately Bart deleted his photos of the tank and I haven’t posted any :frowning:

#20

Thanks for the comments Jon. Some of my 1:22.5 B/H stock, namely the EBT coal hoppers and some wooden boxcars sit reasonably well with my 1:29 Aristo stock - which is what I mostly have now. I did have a ghastly green Billboard reefer which I have repainted as the date on it suggested 1997…aaargh!

I recently was presented with an Aristo single dome tank car but it does not look well with the Big Hauler tank cars. So never the twain shall meet as they say. lol

Reading about the 1:1 railroads I gather that truss rodding was not permitted on some Classes of railroads after a certain date - except maybe the ng ones in Colorado.

Basically what I have considered was to upgrade these tank cars to a more modern time period - just prior to the demise of steam time.