Jon,
Escutheon pins will work just fine…
Unless you’re into EXTREME closeups…
At normal viewing, the escutheon pins really are NOT noticeable and they hold the step VERY nicely…
When I added stirrups on my car mover, I used brass rod and rounded the ends to simulate rivets, I drilled slightly undersized for a tight press fit. I had used I beam and had a small foot print between the flanges.
I found enough Ozark #0030 hex nut and bolt in my parts bin to do the job. Now to decide if I build up a jig (oh where is that picture of yours Bruce?) or just bend 'em by hand. I only need 4.
Google Advanced Search to the rescue. Once I found that Bruce called them Strap Steps finding the link to his article was easy. Y’all can find it here https://www.largescalecentral.com/articles/113/Making-Strap-Steps
Yeah, strap, stirrup, whatever, eh?
Well, inspired by your frustration, I have now added my articles to my Master Index. (The articles are towards the bottom).
I figured since I was only going to make 4 I probably didn’t need the jig. Well, in retrospect the jig would have helped with consistency. I spent way more time than I should have, but finally have 4 steps that are acceptable and fit the molded spot on the Bachmann car. I still need to drill for the nut bolt casting and decide on a paint color. I might go with black and then detail the rest of the hardware on the car in black similar to EBT’s extant wood box car.
Here are some pics just for fun…
Hey, that works! Black hardware and unpainted wood roofwalk would be nice accents to car.
Looks mighty fine! Well done.
I think I am done until Monday evening when I can paint inside at work. I tried making a drilling jig, but it didn’t do to well. I ended up only using it to mark the hole locations. Once the steps were all drilled I drilled mating holes in the car. I will probably use E6000 to attach them permanently once painted.
In the mean time I weeded a set of vinyl logos and got them applied along with the car number.
Progress pics…
By experimentation with several Red Oxide primers available at Lowes I found that Krylon Automotive Rusty Metal Primer is nearly a perfect color match for Bachmann’s red oxide. The sheen is different (Bachmann is satin, primer is flat) but it’s close enough. Armed with this I painted the steps and NB castings with the Krylon primer at work last week. I was able to get them installed last night completing repairs to this car. C.V.S.Ry. #182 was placed into service today…
That makes a nice wrap-up to the job. Eh, just declare the sheen difference the result of there being more dust on the stirrups than on the car sides because the steps are down in the dust kicked up by the train’s movement.
There are satin clear coats in spray cans should that ever bug you too much.
The end bends should be in opposite directions, but that’s a rivet counter’s detail.(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
John Caughey said:
There are satin clear coats in spray cans should that ever bug you too much.
The end bends should be in opposite directions, but that’s a rivet counter’s detail.(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Perhaps he forgot already
http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/20575/ebt-swapping-trucks
John Caughey said:
The end bends should be in opposite directions, but that’s a rivet counter’s detail.(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Yes, I figured that out after I had them made. I decided that it’s not worth the waste to make them over again. At least one of them is correct (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)
I had the same problem with a Murphy roof boxcar. The first run of these had a problem with the alloy mixture of the white metal meaning that it was too brittle. Unfortunately the same metal was used on the trucks so if you are unlucky they may, like mine , break apart while in service. Luckily I got a pair of replacement trucks and some steps from Bachmann only having to pay for the shipping. Many thanks to Stan Ames for putting me in touch with the right person at Bachmann.
I had heard this. I banged about the trucks to check for brittle and they seem OK. Fingers crossed!!!
Nice work, Jon!
Even with the white metal issues, these are nice cars. When I saw RLD had a great $65 price on them at ECLSTS I picked up another one. It came out of the box intact, but only took minimal handling to snap off one step. I’ll try and get by with using one taken off car #1, but there is a small issue with that: Color. I didn’t realize that Bachman made the Data Only in two different colors. New one; Oxide Brown on left and older one; Oxide Red on the right…
Now I need to find a “browner” primer to pain the one step. Supposedly Bachman has the replacement rucks in stock so I am going to ask for two pairs to replace these that the experts say will fail eventually.
Jon thanks for bring this backup I to bought 2 box cars and lost a step.
cheers Richard