Large Scale Central

Box Car?Flat Car Build

Modeling Rolling stock
#53

As I have said Dave T has warned against low temp melt metals before and has cautioned me yet again. Even though I don’t mind experimenting and going against the grain on some things, I also believe it is an easier path to learn from the wisdom of experience instead of making the same mistakes as other to arrive at conclusions they have already made. I have the pewter so I will cast the final trucks in pewter. I will use the low melt to cast my experiments until I get a pattern I like. The regular RTV is way cheaper than the high temp so the two are a good combination until I come up with a final product I like. The beauty of the low temp metal for this is that I don’t waste resin with each attempt or waste expensive high temp mold material . I can simply recycle the unwanted truck frames.

Randy,

I have been and am still very tempted to tackle fully functional trucks. For one they look better in my opinion. I know there is ton of debate out there about the necessity of it, but that aside I think it provides for finer detail. At one point I wanted to make real arch bar trucks from brass bar stock and real bolts ect. This is still in the back of my mind.

However, I don’t believe a fully equalized truck is needed. And for making a bunch of trucks for freight equipment I am content with casting nice looking solid trucks. I believe i can make them better looking than the first attempt. Hollowing out the entire center isn’t possible at this point in the design because of how the bolsters will be attached. Also a key factor in all of this is to make the truck heavy. So I am inclined to add metl not remove it.

Thanks for the input and rest assured a much more detailed truck is still in the works for the tender.

#54

David Maynard said:

Devon I am not sure. I just weather my running bards with some India ink and alcohol, so they look like aged, unpainted wood. But then my chosen railroad went into receivership after Milton B. Hays ripped off is own railroad and was tossed out by the board of directors. So cheap is the word around here. If your railroad has more money to invest, then maybe they would have come up with a non slip coating of some sort. I am not sure what would have been used in that era.

Well cheap was the word of the day. This guy ran the RR into the ground before turning it over to NP. So unpainted weathered wood would be more appropriate. That settles that, unpainted weathered walks it is.

#55

Government Regs Mandated the roof walks not to be painted, and the RRs were glad to not have to spent the $s, Regs also specified the size. I don’t know when these rules were put into force, as 1870s RR were pretty much on their own, and at that time they may well have been painting the walks, which is why the Gov. mandated the no paint, for safety, laws. I’ll try to pin down the date, I think it was in the 1890s though.

#56

I’ve heard that argument through the years… but I’ve never been able to prove it by pictures… Even in the pic below all walks appear to match their roofs…

How do they grow wood in all those colors?

Were they stained to preserve the wood?

I can see crews with hob nail boots roughing up the surface and not reporting that to supervisors… but…

John

#57

Devon Sinsley said:

So I got some more work done on the box car. I made some truss rod ends out of pop rivets with the nail removed and glued on a square of styrene and a little bit of wire.

Starting to look like a box car. Or at least i think it is. While buying some nice fancy detail parts would look better I get satisfaction from the fabricated bits. Stretches the creativity.

Your scratch built detail parts are very impressive. I especially like the Truss Rod ends and the working door hardware.

#58

John, the cars in the background of your picture have metal roofs, and if you look close at the red boxcar with the 400 on it, I suspect that running board is the metal grate type stuff you see on more modern boxcars. If the other cars in the background, do have metal running boards, then of course they would be painted. Now the faded blue one in the foreground does have remnants of blue paint on the running boards, so they may have been painted.

I wonder if the rules about painting the running boards were rescinded, or no longer enforced, after automatic brakes were mandated on equipment. With automatic brakes, there is no longer a need to have brakeman running along the running boards of cars, clamping on the binders (setting the brakes).

#59

Daktah John said:

Devon Sinsley said:

Your scratch built detail parts are very impressive. I especially like the Truss Rod ends and the working door hardware.

That to me is the most fun. If people haven’t figured me out yet I like to scratch build (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif). I now I can buy parts that look more realistic but I can’t bring myself to do it. I look everywhere for what can be used. In HO I scratch built stuff but used commercial kits and detail parts. Bt large scale lets one run with the imagination so much more.

#60

Too uniform to be raw wood… to me.

I dunno, looks painted to me, not glossy, but … always liked this informative picture setting retainers for the down hill trip.

Notice how uniform all the cars are? Yeah mixed scales eh? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)Foolin!

John

#61

BTW the outside braced/interior sheathed cars were common hauling autos, less dings with smooth walls and no need to double sheath.

John

#62

OK so I repainted the walk. I used a grey paint and then washed it wit black india ink. The picture doesn’t show the in ink well. It is dingier than this shows. But I do like it better no matter what as it just gives things some contrast. But it made me decide to weather the whole thing. I wasn’t really happy with it and was going to do something so I took some sand paper to the whole thing and distressed it.

The only problem is the pins are shiny now. So will probably take a brown sharpie to them to give them a little rust. I also painted the metal parts with some rust. It has some age now. I poured two new truck side frames in pewter instead of the low melt. I am making a mold of the bolsters and all the brake wheel parts I made. Once they are done I can cast them am I might just have everything I need to get this car done.

#63

It certainly improves your model Devon and you now know it is true to prototype. I realized a while ago the need for correct surfaces on walkways so repainted all those which have wooden ones. I have not painted the metal type as found on Aristo cars.

#64

Devon…try just giving the ends of the pins a good soaking with vinegar. Whit distilled vinegar is the right stuff but whatever you have should do something. If the pins are steel, which I expect they are they would rist a bit. You can rinse with water when you are finished or just let it dry.

#65

Eric Schade said:

Devon…try just giving the ends of the pins a good soaking with vinegar. Whit distilled vinegar is the right stuff but whatever you have should do something. If the pins are steel, which I expect they are they would rist a bit. You can rinse with water when you are finished or just let it dry.

Hey that’s a good idea. I’ll try that and see what happens.

#66

here is a link to the trucks for these cars if you haven’t followed the other thread

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/23766/casting-parts-in-lead

#67

OK So the first box car is done. Over all I am happy with it. I had an issue with painting and decals so one spot which I don’t show the weathered wood doesn’t look right. but I am not fixing it. the other side which I do show I like. This has my cast trucks on it but with Bachmann plastic wheels for now until I buy my metal ones. The whole thing as it sits weighs 1# 11 oz.

Here is the brake details I made. made my own blanks and then made molds and cast them in resin. I used a Bachmann brake wheel and added a nut to the top and then the stem is brass rod. the rest is bits of styrene for the blanks.

Here is the final product.

Those Stan Cedarleaf decals sure look good. He does great work so happy I decided to go with him.

Well I will update as I get the rest done. I have one more plan box car, an “oil only” box car, a converted box car caboose, two regular flat cars, and finish the heavy weight flat car.

#68

Oh and a note on the coupler pockets. I realize these are out of scale big. There is a reason, they are extra wide to allow as much swing of the link as I can. With longer links and these wide pockets I am hoping to make them go comfortably around tight corners. being a body mounted coupler I wanted as much fudge factor as I could get. So hopefully they look good enough. They are also screwed in with some decent size screws to make sure they stay put under load.

#69

Nice looking car Devon. Well done.

#70

Nice. I like all your scratch built details.

#71

Devon brought his boxcar to our club meet today. Its even better in person. Wowza!

#72

Thanks Everyone. After taking it to the club meet I was assured by those checking it out that the “bad side” isn’t bad so I will leave it. Thanks everyone for the complements. They heavy weight flat is about half done so it will be next. I have a surprise for it that I will not let out of the bag until its done.