http://www.ozarkminiatures.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=324
Ken Brunt said:
http://www.ozarkminiatures.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=324
Ken thanks for posting those. I have seen both of them and that is what I am basically thinking as well. But I have some issues. First, that ratchet mount I see how it is located on a flat or a caboose there is a flat surface. The roof is sloped. So I am thinking I need a bracket to mount that to. I am just trying to understand how that would take place on the car in my picture but a little bracket would work and look like it is meant to be. I like the brackets and likely will either buy those exact ones or fab up my own. In that picture it does answer one question I had that I didn’t notice before. the rod passes through the lower bracket so that will work just fine.
I basically think you caused me to think through my own problem.
Devon,
Here’s a couple of diagrams for you. First is the Ozark drawing from their “K brake kit”, which includes all the goodies you need to add brake gear to a freight. (The original is a larger scan - pm me if you want a copy.)
The other is a close-up portion of a drawing of a NYC boxcar from one of my books. It shows the ratchet and pawl on the roof of the car, on a little bracket, as you suspected:
Odd that the car doesn’t have a platform.
David Maynard said:
Odd that the car doesn’t have a platform.
Every picture I have of the prototype box car has this same style box car, little to no variation except in the ladder. They had to be a mass purchase and there is not any sort of platform what so ever on any of them. Not on the end nor heading to the side. They climbed up the side onto the roof and then to the walk. Strange I thought as well.
Pete thank you for the drawing that answer the whole thing for me. I can proceed now. Those drawings are fine for what i need them for.
An update. The roof walk on the one box car is done. also I painted it with another coat so all the details so far are painted.
I also have my metal and mold making kit now. I am making the brake wheel detail (wheel, brackets, and ratchet) blanks. I have already made a coupler pocket blank and molded it. I will cast these in resin. I also made a blank for wood bolster arch bar truck side frame.
I made a mold and cast one in a low melt metal tat is 40% Bismuth and 60% tin. I was warned by Dave Taylor that the low melt metals might be brittle (I also bought some pewter just in case) I figured if nothing else I could cast them and use them as a blank for a high temp mold for the pewter. But I have to say I think they will be just fine I can’t break it as hard as I try. And at about 200-300 degree melting point I can use regular RTV molds. I will likely use the Pewter also since I have it but sparingly so I don’t wreck molds. Below is the second pour on the first mold. I forgot mold release or anything on the first attempt and it was not a good pour. Then I remembered Dave T said he powdered his with talc. I don’t have talc but I have medicated Gold Bond foot powder and the second attempt poured nice.
I will drill out the axle bearing holes. Also this will be a two part bolster if it works out. I am shooting for this look
Now the only thing I don’t like is the springs. The don’t look good. So I am thinking about carving them out of the mold and just leaving a pocket for them and then making some wire ones and gluing them into place. The side frame weighs in at 1.5 ounces
Well that’s all I got
Oh I forgot to mention that the truck side frame started out as a bachmann ten wheeler tender truck. Its modified just a touch.
Devon, not to rain on your parade or anything, but running boards (roof walks) were quite often unpainted, or painted with some kind of slip resistant stuff. To paint them with the same paint the car was painted with would make them darn slick in the rain.
Other then that, its looking good.
Nice Job casting those side frames! They look great. If you just removed everything in the center (beam detail too) you could then make beams as in your example photo with real springs between. Instead of just gluing springs into a rigid truck, you have a working sprung truck. The correct size pin head inserted in the beam end would hold the spring. (spring would sit over it) or the bracket you fab that has the tangs that slide up and down the truck frame could have a spring pocket molded in.
Love all the improve on detail parts, right down to your gold bond mold release! Top notch modeling.
David Maynard said:
Devon, not to rain on your parade or anything, but running boards (roof walks) were quite often unpainted, or painted with some kind of slip resistant stuff. To paint them with the same paint the car was painted with would make them darn slick in the rain.
Other then that, its looking good.
By all means let the rain pour(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif). I hadn’t thought about that. I appreciate the “catch”. It certainly is not to late to fix it. One thing I have wanted to try and use is wet dry sand paper for a none slip surface or roofing. Would that be an appropriate look for this period?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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).
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.
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