Any progress lately, Richard?
Bob,
I was side tracked by a lot of other tasks in addition to finishing up some of my other projects that made my shop unusable and I just started back to work on this project today. I have put the last coat of sealer on the brake cross beams and brakes and if my wife doesn’t find some more work, or another funeral for me to attend this week end, I will start the molds for the bolster and the brakes/side frames.
I’ll also start cutting stock for the coach now that I have my shop back.
Richard:
I’ve been meaning to write to you and introduce myself. The coach is an awsome project - would you consider posting a pdf of it online? I can scale it to 1:20.3 and print it to size. Would love to see it populated with your local figures!
Neil Erickson
Hilo
Niel, I’m sorry, but I don’t have a pdf editor and the above plans are scanned from a copy I received from Jeff Livingston in h.o. scale. I resided the image and printed it out. There are only 2 elevations; front and side, the rest of the details I am sketching out from photos I received from Jeff and Tom Rey and they are just pencil drawings on scratch paper. I have a mold for the finished side frames now. Here is an assembled set. All they need are the brake beams and angle irons.
"> Now that the trucks are all cast and ready for assembly and paint, I thought I would share some photos of the restored coach 64 which can be seen at the Honolulu Railway Museum in Waipahu. This photos were sent to me by Tom Rey and will come in handy in determining the size and shape of parts of the coach that aren’t included on 2 elevations of the plans I have.
"> Details like the throw bar as seen in the image of the observation deck and the closeup of the front deck above. I can see these on the plans but there are no exploded views or perspective views to determine what they really look like or how they are mounted.
"> This close up of the gate handle leaves nothing to the imagination. I should be able to make a good copy of it.
"> The shot of the inside is helpful in determining some of the detail, but I’m going to rely more on photos from Next Stop Honolulu and Sugar Trains Pictorial since they show how the inside of the coach looked in and around 1906 (the time I’m approximating)
Nice looking truck
I’ll sure be interested in your techniques for building that railing.
I would like to know too Bruce. I considered your method, which is fine except for the little filigrees at the top of the posts and the center piece.
I thought of casting them in white metal, but epoxying them to the rest of the stuff seems kind of weak.
I could cast them in Brass, but lack the experience casting brass. I’ve done lost wax castings in silver and gold, but the filigrees and that little fluer de lee motif in the center piece are too thin for that technique.
I would welcome any suggestions as I am not having a fun time trying to come up with something on my own 
Back in metal shop in high school, we made some stuff out of curved tin. Basically, put two nails into a piece of wood a certain distance apart. Twist two winds around one nail CW, then around the other nail CCW. The springiness of the metal turned them into lilttle bits like you show there. I bet you could whip out a bunch of these out of 020 wire and solder them together pretty quick.
Bob,
I will probably use that technique for the prototype, but as I am making at least 2 of these coaches, I want to be able to create multiples from the prototype. Also, the filigree looks like a casted piece already and I’ll bet that fluer de lee is also casted.
I finished casting the side frames today and cleaned them up and started attaching the springs and that bottom rods. I also drilled out the top beam where they will attach to the bolsters. I have five sets of 2 trucks altogether.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/rkapuaala/coach64/wheelsnsideframes.jpg)
I just got my Sierra Valley Wheels from Ozark Miniatures, I put them in the image above so you can see the difference between those and the bachmanns. I’m very impressed with the look and how well balance and aligned they are. You can detect a slight wobble on the Bachmanns, but none on the Sierra Valley, and that smaller flange really makes them look prototypical.
Richard Kapuaala said:
"> Now that the trucks are all cast and ready for assembly and paint, I thought I would share some photos of the restored coach 64 which can be seen at the Honolulu Railway Museum in Waipahu. This photos were sent to me by Tom Rey and will come in handy in determining the size and shape of parts of the coach that aren’t included on 2 elevations of the plans I have.
"> Details like the throw bar as seen in the image of the observation deck and the closeup of the front deck above. I can see these on the plans but there are no exploded views or perspective views to determine what they really look like or how they are mounted.
"> This close up of the gate handle leaves nothing to the imagination. I should be able to make a good copy of it.
"> The shot of the inside is helpful in determining some of the detail, but I’m going to rely more on photos from Next Stop Honolulu and Sugar Trains Pictorial since they show how the inside of the coach looked in and around 1906 (the time I’m approximating)
If you give me a couple dimensions I could draw the guardrail in cad to print out to scale (1:20.3) for etching. Let me know. Neil
Neil,
Thanks, but I am not going to etch those rails, I would loose too much detail on the fluer de lee center piece, and I want to fabricate the rest.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/rkapuaala/coach64/sketchMullions.jpg)
After much head scratching this morning, I decided to make some shop sketches to help me with milling up the lumber for the windows. The image above shows details for the mullions and the sills. Both are going to be fabricated from a single pieces of wood, starting out with 7/32 x 1/4 inch stock for the mullions, and 1/8 x 21/64 inch stock for the sill. This time I am resolved to doing the windows as a single unit that will be installed into rough openings on the coach. The reason for this, is I want the windows (at least the bottom window) to slide open and close. The cut notes for the mullions is just some notation so I don’t go off and forget what direction to make the cuts in. Stupid, I know, but it happens to me sometimes. The 1/32x1/16 dado is for the bottom sash to glide in. There is a 1/64x1/64 lip in the front for the top piece of sash which will be fixed in place. The mullions will mortise into the sill and the header, both on a straight plane. I’m half way thinking I should modify one of my old straight flush trim router bits so I can cut the profile for the mullions in one pass, but all I have is carbide tip bits. I’ve cut special cutter blades for shapers before, but I have never modified and existing router bit. Anyone have any tips on doing this safely? Or if it is at all possible to do it safely with carbide edged bits?
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/rkapuaala/coach64/first_2_sides.jpg)
Finished the first 2 of 6 sides today for 3 coach 64s. I decided to take a break to share this with everyone because it is a deviation from my prior building process. For the null coach, I followed the simple joinery technique described by the plans that came with the kit I modified. I assembled the body walls first, and rounded off the corners with a scraper and some sand paper.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/rkapuaala/coach64/first_2_sides_close.jpg)
This time I used a 1/4" quarter round bit in my trim router, and cut little tendons for the outside walls to fit on as seen in the image above. I also applied the paneling ahead of the time. In the next step I will install the inner paneling and follow the same process for the ends. As you can see I have a rough opening for the windows. I have milled up the stock for the mullions, sill and headers, and will assemble them after I finish the walls.
Richard Kapuaala said:I have a straight bit where the carbide cutters slot into channels milled into the bit. It is possible to get those cutters out, but how to get them back in again so they cut effectively after the mods you'll need to make to get the curve stumps me.
I'm half way thinking I should modify one of my old straight flush trim router bits so I can cut the profile for the mullions in one pass, but all I have is carbide tip bits. I've cut special cutter blades for shapers before, but I have never modified and existing router bit. Anyone have any tips on doing this safely? Or if it is at all possible to do it safely with carbide edged bits?
Shapers have alan screws that tighten down on the cutter. The idea is that you register off the bottom of the cutter so the profiles must be the same. If your cutter doesn’t have set screws, they probably aren’t changeable.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/rkapuaala/coach64/window_assembly_3.jpg)
I finished designing, and cutting the window assemblies and assembled one to test fit it (above image)
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/rkapuaala/coach64/window_assembly_2.jpg)
The sill is made of white cedar while the mullions are rock maple. I choice maple for the mullions because I want the bottom sashes to move and it is strong and has tight grain. I chose white cedar for the sill, because I need to bevel it with a hand plane and white cedar is perfect for hand tooling and plenty strong.
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/rkapuaala/coach64/window_assembly_1.jpg)
Its a very tight fit, as you can see from this close up. When I used to do finish work professionally I shot for tolerances of no greater than 1/32 of an inch. For cabinets 1/64. If you scale those to 1:20.3 your looking at .00153 and .000768. so the window assembly is a piston fit in the rough opening. That can be very hazardous to pieces with thin stock, especially since I can’t put the header on the window assembly because I need to leave the top accessible so the bottom sash can be slid in. This is sort of an engineering sacrifice because I am going to use the letter board and the internal top paneling as pseudo headers leaving a nice slot for the bottom sashes. The top sash is fixed and should provide additional shear strength. I know what you are probably thinking (cause I thought the same thing) why not slide the sash in and then install the top header; that would be good, but I am planing on making the roof removable, so I can have access to the interior for taking photos and putting people and furniture in later. I’m going to need all the space between the letter board and interior top paneling for a nice thick top plate for the ceiling joices to mortise into.
That’s some serious engineering Richard. It looks great so far!
Wow, and I think I’m cool when I glue up 4 walls to a boxcar. Great work!
Wow, that’s impressive – and a little scary trying to imagine doing that for every window!