Dave (@Dave_Meashey ) and Pete (@PeterT ) ,
Thanks to you both. I also perused a few hobby websites to see if there might be a hardware store equivalent of those track nails. If not, I think that this may be a case where ready-made solution is the right answer. I had been eyeballing Ozark for a while, so this is as good an excuse as any to try out some of their parts.
Eric
Craig, I have an extra one, if you can cover the shipping. PM me if you’re interested.
Update:
Grab bags of parts flowing from Ozark Miniatures, both for this project and another in the Tub-o-Trains! Thanks for the nudge, @PeterT !
Eric
Update:
Progress came to a halt as I engaged in this thing called “work.” Uggghhhh…But “work” does pay the bills, so what are you going to do about it?
I am still awaiting the bits from Ozark (pockets, brake wheels and pawls, stirrup steps, etc.) for this project as well as the last item in the Tub-o-Trains, a battered LGB U.S.-patterned box car. I figured that I should drive the crane tender as far as I can so it is a matter of installing the parts and finishing the painting. 2022 is rolling to a close, and I still have that box car and that pump house on my 2022 “to-do” list, the Fur Girls added another building to the maintenance list, and I’ve an electronics project to tend to as well.
I spent several hours today carefully shaping the bolsters. A car that will not roll well fails to meet the stringent standards of 1:24-ish PLAYMOBIL scale and, more importantly, is no fun. The whole process was iterative, as I slowly shaped the bolsters, pinned the trucks to the bolsters, ran the car on the track, marked the binding points, and repeated ad nauseum. The root cause of the issue was the non-standard sizes and angles these strips inherited from my efforts to create them from an otherwise perfectly nice pine board. Fortunately, there are now fewer for me to salvage, asX Legio commandeered some of the other strips to repair a catapult and the Fur Girls chomped the daylight out of yet more.
After shaping the bolsters, I grabbed Kid-zilla to seal the wood…
Afterwards, I selected beads to serve as turnbuckles and cut some brass tubing to line the trucks’ pivot point. I hope to mount my queen posts, cut the brass wire for the truss rods, and maybe even install the latter tomorrow. We’ll see. Kid-zilla wants to see if we can make handrails to replace the plastic ones that have been lost to time, so that is on the agenda, too, in the coming week, and we still have to craft that counterweight.
Updates as progress merits!
Have a Great Week!
Eric
Update:
Ozark shipped the bits! Maybe I need to get off my rear and buy that primer…
In actuality, I had Monday off, so the 1:24 gang and I took another crack at the crane tender.
The first order of business was to make new grabrails, as Kid-zilla insisted we do this. It is time I learned how to measure the stock grabrails, cut a bit of brass, and bend them to shape! A dab of CA glue got everything in place:
After waking up the dude sleeping it off on-shift, the 1:24 gang and I made the truss rods and turnbuckles the same way we did for the crane car, using a cylindrical bead as a core and covering it in heatshrink tubing. After drilling some tap holes, trimming down and installing some stainless steel cotter pins…
Somewhere in this process I managed to twist the “cap” onto my Dremel so tight, that no amount of work with 1:24 tools…
Next, I had to convert a pre-selected wooden block to a counterweight. After cutting styrene to clad the sides, I had a nice box.
Kid-zilla is pleased, and commented that “It is starting to look like a train car,” so all is well.
Updates as progress merits!
Eric
The easy way to make them alike is to make a jig. Cut a slot in a block of wood with a hole at the appropriate length, drop the end of the brass in the hole, bend it into the slot, and bend the end over the end of the block. (I’ll have to find a picture! Bruce made lots of them that way.)
Update:
Thanks as always, Pete ( @PeterT )!
The counterweight got its black paint and the gondola walls got their primer. Both need to dry thoroughly before I mount the former and paint the latter.
The bits arrived from Ozark. They are pretty cool, but I will need to locate very small screws or nails to mount the “stirrup” steps, and I have to figure out a way to secure the post pockets beyond just CA glue. The crane tender will lose a lot of fun value if using it comes with “Be careful! The pockets will fall off!” each time it comes off the ready track. There may be room to tap a small hole for an equally small screw.
All attempts to fix my Dremel, which I’ll need to tap the holes to mount the stirrup steps when I find those screws, were for naught. In fact, I just about wore the doo-dad that holds the collet in place smooth in my attempts to remove it. The top 3-4 speeds had stopped working months ago, so I used this as an excuse to upgrade to the next more powerful model. The thing also gets used for crafting, school projects, household repairs, etc. so it doesn’t count against the Triple O’s budget!
I know the hobby shop near my office has micro-screws for R/C aircraft. The issue will be getting there, as I will be on a backshift for a while. We may proceed and paint the chassis, mount the decking, and at least enjoy a flat car.
Have a Great Weekend!
Eric
Update:
Happy Labor Day!
Progress was in fits and starts due to this horrible thing…work. Beats having the bank foreclose, so nothing to do about that work thing…The following will read as those it happened over the weekend, but, in fact, it was a series of micro-sessions.
Kid-zilla and I cut, mounted…
… and weight tested the planks.
Henrietta did NOT enjoy the ride! We have since found our Humane Society pig is an expectant mother, so maybe she had morning sickness.
Later, I used a fine-tipped Sharpie to mark nails. He made the comment that it “looked just like the crane car,” which means I met the minimum design objective! This step is boring and repetitive, so Kid-zilla moved on to use the scraps from our planks to repair the walkways on the M&K Sugar Co.'s trestle.
I did mount the counterweight…
We think itis starting to look pretty good! Kid-zilla had set up an eZtec garage sale find ($5 for the set) and placed his crane set in the yards at Pu’uma’o.
I asked Kid-zilla to start filing the stakes on the gondola walls so that they would fit into the new pockets. Nope. Boring. I took it up in 5-minute increments, got fed up (He was right. Boring.), and used the finishing sander.
Clearly, I should have built everything then painted it. Live and learn. I am planning to tap some holes into the pockets and secure them with some HO track nails I found at my hobby shop (@Dave_Meashey thanks for telling me to look for these!), as I do not think the glue will hold over time. I thanked the hobby shop owner for carrying a diverse set of esoteric supplies that supported a wide variety of hobbies, letting here know that I appreciated the fact they didn’t only sell high end items, but also the little bits and parts that let us turn existing toys and models into something special. It made her day.
I should mention Oldest Son has also been busy on the lanai. I have been struggling to find an activity he would enjoy that would build some skills and maybe spark a professional interest. Enter Guillow’s…
Much like with the girls who’ve taken skills from the railroad to their own activities, I consider his willingness to try his hand at this a success. Maybe Kid-zilla will stick to the trains.
Updates as progress merits!
Eric
Awesome. Eric and kids!!! Always like to see the progress of your layout! Keep up the “work” and the fun still becomes more fun
Eric,
There is another as I feel his presence !
The true test will be an “initiative project,” where he plans and executes it himself!
With that thought in mind it sounds like 15’ sweeping curves will be needed on that sugar line. 
Uh, oh…did someone imply a Mikdao in the future?
Actually longer passenger cars but…
Rooster
you and the boys look like you had a rough night
Update:
Progress continued, and the crane tender is pretty much done.
I drilled tap holes through the various Ozark Products to mount them to the frame. I had a hard time balancing between drilling the holes shallow enough to let the HO track nails “bite” but not so shallow tapping them in resulted in bent nails. Where I drilled too deeply, I dipped the nails in CA glue and called it a day. As the stake pockets were quite tight, I used a piece of some-kind-thing to drive the impulse of the hammer to the nail.
Later, Kid-zilla joined me to mount the remaining pockets.
I was a bit concerned that the stirrup style steps would impeded the swing of the trucks, so I placed the car on a piece of R1 curve to verify the clearances.
Good to go! Kid-zilla helped to prep the stirrups for the tender and crane…
…and occasionally joined in the hammering and gluing. He liked the stirrups enough that we added them to Crane-zilla, too. We also cut and filed some piano wire to mount brake wheels to both cars. The stirrups break up the profile, reducing some of the bulkiness of the design. Personally, I was surprised how these small details, combined with the hand brakes, moved these cars multiple notches from toy to model with limited expense (I will say paying $1 for shipping on a $1 part is still aggravating. So be it.). Since there was no need to let glue dry, Kid-zilla moved right on to painting the metal parts…
…and staining the deck with an India ink and alcohol mixture. He then loaded the tender with railroad bric-a-brac a couple hours later.
Proud Dad bias aside, the kid has an eye for this!
The complete consist looks pretty credible…
…especially in a the fully assembled work train.
The leading doo-dad, btw, is courtesy of Pete ( @PeterT ). It came with a box of “stuff” from an auction he’d wone and made its way with bits and parts to Hawaii where it serves as a track clearance doo-dad.
Though the crane tender needs some lettering, Kid-zilla gave it the most important test, the is-it-fun test, shortly after assembling the MOW train. He maneuvered the work train into position and spent the next 45 minutes installing an irrigation system.
It passed. If he never touches this project again, those 45 minutes made the whole project worthwhile. As it turned out, he made sure our guests this evening saw this crane set, so I think he is taking some real pride in this project!
We still have some touch up paint and lettering to do, but this project is almost pau (finished). I’ll document that as it occurs. Consistent with Triple O practices, we will let time and use provide weathering.
I am already looking towards the future. I have enough bits left over that, with the order of a pair of trucks, we can make another car to this design in the future, and I would really like to add a U.S. profile gondola to the fleet. There is realism in consistency to the environment, and there is realism in consistency to the prototype. Either way, this project proved, as countless LSC members have suggested over the years, a bit of fore thought can cost average the shipping on detail parts to really transform even the simplest projects. Though the crane car and tender have no OR&L prototype, they match the OR&L in spirit, making due with resources available in the middle of the Pacific or from foreign sources of opportunity to make a railroad where no rational person thought one should exist.
Updates as merited! Have a great week!
Eric
Bravo Zulu Kid Zilla and Eric! It looks very good. Something to be really proud of.
Beautiful work, both of you!
