Devon Sinsley said: Sorry man, what can I say, I just can’t get into 4 wheel cars.
Oh well, I’ll still admit in public that I know you.
Wait, you don’t have a thumb growing out of your forehead, Devon? Weird.
I went and took a few measurements of my hoppers, just in case it is useful to you. I was thinking 1:24 scale when I built it so you can convert these using 1/2" to a foot. That means these are really short: 18 feet. That turns out to be perfect for the ore loading area in the mine.
The 1.5" difference between overall (wood, not counting couplers) length means that the platforms on each end are 3/4" each.
Sorry I didn’t annotate this, but the height of the wood part of the car is 3.25".
Note that I’m also using Kadee short couplers. Clearance there is no problem based on the 2.5" distance from the car end to the coupler centers.
IMHO I made these cars a bit too wide. They are the widest thing on my pike so far, particularly when you add the brass door close/open mechanisms which adds another 1/4" on each side (or so).
[edited to add the height of the car]
Jim, I really like those cars. And I have some options now. With the short couplers I can move the wheels out. Also I was intrigued by the side dump of these cars and mine were going to be belly dump. But if I go side dump then the trucks can be closer together as well as closer to the ends if I wish like you have them on that car. And with side dump it would work better for the concentrator that these will dump into. So that’s a win win. Shorten the overall height of the hopper and narrow the whole car a bit and if need be lengthen it and I think I will have it. I will use those pictures and basically divide by two the dimensions you have give or take.
And you have a real nice, detailed build log for reference too.
Jim, I love those ore cars. I plan to build a few of those here soon. Sorry, Devon, didn’t mean to derail your thread. Back to the regularly scheduled programming (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Jim,
I am pretty sure I am safe in assuming that you will consider it a complement if I copy these cars in half the size. They surely are perfect. Better than what I had in my mind being side dump instead of belly dump. You shared them with me before and I forgot about them. But they really are just about the right deal for the car I am after.
I will be honored. Go for it.
Devon, my question. If the trucks are that far back from the car ends, the swing on the curves would be rather large, especially on tight curves. Have you tried running the cars coupled together through your tightest curve?
One of the modules in the NMRA group has unusable sidings, because the curves are so tight, that cars cannot negotiate the curves while coupled to another car.
Good point David. Another very good reason to use the short coupler and move the trucks out board.
I would hate to know that you spent countless hours scratch-building some beautiful cars that you discover that you cannot use because the overhang is too much on the curves.