Tanks guys. It was good to see Y’all at the show.
The new wood decking will run lengthwise and there will be a good deal of daylight between the tank support and the decking. The frame and brake rigging details should show off nicely.
How come when I take pictures all the faults are magnified, but in your closeups everything looks even better?
I guess I need a new camera? 
Looks great Geoff…sorry I missed you at York this year
Nice work. Are the handrails & stake pockets brass?
Geoff,
Yep, it was nice to see you and look at your work on this unique flat and its history with the EBT. Loved those rivets. Your work and techniques are inspiring.
The railings & stanchions are fabricated brass. Rather than rolling the end of the angle iron around the hand rail I soldered on a tube to create the illusion. If I move past the study model and make a small run of these cars I’ll make a fixture to aid bending, shaping and rolling the end of the brass angle.
When making parts I often make them the same way they were made in 1:1
If a part was cast I’ll look at making a casting, if it was a stamped part I’ll try to stamp it, if it was blacksmithed I’ll fabricate it.
-The pole pockets are brass castings made from my hand built master
-The stake pockets are a brass stamping.
-The Carmer style uncoupling levers are “blacksmithed” for each car, as the pivot point, hanger and coupler offset varies from car type to car type. This one is the easiest version as it is straight in elevation and plan view.
116 will have some of my new parts… nickle-silver anglecocks and hose clamps to go along with the magnetic “working” gladhands.
The valve handle is movable and has just enough friction to stay where you put it. The “working” anglecock will add a nice bit of animation where you want to see the valve in the closed position.
The hose clamps slip on then a sidecutter is used to lightly crimp the band at the clamp (no glue needed).
Geoff,
Once again another beautiful build…thanks for posting
The Dome
My friend and associate Terry Van Winkle modeled the dome in Solidworks and printed resin parts for design and engineering review. His professional specialty is 3D design and printing and a segment of his business is jewelry design for the high fashion industry.
The dome, vent & screw on lid were printed separately. I will use the printed parts on the study model. The parts are very clean - resolution (print thickness) is .001 inch. The lid & vent are untouched. The dome has been cleaned up, which was easy because the part was printed with holes for the rivets. Any surface cleanup around printed rivets would have been impossibly hard. Terry takes extra care when removing the carrier/support material from the part. I’m sure that the .012 thick dome flange would not have made it through a production job shop.
Dumb question: why not 3d print the rivets on the dome?
Burl, because sanding the print lines around rivets would be very difficult if not impossible. All the printed parts I have seen (and that aint many) have lines where the different layers were added.
Well that makes perfect sense… what resolution are you printing at?
Not a dumb question…
Basically, holes were printed to insure a successful part.
The resolution of the part (layers) is .001 inch. It did come out very clean, however if any surface cleanup is necessary on a printed part it is a breeze because you can sand over the holes. Cleaning up around printed or molded rivet detail is difficult.
Also, with a light coat of quality paint that does not obscure the detail, nothing looks quite as good as individually placed rivets and they will match the rivets on the tank.
So, printing the rivets was a risk that would not have saved much time/work … it took maybe 5-10 minutes to pop them in and wick in some solvent cement from the back side.
A quick handheld snap of the tank with primer…
I can see some rivets that need setting…
As I hoped, the conical rivets cast nice shadows…
Nice! Gotta agree–those rivets look great. Don’t know if I’m insane enough to do that myself, but the result is definitely worth the effort.
Can’t wait to see this finished.
Later,
K
Geoff, all I can say is, “Wow!”
Masterful work. Thanks for sharing!
Terry
Can not weight to see the finish car. This is going to be one of those peices that realy stand out in a string of freight cars. ALLEN
Kevin Strong said:
Nice! Gotta agree–those rivets look great. Don’t know if I’m insane enough to do that myself, but the result is definitely worth the effort.
I guess he’s practicing before starting M-1. . . .