A change in plans. It’s not quite time to put the internal wooden braces on as they are too delicate while I work on the truss rods. I have some truss rod pads from Ozark that I spaced around the door openings, thus allowing the doors to open - though they will be fixed in the closed position on this model. I used 1/16" brass rods for the truss rods. I got them from McMaster-Carr since I needed something longer than the standard 12" size. McMaster has them in 36" lengths - this allows me to get 4 truss rods out of two brass rods.
(http://www.jbrr.com/Pics/RollingStock/Hopper/ETWNC/IMG_9820.JPG)
They are installed much like the real ones and go through the end timbers. The actual ones had some sort of connection just on the outside of each door, but I did not model this. I bought a 0-80 die and threaded each end to accept 0-80 nuts.
(http://www.jbrr.com/Pics/RollingStock/Hopper/ETWNC/IMG_9819.JPG)
I couldn’t find any 0-80 square nuts, so I used the Dremel on some 0-80 hex nuts to make them more or less square. These replace the plastic ones I had used earlier for the ones next to the coupler. I had bought some truss rod NBW from Ozark earlier and wanted to use the washer. I cut the nut and bolt off and filed them smooth. Then I drilled a #52 hole in each and placed them on the rods, followed by the square nuts.
