I thought I’d share some photos of the way I am scratch-building my 1860’s rolling stock. I built a jig by using a dado blade to cut the slots to align and glue-up my frames. After cutting it out, I sprayed it with polyurethane to provide less of a chance for the wood glue to adhere. Once I have my frame members cut to size and glued into place, I use straight-razor blades as wedges to clamp everything together for an hour before removing the basic framework.
To attempt to make convincing 1860’s style trucks, I trimmed the diagonal braces and ladder shape above the coil springs on the trucks I had. I then built a false beam by gluing a thin strip of wood with returns on each end to cover the top member.
