New Step…
3 steps LOOK right, I am sure someone will come up with a picture/drawing of it not being prototypical, but it looks right to me, anyway. Nice job on this. The one armed car shops is making fine rolling stock. You arew going to have to keep on the meds to keep up this fine level of work when the shoulder comes back “on line” from tourture, I mean rehab?
Pete Lassen said:
3 steps LOOK right, I am sure someone will come up with a picture/drawing of it not being prototypical, but it looks right to me, anyway. Nice job on this. The one armed car shops is making fine rolling stock.
Well, clearly 3 aren’t enough! (Georgia RR Museum, Savannah.)
Actually, I got caught the same way in making coaches using the Accucraft J&S frames with new styrene sides. The Accu originals have 2 steps, so that’s what my Full Baggage got:
But the prototype of EBT #29 has 3:
So that’s what mine ended up with:
Pete, Now that is pretty Sharp lookin!!
Travis Dague said:
Pete, Now that is pretty Sharp lookin!!
Yes, but construction was a lot easier than yours! The letterboards and battens are all one piece - you just align them with the windows and glue it to the sides.
More Progress!!..
I got the Clerestory top glued on last nite. Installed the ends and will need to do some more shaping and filling the edges at the ends. I went ahead and decided on the three steps for the step assembly instead of the two. Looks much better. The end railings were bent and installed also. Took some photos with a 3 inch figure next to them.
Next the plywood ends scrored underneath to allow it to curve donward and have the side to side contour. Not as hard as it looks…
toughest part was getting the clamps to stay in place on the curved sides while drying.
End rails bent, not sure if I will keep these or not. I’m thinking they need more than the two stanchions. Will add a chain in the middle later on.
View of end railing in place…Something just isn’t right…
That’s all for now. I started to bend the truss rods for later. and a few other details will be added to the under side. I will be starting to paint soon. I can now move my right shoulder enough that I feel comfortable to hand paint, so that will be coming soon…
Needs some ideas for the end beam details. I know it should have some bolt washer details for truss rods and hand brake/wheel. Should or did the passenger cars have a inside handrail along the end of the car on each side of the door?. Can’t really find a good picture yet… roof details will be added to smoke jacks and roofing after final sanding and filing gaps. Any suggestions for a tar paper roof?.I have used masking tape in the past and painted, but it started to peel at the edges on a building some.
Thanks for looking… Travis…
Hard to see, but there were hand rails on the car body too.
2000 ideas
no charge
Usually the cars had railings on the ends beside the doors. It was usually an inverted L shaped railing.
I used tar paper for tar paper. As long as it doesnt get wet, it works fine. Another option would be to paint the roof flat black and sprinkle some grit on it and then spray paint it black again to seal the grit. They sell that kind of grit at the big box stores to use in paint, its a fine crushed sand.
Thanks guys!, those are great pics John, I can see the railing in the second pic. Dave that is a cool idea for the roof. I may give that a try and pick up some of that grit stuff. I don’t want to really use the tape unless maybe I add some glue under it. I thought that is what they had, a railing on the car body too. I worked on trying to bend some truss rods. think I will use some smaller dia. rod. All I have is some 1/32 brazing rod, it looks a little out of place… Travis…
Got thick fishing line, painted, who knows?
If it can help, that is what I had realized for my President Steam Car
That looks cool! too… Nice work!..
Travis,
Here’s a good pic of the typical end railings. (It’s Kevin’s version of EBT coach #3, if you were curious. Most coaches had the same railings and grab rails.)
As far as end details - note the grey circles above the steps at the end of the car body - that’s the big washer and nut on the end of the truss rod. The platform was an addition - bolted under the body of the coach - so it only had end details pertaining to the platform. [Ozark sells big truss rod nut-bolt-washers [nbws].)
Here’s a pic of the detail on an Accucraft J&S coach (modified with battens - note I haven’t added the handrails on the coach end or the truss rod ends.)
For roofing, Kevin and I use aluminum duct tape - comes in big sticky rolls about 2" wide that are used to join ducting for the a/c. Here’s a ‘before painting picture of Kevins’ EBT #20. (Also the prior photo of coach #3 above.)
Here’s a partially done roof, showing how we overlap the tape and press it down smootly. [Not essential - looks fine with blemishes!]
When it’s complete, clean the residue off with alcohol (sparingly) and spray it with flat black primer out of a can. The results can be seem in that end photo in my prior post.
Well after looking and comparing these photos of the end railings to the ones I bent out of 1/16 rod. I decided to solder some up tonite. I used a set of railings from a bachmann coach for my pattern. Then used a socket of the right diameter for the bend held in a vice and manage to get these. They are silver soldered, so I hope it will hold. that suff is pretty sticky.
I still need to finish filing the solder joints, but I think they will pass. Once these are finshed I will bend the L shaped end rails on each side of the doorway…Opinions?
looking good
Excellent work Travis. I’ve used both the aluminum tape and masking tape for passenger car roofs and have been pleased with the results of both. Applying the aluminum tape is much more difficult in my opinion. It is not very forgiving and is a bear to pull back up if you make a mistake.
Doc Watson
Don Watson said:
Excellent work Travis. I’ve used both the aluminum tape and masking tape for passenger car roofs and have been pleased with the results of both. Applying the aluminum tape is much more difficult in my opinion. It is not very forgiving and is a bear to pull back up if you make a mistake.
Doc Watson
Doc,
While I can’t disagree that aluminum tape is tough to re-work, I don’t sweat the size and seams of the roof. I don’t even cut the tape down to exact width - I just pull off a strip and place it across the coach clerestory and down to the sides of the roof, trying to make it overlap the prior strip evenly. If the joint seams aren’t the same width, no-one can tell once it is painted.
My trick is to place the strip evenly right across the roof to the edges. Once it has glued itself to the clerestory, I cut the tape where it is sitting above the main roof so I can wrap it around the sides of the clerestory roof, then smooth down the side of the main roof, cutting off the extra next to the clerestory. Repeat on the other side.
I got the ideas from the great tutorial by Jack Thompson on the 4largescale site:
http://www.4largescale.com/Thompson/49.htm
You will note he uses masking tape, and applies glue to the edges/joints when it is finished, before painting. No peeling!
Once these are finshed I will bend the L shaped end rails on each side of the doorway…Opinions?
Travis, that 4largescale website also has a complete photo report of Jack Thompson’s build of a Carter Bros coach kit. It shows a whole host of details he added, like the corner handrail, and the truss rod nut.
http://www.4largescale.com/Thompson/48.htm
You will notice the little plastic end plates he made for the rail - probably overkill. It’s an old trick to put a bolt head or nbw into a hole next to the end of a grabiron or similar handrail like this. Plastic dummy plates are optional.
P.S. I know we’re throwing a lot of stuff your way, but you did ask! Feel free to ignore.