Large Scale Central

In-ko-pah Railroad - Scratch-built railcar

Modeling Rolling stock
#41

Time for another progress report! I decided that the passenger seats will be held above the electronics by a simple styrene frame. I can easily glue the seats in place after the interior of the car has been painted. Same with the passengers, who will be cut off just below the knees. Then I’ll attach a piece of material painted black or dark brown, to the underside of the seat frames, so as to hide the electronics.

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7001/IMG_7001.jpg)

I knocked out the seats pretty quickly. The base is made of styrene strips. The seat back and cushion are made of 1/8" thick sheet styrene, sanded to shape:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_6984/IMG_6984.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_6986/IMG_6986.jpg)

The seats were just placed temporarily for these photos. Looking through the window, you really can’t see much below the seats. Once the passengers are in place, you’ll see even less:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_6993/IMG_6993.jpg)

With that settled, I started on the roof, beginning by gluing the ribs in place. The ribs at the end and on the partition were cut from sheet styrene. The other two were made from strips, bent to shape by hand. Each of those ribs is made from two strips. First one is glued in place, then a second strip is glued on over it. Then I sanded away any excess, as needed to match the curves on the solid ribs:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7004/IMG_7004.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7013/IMG_7013.jpg)

The roof itself is made from styrene, V-grooved siding with approximately .1" spacing. The rear half was easy to apply. The front half has compound curves. At first I thought I could cover it with one piece. I figured I could heat it, then press it over a form. I tried heating a piece of the siding over the stove, but it crinkled. Then I tried heating it in boiling water, but it warped, and I never could get it to go over the form. So I just applied the siding to the front half of the roof in two sections, and this turned out surprisingly well. I used some of the slightly warped siding that I’d boiled, and this might have helped but I think it would have turned out just as well if I’d used it straight out of the package. Here’s how it looks:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7056/IMG_7056.jpg)

I used strips of .040" square styrene to trim the edges of the roof:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7052c/IMG_7052c.jpg)

I also added some more trim pieces to the sides of the car. And you’ll note that I changed my mind about mounting the hood permanently to the chassis, and instead glued it to the body:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7050/IMG_7050.jpg)

Next I made the “cow-catcher”. It needs to be strong enough to withstand frequent handling, bumps, and potential derailments, so I constructed it entirely from brass. Soldering is not my favorite subject and my skills in that area are pretty weak, so I wasn’t looking forward to soldering such a complex structure. But sometimes you just have to leave your comfort zone! Anyway, I had a pretty good idea of how it should go together, and I didn’t have much trouble with it. However, I was so involved with it that I neglected to shoot any progress photos. Here’s the finished product:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7020c/IMG_7020c.jpg)

The one problem was, after I finished it I discovered that I’d made it too short! I had intended to have it fit over the top of the end beam on the front of the chassis frame. You can see where I created an opening in the top, center, for the Model T’s starter crank to fit through. Well, the bottom edge would have been 8 or 9 scale inches above the rails, much too high to be of any use and certainly wouldn’t look right. So cut off the top half of the end beam, glued the cow-catcher in place, then glued in another strip of styrene above it. It’s not terribly elegant but it’ll do:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7060/IMG_7060.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7064/IMG_7064.jpg)

I also made a few detail parts. I built a handle for the rear door, and the driver’s hand lever, both from brass:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7030c/IMG_7030c.jpg)

And I didn’t like the coil box that came with the kit, so I made a new, more accurate one out of styrene. (In this photo it’s a little dusty from sanding.)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7033c/IMG_7033c.jpg)

I won’t be installing the interior details until after the thing’s been painted. I’m almost to that point now. I still have to make some steps for the rear door, and on both sides of the cab. I also need to make and install the headlights and tail lights. These will be lighted with LEDs. Here’s how the car looks so far:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7067/IMG_7067.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7069/IMG_7069.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7074/IMG_7074.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7077/IMG_7077.jpg)

This morning I took it out to the layout to make sure there were no clearance problems with new cow-catcher. I discovered something else… when I’d run the car on the layout before, I only ran it about halfway, in one direction. I turned it around this time I found that the front wheels derailed going through switches. So I checked them and found that the back-to-back spacing was at least 1/8" too wide! To reduce that, I had to grind the axle stubs a little shorter, and cut the plastic connecting tube a little shorter also. Then I had to grind and sand off some of the bearing supports on the chassis frame, to keep the back of the wheels from rubbing against it. Finally got it all taken care of and it goes through the switches just fine now. That’s it for now. Enjoy!

#42

Great job Ray , don’t you love working with styrene .

#43

Love the look…That cow-catcher looks perfect.

#44

That is really looking good.

I’m glad you’ve been posting those pictures because it’s given me several ideas about what I need to do with my little trolley that I haven’t worked on in a year!

#45

Looking sharp Ray.

#46

Nice work Ray!
:slight_smile:
Unlike you when I built my Brandt Rail Truck I used a slot car motor at first which would have been ok if it was Lionel …well needless to say it got switched to an LGB hand car motor!

#47

My Mac suffered a major hard drive crash on Nov. 11 that also wiped out my primary backup drive. The last time I’d updated my secondary back up drive was just before I upgraded the OS back in April, so I lost about six months of stuff. I just got the computer back from the shop and will be very busy for a while trying to restore/recreate everything that was lost. But at least I can get online again.

I’ll try to post an update on my railbus project as soon as I can.

#48

Loking forward to your updates here. Ray! Good luck with yr confuser now and welcome back to virtual reality…

#49

With my computer in the shop for over a week, I had lots of time to work on my railbus project. First up was making the headlights. I built the headlight body out of styrene tubes. There are designed to open from the rear, so that the LED is accessible in case it ever needs to be replaced. Here are the headlight components:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7092c/IMG_7092c.jpg)

The headlight lenses were made from elliptical acrylic domes from Plastruct. I don’t know what size they are, they’re just something I had on hand. They were too wide so I traced the correct size onto them, then reshaped them using a Dremel with a cutoff wheel. A sandpaper stick was used to fine-tune the shape. They were also too thick so I used coarse sandpaper to sand them thinner. This had the added benefit of creating vertical lines that simulate the look of old-fashioned headlight glass:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7117c/IMG_7117c.jpg)

I added a styrene base to each headlight and then glued them to the end beam of the chassis. Then I painted the chassis, first with a coat of red primer, followed by gloss black:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7106/IMG_7106.jpg)

The lenses were inserted into the front of the headlight casings and secured with MEK:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7162c/IMG_7162c.jpg)

The LEDs were mounted in the rear section of the headlight, which slides into the headlight casing. I used 3mm Warm White LEDs. To keep the LED centered and pointed forward, I had to support it with two short, telescoped sections of styrene tube. These are removable:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7120c/IMG_7120c.jpg)

Here’s a shot of the finished headlights with the LED assemblies installed. I got the LEDs from modeltrainsoftware.com, and they come wired up to a tiny package of circuitry that limits the voltage and provides correct polarity no matter which way the leads are connected to the power source. I had to route the wires around the motor mount, and glued the LED circuits to the top of the motor mount:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7167/IMG_7167.jpg)

On the underside you can see how the LED wires were routed through the chassis. I tacked them in place with a few small dabs of hot glue. If it ever becomes necessary to remove or replace the wires, it should be pretty easy to pull them loose. The undercarriage was weathered using a mottled blend of brown and black acrylic craft paints. I later applied the same colors to the wires, to camouflage them:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7173/IMG_7173.jpg)

The tail lights were made from 1.8mm red LEDs. These have a rectangular base with a small, protruding “bulb”. Although they glow red, the unlighted LED is clear. They also glow very brightly, so to tone down the brightness and give them a red lens, I painted the ends with opaque, glossy red acrylic. Then a short section of 1/8" styrene tube was glued on, and the rim sanded to round it. The exterior was given several coats of black paint, with a bit of metallic “steel” paint added to the rim. Then the LEDs were carefully hot-glued onto the undercarriage. The wires were routed into the rear of the chassis and weathered:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7180c/IMG_7180c.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7185c/IMG_7185c.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7290/IMG_7290.jpg)

Here’s a shot of the completed electronics and battery installed on the chassis. I painted the wires grimy black to make them less visible. The battery is held in place by a small strip of double-sided tape:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7395/IMG_7395.jpg)

The LEDs were connected to a spare Losi power plug (A), which was soldered to the motor output terminals (red arrows). The LEDs come on only when there is power to the motor. It would have been nice to have the LEDs on when the vehicle is stopped, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that, and it probably would have drained the battery too quickly anyway. The battery’s power plug is at (B):

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7398a/IMG_7398a.jpg)

Another small addition to the vehicle was steps at the sides and rear door. I fashioned mounting brackets out of brass bar stock, held in place with thick CA glue and Ozark Miniatures NBW castings. I had to heat the brass in order to drill holes for the NBW castings. Afterwards I tried to reharden them by heating them, then dunking in cold water, but that didn’t seem to help much. So I have to be careful handling the model, as the step brackets bend somewhat easily. I made the “wooden” steps out of styrene. These were textured and painted using the same methods I’ve used on my buildings. After scribing simulated wood grain into the boards, they were given a light coat of white primer, then colored with several thin washes of browns and grays. When dry, a coat of Krylon UV resistant clear matte was added for protection:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7175/IMG_7175.jpg)

I added a peeling paint effect by first wetting the boards with Testor’s enamel thinner. Then gloss black acrylic was light brushed on, building it up in areas where there would be less wear:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7190/IMG_7190.jpg)

Here’s a shot of the finished rear door step. You can also see the tail lights in this shot:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7284/IMG_7284.jpg)

Painting the car body: I started with a light coat of white primer inside and out. Next I masked off most of the cab interior, then sprayed the exterior with red primer. I tried to limit the amount of red primer that got into the rear passenger area – a little overspray there was ok but I didn’t want a full coat of it.

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7086/IMG_7086.jpg)

I wanted the exterior finish to look slightly old and weathered, with just a bit of gloss left. In the past I’d had good results on small items, by brushing on an acrylic color coat topped with a couple coats of thinned artist’s gloss medium. So I tried that on the car body. The results are ok but not as good as I’d hoped. If I could do it over, I would just use gloss spray paint for the color coat, then dull the shine a bit during weathering. The custom decals were provided by Stan Cedarleaf, with his usual excellent service. The roof was painted with silver acrylic, then weathering slightly with very thin washes of brown and gray. Additional weathering was applied later:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7144/IMG_7144.jpg)

The interior of the car was painted in two shades of brown and a coat of thinned gloss medium. The rear passenger seats were painted separately and were not installed until after the car body was painted. As you can see, the wiring is only barely visible through the windows, so no extra steps were taken to hide the wiring:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7399/IMG_7399.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7317/IMG_7317.jpg)

More to come in the next post…

#50

I decided that the roof looked too plain, and that a luggage rack would really improve the vehicle’s “character”. The rack was formed out of brass rods soldered together. It fits into small holes drilled into the corners of the roof:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7200c/IMG_7200c.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7210/IMG_7210.jpg)

I also wanted a ladder at the rear of the vehicle. To build it, I first came up with this crude jig made from scraps of wood:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7234c/IMG_7234c.jpg)

The brass rods which will form the vertical parts of the ladder fit into the slots on the jig and are held in place by two clothespins:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7239/IMG_7239.jpg)

To make the steps, I soldered the end of a brass rod to the two uprights, using the end of the jig to keep it level I then cut off the excess portion of the rod. The assembly is then pulled 1/2" forward on the jig and another step soldered in place, repeating the process until the ladder is finished:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7243/IMG_7243.jpg)

The top of the ladder was bent over, and a mounting bracket added near the bottom. I originally wanted to put a ladder on each side of the rear door, so I built two. After trying them out on the model it was obvious that two would be excessive, so I just used one and put the other into my parts box to use on some future project:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7250/IMG_7250.jpg)

The top of the ladder was carefully soldered to the rack while it was in place on the vehicle. This way, I could be sure of getting the ladder positioned correctly:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7256/IMG_7256.jpg)

The complete luggage rack, ready to paint:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7257/IMG_7257.jpg)

The rack was painted Rustoleum gloss black (same as the chassis) and lightly weathered with acrylics. I added strips of styrene “wood” to form the floor of the luggage rack. It was then glued in place, and any gaps in the roof were filled with spot putty. The roof was then touched up and received additional weathering.

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7328/IMG_7328.jpg)

An O-scale brass bell was mounted on a homemade bracket:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7220c/IMG_7220c.jpg)

The steering wheel, pedals, lever and a rope for the bell were all installed. The pedals are from the Hubley Model T kit. I didn’t realize how clunky they looked until after I had glued them in, otherwise I would have made my own:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_4897/IMG_4897.jpg)

The railbus is now complete! All that remains is to make the driver, passengers, and some luggage:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7302/IMG_7302.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7355/IMG_7355.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_4881/IMG_4881.jpg)

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_4885/IMG_4885.jpg)

I had to prop up the rear to keep the vehicle from moving, so I could show how the lights look:

(http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Railcar_1_files/Media/IMG_7370/IMG_7370.jpg)

I’ve already started on the driver and passengers, and will post pics and video when I get them installed.

#51

That really turned out nice Ray :slight_smile:
Ralph

#52

I love that cargo rack on the roof…:wink:

#53

Very good job Ray. That is a cute little vehicle. Good how to article also.
Ron

#54

Sweet!!!

#55

Beautiful work Ray , really came out great. Your weathering brought it to life. I was just wondering … can it pull a small trailer behind it ?

#56

Beautiful Ray, just beautiful.
The small touches; tail lights, luggage rack, bell, etc.
are what really set it above the rest.

Great project
Rick

#57

Thanks. I’m sure it could pull a small trailer if it was set up for it. The motor is pretty powerful.

#58

Ray, your work is always inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

#59

Impressive! I love the brass work, and I really like how you have made the styrene look better than real wood would look. The back step is perfect.

#60

Can’t wait to see it populated.