Sweet. I admire your follow-up ability. I have been meaning to put some serious finishing touches/improvements to my build and haven’t gotten to it yet. When I do, I’ll revive my build post like you did. Nice job.
How come you didn’t weather the couplers? You weathered the wheels.
Ducks and runs for cover.
Sweet build.
Steve,
The game plan includes a trip to Friar Fred’s in Ottowa for the American Invasion. The couplers were not weathered preferring operation over appearance at this time. I also have not decided whether to maintain the Kaydees or change out to a B’mann for display purposes.
Well folks, the Holy Water Car interchange with the IPP&W happened, but not without it’s trials and tribulations. I don’t have pictures, but the good Friar advised me that the trip was not the kindest to the car. Fred spent some time repairing the damage done and shipped it back in what he hoped was a better packaging arrangement than I had for the trip to Canada. Below are a couple of pictures of how the car came out of the box after the trip home.
And the preliminary dis-assembly.
Stay tuned as repair and upgrades progress.
Looks like the Shipping Dept. thought it would be ok to ship As is, if the barrels were lighter…
Was it shipped on that board with the green landscape twist ties?
no comment…
Greg
Greg, that was not the only packaging, but it was obviously insufficient. It was a valiant effort on the Good Friar’s part whipping it back after her repaired some of the damage on the way up to Canada. I have several ideas on rendering the problem.
Bob,
What the source for your barrels? In the bild log you said you made square parts into round parts, did you turn them?
Devon,
In this case, the square parts I made round were the ends I fabricated from some ABS plastic sheet I had available. The barrels themselves were caster wheels I salvaged from an old queen size bed frame that failed it’s original purpose and became materials for other projects. I wasn’t sure at the time I kept the caster wheels what I was going to do with them (salvaged several years before I got into large scale), but saved them anyway. However, turning some…or one…as a master for casting might be something to think about. They are considerably larger than standard barrels for liquid service. I have seen some pictures of larger barrels used I believe in tobacco service.
I have a collection of the wooden ones sold at Lowes in their specialty section. These items are pretty close to standard dimensions, and for my purpose will be acceptable. One of these days I am going to drag the bunch out, stain them and add bands, nails, and such to make proper barrels out of them. One of the industries that will eventually be on my RR will be a turpentine distillery, and they used wooden barrels.
I also have a collection of the ‘55 gallon drum’ items from the same location at Lowes. These will need to be sealed well with a sanding sealer to get smooth enough to paint and properly represent a steel barrel, but again are pretty close to scale dimensions to be acceptable. Again these will need to have some additional detailing added such as the two different size bungs on the head of the barrel, or possibly some detail to represent the snap band on a barrel with a removable head.
Hope this answers your question adequately.
yeah it answer my question. . .I don’t have old bed casters. . .lol. So much for that. I could easily turn one and cast. Good route to go but need to fix the shop smith first. I was hoping for a quick fix. All that seems to be available are in smaller scales. I am not looking for exact just something to have in my future oil car and laying about at different places.
The first thing I decided to do was to follow through on an experiment I have been meaning to try. It is my belief that equalized trucks will track better and therefore perform overall better than the rigid trucks that USAT, Bachmann, LGB and others sell. This modification is my proof of concept and will use the USAT trucks that were used in this build. I started off with a stock USAT truck. Dis-assembled the truck to have a bolster, and two side frame components, the stock bolster shown below.
This basic modification will be going on all my future builds using this type of truck. The modification, although done on a USAT truck will work on most any of these trucks. The first modification is to cut the tangs off both sides of the bolster, clearing the way for body mounting couplers and the truck can be freely mounted without concern for direction. My second modification, is displayed by the white ring in the king pin hole of the truck. I drill out the bolster to 1/4" diameter. I then install a short section of Plastruct TT8 tube (1/4" OD x 1/8" ID) that is about twice what you think you will need, making sure it is flush with the bottom side of the bolster. Secure in please with either your favorite welding solvent or an ACC cement. Once the solvent/cement has cured overnight, file the excess tube protruding from the top of the bolster flush. Now I drill out the inside diameter of the ring to .172 diameter for a standard #8 screw.
An additional modification done to this bolster that is applicable to another modification I am working on is to remove the ribbing on the top of the bolster between the king pin area and the side frame end, making a smooth top to the bolster. This modification is not required for the primary modification. These modifications are shown below.
Next I modify the tongues that go into the pockets in the side frames. To make this work, I lightly file the outside vertical surface of the tongues on both ends of the bolster smooth and remove just enough material to allow the side frames to freely slide on the bolster. Once this is accomplished I file a taper on the sides of the tongue to allow the side frame to rock on the tongue. The photo below shows a comparison between the altered tongue on the left and the stock tongue on the right.
On to the side frames, the small mounting screw hole in the bottom of the pocket where the tongue of the bolster inserts needs to be elongated. This will allow the assembly screw to have sufficient freedom to give the truck free motion. Top photo is a stock truck side frame, the bottom photo is the altered side frame.
Re-assemble the truck using the stock assembly screws. Part of the modification is when installing these screws DO NOT TIGHTEN the screws tight, allow a slight amount of clearance so the side frame can move. The short video below shows the articulation of the modified truck.
(As soon as I figure out video embedding I will embed the video) In the mean time, here is a link:
http://www.gscalejunkie.com/GeneralPics/NapkinBuild/Redux/Truck_Articulation.mp4
I hope there is something that others can use here too. Stay tuned, will add the other modification shortly.