Posted by chocho willy on Tuesday, January 16, 2018 1:53 PM
New scratch built, almost, sugar can cars sugar cane cars. Well with " Rosy " almost finished , except for weathering, I decided to make sugar can cars. I started with HLW flat cars and added 196 evergreen solid square posts in the holes already in the car also added a very small piece .10 flat styrene in the hole to make the post tight. Then added a piece 4250 “V” groove siding to the front of the post at both ends for bulkheads, and I didn’t worry about the inside because I figures the sugar cane load would cover the non detail side. Decided to use small chain to hold the cane in place and secured the ends with a piece of paper clip. Almost went stare crazy counting links as to where the vertical chains were to attach. Opening up those small links with these shaky hands is a sight to behold. I then secured the bottoms of chains with small cotter pins to the bottom of the car. Next off to find sugar cane, started with looking at broom straw and found that it is really hard to find a natural straw broom any more, finally found one in a older hardware store but the almost $20.00 price tag sort of got rid of that idea. Next I found skews in the food store that were made from bamboo and were about the right size, just too straight. So I soaked them in water over night and then but them in a jig for a day and let them dry. Once dry I cut them to length and started putting them in the car. Well the were bent but not enough and I don’t think I could gotten them any more so I finished the load , painted and put them in the car. Took some pictures and sent them to Eric (triple O) for critiquing stating I though the were too straight and regular, I mean who better to ask than a Hawaiian with sugar plantations all around. Eric wasn’t sure about the color but he agreed with me as to they were too uniform, I think his exact words were not willy nilly enough. Went searching to craft stores and found raffia straw from palms and is shipped from Madagascar, nothing like international flair, and I’ve got enough to do 20 or 30 cars for less the $4.00. I’ll probably use the skewers for fence posts with new color. The latest, 1 load drying and waiting to be trimmed the rest loaded on the car. Plan on 3 or 4 cars with some type of end car (caboose). 
