Transfer car kit build

[Cliff_Jennings]

This thread will be about a kit I’m starting to build: a model of the V&T locomotive transfer car, from a kit to soon be produced by Iron Creek Shops.

But first, a bit of intro.

A few years back ('22) I made a model of the Joe Douglass loco, which ran on an NG shortline near the V&T. Here’s that thread.

The Joe was often serviced by the V&T, and did so via a short trip from Dayton NV over the C&C (also NG) to Mound House NV. There it was placed on the V&T’s standard gauge transfer car, brought to their Carson shops, and worked on.

So that’s where the transfer car comes in; and I’ve long wanted to make a model of it, to park the Joe on. NV State RR Museum (NSRM) had started on restoring it in '21, and I was amazed by the heftyness of its swing trucks then, and impressed by their woodwork.

Last October, NSRM let me borrow a model of the xfer car (which its developer / modeler, David Frey, had built and donated to them), for display at the annual V&T Historical Society Conference. The designer, draftsman and casting-master producer on this kit (and others) was Al Pomeroy.

Also at the conference, an unbuilt version of the xfer car was offered at our silent auction, and I was able to win it, woo hoo!

In the mean time, back in the 1:1 world, NSRM was finishing its rebuild of the same car, and the society folks were about to tour it. It is a beast!

And as icing on this cake, NSRM also performed cosmetic upgrades to the Joe, preperatory to putting him on the xfer car. This recent shot is from Adam Michalski, Curator of Education at NSRM.

One other cool thing, when I did my research on teh Joe model, I found strong evidence that it was delivered with pilots on both ends, which I criculated. But the tender pilot was taken off at some point, and not included on the Joe as it was at NSRM. So, to match the real thing, I left it off my model.

Low and behold, when we went to NSRM in October, he was being outfitted with the tender pilot!

So now, as part of the xfer car project, I definitely gotta put that second pilot on my Joe model.

Last week I decided to get moving on this kit, and do a build log. I’ll start that in my next post.

[Cliff_Jennings]

Now to the kit. As I understand it, here’s the team who made it (and Al, David, please jump in and make any corrections if I get it wrong).

David Frey did all the research, trips to NSRM and conversation with folks there, taking measurements, and working with other historians such as Mike Collins.

Al Pomeroy “built” the CAD model, designing each part for model producability and assembly. He also made drawings, bills of materials, and masters for the metal castings.

Don Niday, of Iron Creek Shops, handled all the castings. And David Frey did the official first article build, and wrote the instructions.

Here’s the bulk of the kit’s contents:

The drawings (by Al) are beautiful. There are several, and here’s a couple.

There are a LOT of white metal castings.

The kit comes with all the rod needed, and also the rails.

I’m NOT by any means a great model maker, and this is my first “craftsman” kit (other than an HO Campbell coal tower kit I butchered when a youn teen). So I really appreciate how thorough David’s instructions are. Each paragraph has step-by-step check boxes, making it easy to follow along.

The wooden parts are excellently laser-cut, with gobs of holes where NBW’s and other hardware go. After sanding them lightly to remove laser charring, the instructions took me through a number of steps for drilling in the other axes (usually the bottom of a given piece). Clever cardstock templates are provided, which wrap around and index with the piece to be sure you get the hole location right.

A few finishing options are described, and I’ll be painting mine yellow on exposed wood surfaces. But my next step was to stain all the underside surfaces, because those weren’t generally painted.

Then came installing of certain underside hardware (seen in the above) which would be tough to install after frame assembly. The last step I’ve taken is the assembly of the main frame.

I’m in awe of the research and sweating of detail that went into this. As a professional mechanical designer, my hat is way off to Al for the sheer enormity of parts he had to CAD up, and tweak for producibility.

This team of Don, Dave and Al (and others) are producing astounding kits, with the first one to be offered being the Barnhart loader, which many of you have seen. These V&T kits, if my understanding is correct, will be offered soon after.

As for my F Standard Gauge interest, I don’t see how I’d ever accommodate that on the layout. But for purposes of just having fun, I’m considering a special shelf for these queens:

V&T Transfer Car 1 (SG, kit by ICS; with Joe Douglass aboard)
V&T Derrick 50 (SG, scratch, made a few years back)
V&T Flanger 52 (F scale, but forced into NG when built; needs rebuilding to SG to not look weird)
V&T Ore Car 95 (SG, scratch, made with the NG set earlier this year)
V&T Water Car No. 1 (SG, kit by ICS; on hand)
V&T Box Car No. 1005 (SG, kit by ICS; to be acquired)

Cliff

[RRRR4 (Lou Luczu)]

And just when do you find time to do things us mortals do like sleeping and eating?

[Cliff_Jennings]

The usual times, Lou, otherwise my wife would (justifiably) kill me.

Other than that, I try not to mention how long a project might take… just ask Sean.

Also, I’m taking Fridays off now, working a reduced schedule and salary until I retire in maybe 4 years.

[Rooster]

OK…so staying on topic here but when I saw this pic I thought you done snapped and were making wooden Superliner Transition Sleepers out of 6x6. Then I looked at it again and thought beautiful joinery. THEN I looked at it again and the 2 guys in the pic look awful suspiciously like you and Hollywood.

Just saying

[ctown2 (Craig Townsend)]

Okay so I do remember correctly you made the Locomotive roughly 7/8" scale so it would run on 45mm gauge track.

Are you planning on making a transfer car for it said locomotive on as well? Or just what I assumed to be is a 1:20.3 version of the transfer car?