Scratchbashing an HOn3 Reefer
#16
Thanks but it looks like they have freight car roof material in HO, not HOn3.
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#17
Oop's sorry I forgot about that.
Andy Kramer - modeling the Milwaukee Road in Wisconsin
The Milwaukee Road is alive and well and running in my basement
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#18
I started with the body details today, specifically the grab irons.
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I bent them all with this:
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It's a neat and cheap grab iron bending jig from Grandt Line. It will do both 17 and 20" grabs. I used the 17" for the reefer. I also cut the coupler pockets out of the end walls and drilled and tapped the coupler mounting holes.
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One last thing I did was to assemble a set of HNo3 Kadee couplers. I think they are #714. The only issue is that the coupler housing is made from the same slippery accetal plastic that the couple it made out of and I can't glue them together like a standard gauge #5 pocket. Is there any way to glue them (I used both plastic (styrene) glue and ACC) ?
Next, adding some doors
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#19
I finished off the side details:
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I used the Grandt Line HOn3 reefer detail set for the door hinges, latches and corner braces. I got the locating dimensions from the old car side.
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The Grandt Line detail set for the roof hatches as well. The roofwalk material came from the scrap box. I just have to add the corner grabs to the walks and the top is done.
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This came in the mail this past week. Now I can set up my HOn3 cars coupler heights properly.
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I took about 20 minutes to assemble.
On a side note I did figure out how to assemble the coupler boxes. Using a hot soldering iron you can carefully weld the back of the coupler box together so it will hold until you screw it into place on the car of your choice.
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#20
Last night I finished the car up to it's date with the paint shop:
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I slipped a set of grandt Line HOn3 trucks under it as well as the couplers to check it's height with the gauge. Pretty close with one snag that I'll bring up later.
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I added the corner grabs on the roofwalk corners that have ladder grabs going to them.
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I also added the handbrake and air retainer valve parts, and the roofwalk supports to the ends.
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Now the small snag. The brake beams on the trucks interfere with the coupler boxes. It makes the trucks go tippy-toe if you see the first photo. I can't trim the boxes down so I might have to cut the brake beams off the trucks. They probably wouldn't be noticed anyhow.
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#21
Since the brake beams are behind the screws holding the couplers in place, you should be able to remove part of the coupler box's lower surface, whether it's part of the box itself or a separate cover. The screw and remainder of the box will keep everything together and allow the coupler to work as it should.
It would be a shame to lose the brake beams on that car.

Wayne
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#22
I will see what I can do. I might be able to shorten the coupler box in the rear. This is the first time I've worked with these smaller style couplers.
I sprayed primer on both the Boxcar and reefer today:
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I'll have to wait a bit before continuing with their painting. They will both be getting White Pass and Yukon schemes so the reefer will have yellow sides and boxcar red ends and roof. The boxcar will be completely boxcar red. In the meantime I'll start working on this:
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I found it at a swap meet this past June. Interestingly enough the WP&Y bought a number of these hoppers from the East Broad Top in 1969 to be used as ballast cars.
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I'll just revise history and say they got them ten years earlier as I model 1959 (loosely)
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I'm not sure how old the kit is but the details are rather crude compared to some standard gauge hoppers I've built. However the kit comes with the trucks and East Broad Top decals. As the photos from the above mentioned link provide it doesn't look like the YP&Y ever repainted or added logos to the cars so other than weathering the paint job look pretty easy.
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The ladder rungs and end bracing look huge so they'll have to go. I'm planning to carve them all off and replacing them with either thin styrene rod or brass wire. I'll probably also add a ballast load as well.
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#23
A couple of EBT hoppers, this one with side extensions...

[Image: Pennsylvaniatripphotos080.jpg]

...and a four-bay version...

[Image: Pennsylvaniatripphotos079.jpg]

...and an actual ballast hopper...

[Image: Pennsylvaniatripphotos081.jpg]

Keep in mind that if the car is carrying ballast, it'd likely be perhaps only a bit more than half-full, due to the density of stone as compared to coal.

Wayne
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#24
Thanks for the photos of the Hopper. As far as I can tell WP&Y didn't convert the hopper doors to the ballast doors, they just used them as-is.
I painted both the boxcar and reefer this weekend:
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Again, reefer yellow on the reefer side and everything else is boxcar red. I have a set of dry transfers for the boxcar and a set of water-slide decals for the reefer. I'll have to gloss-cote the reefer first though.
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#25
I've had some spare time this week so I'm concentrating on finishing up a number of projects.
I managed to decal both the boxcar and the Reefer yesterday.
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The boxcar was done with CDS dry transfers and I found the reefer's decals on Ebay. Both had their challenges but they turned out okay in the end.
Now to finish the assembly and get these cars into service.
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#26
Good-looking results, Glen. Thumbsup Thumbsup

Wayne
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#27
Thank you Wayne.
I finished off both the Reefer and the boxcar yesterday:
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I did have to remove the brake beams on both set of trucks to ensure they had adequate swing, as well as clearing the coupler boxes and truss rods. I added the stirups on the bottom last and then a light weathering to fade the decals just a bit and add some dirt to the lower sides.
I'm going to wait a bit before continuing with the hopper car, some other projects to get to before that.
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#28
After almost two years I restarted the HOn3 hopper project this week.


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I replaced all the cast on grabs and horizontal bracing with wire grabs and brass wire.


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I found that the side grabs were the same width as Tichy grabs, but the end grabs were the same width as Detail Associates Diesel Drop grabs.



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I also installed the couplers and brake gear on the frame. The couplers can be a real pain, trying to keep all the parts together while gluing the coupler box lid in place.
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#29
I finished the car up to painting this morning.



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I attached the frame to the main body, installed the manual brake gear and added the reinforcing angles to the bay doors. If it was a model that was representing a newer car I would have changed the angles out for some evergreen styrene shapes as the kit ones are pretty rough and crude. I also replaced the kit brake wheel with a Tichy one.
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#30
I finished off the car this weekend.



[Image: 2018102112218_DSCF7682.JPG]

I painted the car flat black, then added the decals. I used the EBT decals from the kit but only the car number and car data. Then I sealed it with dulcote and sprayed grimey black over the entire car.


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After that all dried I rusted the car out a bit with tube acrylic paint and airbrushing.



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I added weight and a ballast load using some small hardware, covered in woodland scenic fine brown ballast.


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And here it is on the layout, waiting for the next washout.
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