helium car
#1
in one of my other posts I mentioned I was working on 4 old AHM helium cars I had  to upgrade them to some what closer to prototype .
the first thing to go was the 33 inch tango trucks  replaced with 36 inch wheeled Bettendorf frames and body mounted KaDee's
   
though they are not a exact match to the proto type they still look much better
   
  next was to get rid of the wooden walk ways with tichy open grid ones 
   

I want to replace the cast on ladder's and grabs  with wire ones and the steps with tichy  ones. , this is where the problem lies both sides and one end would be no problem to remove cast on  ladder details , the b end would be hard to remove ladder as it runs through a lot of detail , now this is where I hope Wayne  chips in I was thinking of remove the grabs and just the cast on rungs on the ladders leaving the rails  . what do you all think would it improve the look ?
         
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#2
Removing just the rungs would be my first choice, too, Jim.

However (here we go, onto that slippery slope) if you really want to lift that car above its roots, how about sanding/scraping all or most of the detail off the cars' ends, and replacing it with free-standing details?

The rivets can be easily re-done with decals, and the door hardware with brass wire and strip.  Hinges can be replicated either with short bits of wire or styrene rod, although they might also work as-is if you leave them - stripping the paint from the ends should sharpen the detail somewhat, as many of these cheaper cars, as was the case with Tyco and LifeLike, had some decent detail, but it was often obscured by a too-heavy application of paint.  Tichy and Cal-Scale both offer the brake gear for the "B"-end.
I can't tell for certain, but if those horizontal lumps on the "B"-end doors are meant to represent louvres, you might want to leave them in place, too, although Archer does offer them in decal form.


It is, of course, your choice on how far you want to carry this - one car could be a project in itself, but four cars might be overload....although I've found that mass producing on a limited scale can go surprisingly well once you develop your method on the first victim.
While most of the stuff I do doesn't approach what I'm suggesting, there is a strange satisfaction in discovering how far you're willing to push yourself.


Whatever you choose to do to the ends, I'll also stick my neck out just a little further, and suggest that if you dive into the deep waters of completely re-doing the ends, it would also be worthwhile to represent the visible (from trackside - not necessary to detail for major rollovers, in my opinion)  underbody brake gear - triple valve, reservoir, and brake cylinder, along with the basic brake rodding is usually enough to look convincing, unless you're entering a contest.  I think that most of us do these things strictly for our own satisfaction, and not to impress anyone else.

Please understand that I'm not trying to push you into something beyond your interests, but only suggesting possibilities, and would in no way be critical of your choice, whatever it may be. 

Wayne
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#3
Here is what another modeler did with the AHM cars:

http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/0...art-1.html

Regards,
Wallace
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#4
Thanks for that very useful link, Wallace, and Welcome to the posting side of Big Blue - it's good to have you joining in.

The info contained in the link will certainly be useful for Jim, but I think if I were doing the cars, I'd replace almost all of the end details.
Tony's version, in my opinion, suffers from the fact that the acquired car had been painted over the factory paint, and he then painted over that, making the end details, especially the latches and other door hardware, appear rather indistinct.  I'm guessing that with the paint stripped-off completely, those details might be quite a bit crisper than one would expect, and in that case, the black paint which Tony used might have made that moulded-on detail look quite a bit better.


Fortunately for me, the helium cars are too modern for my layout, so no need for me to find out how hard I'd push myself re-doing those details.  I have enough era-appropriate stuff to detail as is, so no shortage of things to be done.


Wayne
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#5
Wayne thanks for the input, what I'm looking for is the 3 ft. rule, though if it were just one car what you suggested would make it a show place car but doing 4 might bog down the progress (been there done that with 12 athearn pass cars that still set in to do box) also if one went that deep it would require building the proper trucks ,  so I will stick with shaving off grabs and ladder rungs , buy will implement your idea of stripping off factory paint to make details stand out then given a thin coat of silver as by my era most were  assigned to the bureau of mines (silver with black lettering) tichy has the decals.
you could run a helium car in your era GATX  built 10 of them in the 1930's . don't know if the Canadian navy had any though, the rub being that they only had 28 tanks , meaning it would require a total scratch build .
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#6
(05-14-2019, 03:20 AM)jim currie Wrote: .....you could run a helium car in your era GATX  built 10 of them in the 1930's . don't know if the Canadian navy had any though, the rub being that they only had 28 tanks , meaning it would require a total scratch build .

Thanks for that information, Jim...I'll file it on page 47 of my book of things to be done. Crazy

Wayne
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#7
(05-14-2019, 10:45 AM)doctorwayne Wrote:
(05-14-2019, 03:20 AM)jim currie Wrote: .....you could run a helium car in your era GATX  built 10 of them in the 1930's . don't know if the Canadian navy had any though, the rub being that they only had 28 tanks , meaning it would require a total scratch build .

Thanks for that information, Jim...I'll file it on page 47 of my book of things to be done. Crazy

Wayne
  Misngth Misngth Icon_e_biggrin Icon_e_biggrin got one of those books too.
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#8
here are some  photos of what I've done so far.    
   
I first tried to just remove ladder rungs but it didn't look good so I removed entire ladder and replaced them , trucks were changed to roller bearing ones and correct 36 inch wheels milled .040 0ff bolsters to get  correct coupler height  , also added 12 scale inches to ends of car to make the porch(for lack of proper name) to resemble proto cars . this one is going slow as its the first made many mistakes with it.
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#9
Just found this discussion, and had to reply as I have over the years collected quite a number of these helium cars for eventual reformation in the future,....unless I can finally convince some manufacturer to product a modern product?

Here is a subject thread on another forum that I think I contributed to recently,...
Helium Operations
https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/22116

...and a few nice photos
[Image: helium_car_1-750x502.jpg]

[Image: helium_5.jpg]
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#10
At one time I considered using some sort of 'ink' to blacken in those slots between the tanks to make them look as individual tanks,...somewhat akin to the use of 'ink wash' to emphasize crevices in rock formations??

Would love to see some photos of attempts to detail the AHM cars.

Brian
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#11
Weathered Examples

[Image: helium%20car%20weathered%2C%20ps.jpg]

[Image: helium%20car%20weathered%202%2C%20ps.jpg]

But I don't see any description as to how he got those 'black spaces'  between the individual tanks and the ends of the tanks while not coloring the tanks themselves??
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#12
Brian here is the drawing I used on the bash , I messed around with sizing till it was correct on length but the car is a bit narrow (by 6&1/4 inches) and short  but by adding 1 scale foot to the end sills it is within 1/2 inch of the proto type . there are some minor differences I found between series the 1000 had wooden roof walks and from research some early ones had friction bearing trucks , later changed to roller bearing ( by later 1950's) .
the 1100 had metal roof walks with the ladders positioned differently .
couldn't find photo of the 1200 with roof walk also they had a clevis mounted on car  and no poling pocket.
found no photos  of 1000 with the 1200 but did find photos of 1100 with 1200 with no roof walks.
the tichy decals I have are for the 1000 series don't know if higher numbers are to be had .
as for tanks I plan on using a fine tipped paint pen  to accent tank also will paint inside of the car black so when viewed from eye level you will be able to see through .  
   
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#13
(08-02-2019, 10:53 AM)jim currie Wrote: .... also will paint inside of the car black so when viewed from eye level you will be able to see through .  
Don't know that i understand what you are saying here??
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#14
BTW here are a couple of postings about the weathered car I posted earlier,...

Quote: I would imagine that it's an ink wash. Thinned, and multiple coats, with cleaning of the outside of the tanks with each pass.

Quote:Car on its side and a fine point sharpie or the wash is applied with a fine tip brush just in the joint. Those are two ways I could think of to apply the look.

I replied, perhaps a combination of the 2 methods since the ink method would not get the proud side of the tubular tanks.

I have a fair collection of these cars that I hope to get to one of these days. I had even given thought to a few fantasy schemes involving NASA labeling.
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#15
(08-02-2019, 01:13 PM)railandsail Wrote: I had even given thought to a few fantasy schemes involving NASA labeling.

With some of the manufactures looking around for new product, I would hope one of them might consider a new detailed model of these helium cars. I would think that the appeal could be quite wide as they would not have to be 'road specific',....NAVY, NASA, etc??

Who knows, perhaps some manufacturer might attempt to make a modern plastic version of these cars?

They appear to have gotten pretty wide spread geographically. And they span the steam-diesel era.    Possible wide spread market?



[Image: ts_139385_19.jpg]
 
though these days it probably would go by intermodal....
[Image: 1007200_ISOContainer-Weldship.jpg]
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