That underframe and brake rigging looks great. I wonder if I have some brake parts sitting in my junk box that I can throw on my tank car.

Great Job Gary! I better decide if I'm going to get moving on mine. I've kind of been obsessed with another little project I've been working on for my RR the last couple of nights. :?

TrainNut Wrote:Great progress! I like your idea of throwing all the old pieces into a bin. I think I'll work on that one as all of my old pieces are scattered throughout all the old model boxes. Might free up some space to boot!

With the parts bin, it is almost impossible to find small parts without dumping everything out first. I took it to the kitchen table and dumped it out, then started sorting through everything and scraping it back into the bin. As I sorted through the parts, I must admit, most of it seems to be useless junk!

nachoman Wrote:That underframe and brake rigging looks great. I wonder if I have some brake parts sitting in my junk box that I can throw on my tank car.

This is my first try at brake rigging, and it was quite fun. I highly recommend it. I hope you find the brake parts and do the piping and rods.

tetters Wrote:Great Job Gary! I better decide if I'm going to get moving on mine. I've kind of been obsessed with another little project I've been working on for my RR the last couple of nights. :?

Thank you sir. There is still plenty of time to get moving on the challenge, but the sooner the better! Hope to see something from you soon.

I stopped by the hobby shop on my way home, picked up some small files so I could finish up the roof. I also bought several small drill bits of various sizes so I can do the grabs and stirrups. I happened to have broken my last one last night doing the brake rigging.

I finished up the roofwork and it's ready for paint. The roof conversion isn't exactly museum quality, but hey, this is a $2 Like-Like junker, and I already have over 10 hours in this! Besides, a heavy coat of paint oughta cover the imperfections nicely.

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Then I put another layer of black wash on the floorboards, and painted the weights black.

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I test fit the couplers and trucks, needed the Kadee red washers to get the coupler height right. For mods like this, I like the Atlas trucks, because they are sized to exactly fit a 2-56 screw.

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Then painted the trucks and coupler boxes.

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Great work, gary.

Thank you, X. I put on a few grab irons and details on one end. Will post photos later.

It is good to see so many Gauge members working on their projects.

After I finished working on the building for the day, I ate supper and have been working on my project. I put some gray paint over the white styrene roof rebuild so that it will take the final coats of blue better.

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I worked a bit on the A end the other day and finished up tonight. Just need some paint on it now.

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I looked closer at the B end of the prototype boxcar. The end ladder appears to also be cut off to half height, therefore the brakewheel is lowered too. I'll have to shave the molded on brake parts off and lower them, and add a half ladder back on. The A end has an added handrail running horizontal from the ladder to the other side, so I am sure the B end has this too. The horizontal handrail can be seen in the prototype photo on the A end. I'm going to do a little research and see if I can find a photo of a lowered brakewheel.

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Got the ladder and brake stuff removed. Still need to do a little clean-up on it.

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Well I am late coming in on this and as I said in the forum announcing this I need to give it some thought. I have thought about it and think I will not join in after seeing this. It is hard to start when you are so soundly beaten from the beginning

Lester, that is a tremendous compliment and I appreciate it alot.

Please reconsider your decision concerning your entry. I don't see that this "contest" is so much about the competition as it is about learning new skills and getting ideas from watching what others do, and about trying out some things we've never done before. For example, this is my first try at brake rigging and I feel good that it came out fairly well.

Gee, Lester. If you think this is good, wait until Gary is humbled when Dr. Wayne joins in (hint, hint).

No kdding, Kevin!

As I work on this project, for example, the grab irons on the end, I often think "How does DocWayne get the holes drilled in the perfect spot, and how does he make everything look so straight and perfect?" and "My fat fingers are too big for these itty bitty parts."

I got the ladders and grabs and brake wheel installed on the B end. The brake details aren't exactly correct, but close enough.

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Painted the interior and added the doors and styrene strip as the door guides.

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Here is an overall shot with the body on the chassis. I think it turned out pretty good as for the additional details. But now it is time to match the paint and do all the touch-up and mild weathering.

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And then I discovered why i don't like fragile detail parts, first, a photo of the ladders I used, and then the result of my fumbling fingers... boke the stirrup off.

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So I replaced the stirrup with a metal one inserted into holes drilled in the body. Went ahead and cut the other plastic stirrup off too, and replaced it... might as well do it now... I would have eventually broken it off anyway.

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