doctorwayne's Get off yer duff Challenge (Part II)

[doctorwayne]

Finally had some time to get back to these Tyco/Mantua gondolas. The first task was to add some very basic brake gear, as the underside of these cars will be quite visible, especially when they're running at eye-level on the upper part of the layout.

The low relief cast-on brake components (reservoir, AB control unit, and brake valve) were shaved off the five cars with plastic underbodies, and replaced with slightly better representations. The reservoirs are from Train Miniature cars which got K-type brakes in a previous Challenge, but I had no reasonable size brake cylinders nor enough identical AB valves to do all five cars, so I made the parts, mostly from styrene...



The detail on the Mantua car with the metal underframe was better-rendered, but I used a cut-off disc to remove the brake cylinder, to allow easier addition of brake rods. The replacement was from an Accurail boxcar, and is similar to those used on two identical cars done some time ago...



I cut blocks of .125" square Evergreen strip material and cemented them into the space in the centre of the frame, which allowed for easier drilling when installing the actuating rods.

Despite the unprototypical curve in the rod connecting the brake levers of the Mantua car, it looks okay under normal viewing...



...as do the other cars...



I also removed the reinforcing ribs cast into the interior of the cars' sides. This will allow the use of built-up removeable loads that will fit both these cars and the very similar ones from Accurail:



...and also re-visited the two previously detailed Tyco cars for the same alteration. I used a brush to touch-up the interiors on these two, but they'll get a new paint and weathering application on their interiors when everything else goes to the paint shop:



All of the cars got couplers, of course, mostly ones re-cycled from other cars which I had re-equipped with scale-head Kadees. The final detail work was to add metal sill steps and grab irons. The steps are all from A-Line, while most of the grabs were bent using .0125" phosphor bronze wire from Tichy, as the sizes on the model are non-standard. Here's all six cars...



...with the Mantua car, in the foreground, already equipped with its brake wheel (from either Tichy or Cal-Scale).

For those who go to the trouble to add free-standing grab irons, I'm sure that a few of you have the same problem which I have....namely crooked-looking grabs which look even worse than the cast-on ones which were such a nuisance to carve off.



All six of these cars had some crooked ones, although the one shown above was the worst. The problem is caused by two factors: holes which are not drilled perpendicular to the surface of the car's side, instead angled up or down, and grab irons (usually custom-bent ones) in which the two "legs" are bent at angles which, when viewed straight-on on the car's side, point either up or down relative to horizontal. Sticking a mis-bent wire into a hole which has been mis-drilled in the same direction only compounds the problem.
I'm pretty sure that, even using a properly set-up drill press, I am capable of drilling holes which are not near perpendicular to the surface being drilled.

The solution to this unsightly problem is, however, simple...even for me.

Once the glue (ca...one of few tasks for which I use it) has set, I use a small pair of smooth-jawed pliers to twist the offending wire into position. Place the pliers against the car's side, then grasp as much of the wire as possible and lever it up or down as required...it may take a couple of attempts to get it to a point where it looks good, especially if you need to do several in the same group. Occasionally, you may break the bond of the ca or destroy a grab or two - keep calm and carry on.
Here's the progression of things on that poorly-done car...





That wraps up the gondolas, leaving only the Tangent tank car kit to be built. Oh, yeah, and a couple of scratchbuilt cars to be done, too, and, of course, paint and lettering for all this stuff.

Wayne