HOn3 cars for TrainNut

[nachoman]

Thanks for the compliments, guys. biL - next is three Rail Line boxcar kits. I have the grab irons installed, and now am working on the underframes.

[nachoman]

After multitudes of distractions, I have gotten back to work on the boxcars. I have the tedious work done - the grab irons and the brake rigging. These cars are loaded with tiny detail on the brake rigging that breaks easily (no pun intended) If you can closely in one of the pics, one of the brake levers disintegrated so I made a new one out of styrene. The instructions did not indicate making brake rods, so I made those out of brass wire. The trouble with HOn3 cars is that full brake rigging sometimes interferes with truck swing and truss rods. I have found this is more true with HOn3 than with HO standard gauge. So, I didn't attempt to make a hand brake rod attach to the long brake lever because I was worried it may interfere with the functionality of the car. On the bottom of such a tiny car, it wouldn't be seen anyway unless the car was picked up and turned upside down.

   

I got the grab irons installed, the truss rods in place and glued the tops to the bottoms Next up is the remaining body details.

[TrainNut]

What more can I say?

[nachoman]

   


When I was a kid, I really liked boxcars that had doors that could be opened and closed. As I grew up, I realized that real trains rarely have open boxcar doors while in transit, and that the sacrifice for operating car doors was the oversize door slides on the athearn boxcars. Now, I would rather have scale appearance than operating doors. These Rail Line box cars have all the scale parts, and the doors would operate if they are left unglued. The instructions imply to leave the doors unglued, but my experience says otherwise. Being that the parts are scale, much use by 1:1 fingers on the miniscule door slides will certainly lead to breakage. Or handling the car in order to operate the door is likely one will break off tiny stirrups or brake wheels. Another problem is that much operation of the doors will wear the paint from the slides, exposing the shiny plastic underneath. The design also means the doors can be modeled either opened or closed, but glued in position. In deciding how I wanted to position the doors, I considered several things. First I looked at photos on this website:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://narrowgaugememories.com/v/Rio+Grande+in+the+60s/">http://narrowgaugememories.com/v/Rio+Grande+in+the+60s/</a><!-- m -->

These photos were taken toward the very end of the Rio Grande narrow gauge when the railroad was probably more careless with maintenance. Yet, most of the boxcars in the trains have their doors closed, but a few have the door slightly open.

Then I considered a few other points:
1) A boxcar in the process of being loaded will have it's door open on the side that faces the loading dock. At all other times the door is supposed to be closed. But during the times the door is open it is facing a loading dock and less visible.
2) If the doors will be glued in position, it is better to have them closed because this is the more likely position they will be.
3) In transit, loaded cars will most certainly always have their doors closed unless they are malfunctioning, and empty cars are the only situation where the doors may have been left open. If a modeled car has open doors, you know it is empty, but if it has closed doors it may be either empty or loaded.

My conclusion is that in lieu of operating doors, it is probably more prototypical to leave them closed. But, since open doors look cool and add visual interest, I think I will leave one door on one car open.

[TrainNut]

Excellent analysis and excellent decision.

[doctorwayne]

You're right, Kevin; operating doors used to be a much-desired feature, so it was easy to ignore the oversize door tracks and the "claws" on the bottom edges of the doors.
Most of my cars with separate doors have them glued in place (closed), but I left a few with an operable door on one side. They're useful for a loading dock scene or to add a little variety to a train of otherwise similar cars. On an around-the-room layout, they need simply to be turned to select which side the viewer sees, so I seldom bother to actually make use of the fact that the doors are operable.




I have quite a few of these Walthers 50' boxcars, and decided to add operating doors to both sides of two or three of them. I used the slide mechanisms from some old McKean or Front Range boxcars, so the doors of the car in the picture below are open as wide as they can be.


I hope that Tom has a hobo or two to add to that open doorway.

Wayne

[nachoman]

Wayne, even though those cars look like they have a delicate door sliders (more delicate than Athearn BB), I still feel more comfortable with that arrangement than those 4 little nubs that serve as the bottom track of the HOn3 car. Those little nubs are nearly impossible to install without magnification, and even with magnification were quite a pain (especially when they squeezed out of the tweezers and I had to search for the tiny little part on my table )

[TrainNut]

I hope that Tom has a hobo or two to add to that open doorway.

Funny, I originally typed something exactly along those lines but for some reason, deleted it and just gave Kevin praise for his research and confirmation of his decision.

[nachoman]

I got into HOn3 because it allowed me to build a smaller HO scale layout and get by with 18" curves and #4 turnouts. I assume many others got into HOn3 for similar reasons. My standard has been that my HOn3 cars should negotiate 18" curves and #4 turnouts. I am convinced that many HOn3 kit manufacturers designed their kits to look good but not necessarily run well. I have found most kits require a little tweaking or modification to get the trucks to swivel right or be able to use Kadee couplers. These Rail Line kits are no exception. Part of the problem is the larger than scale wheel tread widths and truck sideframe thicknesses needed in order to make an operating model. Also, many details are thicker than scale in order to be seen, facilitate installation, and reduce breakage.

Before adding the delicate brake staff and stirrup steps, I decided it best to add trucks and couplers to see if the couplers are at the right height and the trucks mount properly. It's easier to do this now than after the car is painted and detailed - and it's a good thing I did. As designed, these boxcars will probably not negotiate anything less than 24" curves and #6 turnouts with the blackstone trucks because the wheels rub against the truss rods and the floor beams. Trainnut specifically requested that these be running models with working couplers, so I needed to make a few modifications for reliable service.

   

First, I had to shorten the brake pipe detail I made under the car. Instead of terminating it at the truck bolster, I terminated it at a cross beam closer to the center of the car. I also carved away the inside corner of the floor beam as indicated by the red arrow. I also had to make a brass clip to pull the truss rods right against the center beam and out off the way. I could have simply used CA to glue the truss rod to the center beam, but I was wary of the CA failing over time. In hindsight, the best solution would have been to drill the truss rod holes right next to the center beam instead of where the instructions specified. Nonetheless, all the modifications I made are hidden by the trucks. The cars roll great now, and negotiate my #4 turnouts and 18" curves with ease. They now should handle any tricky trackwork that Trainnut can throw at them

[nachoman]

I spent about two hours looking through my piles of projects for the HOn3 couplers I bought. I could swear I saw them sitting somewhere on my work table I looked EVERYWHERE. After two hours of looking, I decided to check the receipt to see if I actually bought them. Turns out, I didn't. :oops: Guess I have to go back to the LHS on monday.

[P5se Camelback]

Now THAT sounded familiar!!

Many have been the times that I've come home with a bag full of stuff, only to realize late on a Saturday evening, that the item I originally went there to get ... I never bought!

It's maddening, isn't it, Kevin?

[TrainNut]

At one point in time, I placed the one set of trucks underneath one of those cars. I did notice that they did not seem to turn very much and I wondered about the radius they would negotiate. That's about as far as those thoughts went. I'm glad you put waaaaaay more thought into them than I did.
I guess I'm lucky you live so close to Coronado Scale Hobbies. Kinda sounds like I might owe you some gas money as well!

[nachoman]

I guess I'm lucky you live so close to Coronado Scale Hobbies. Kinda sounds like I might owe you some gas money as well!

It is actually an interesting bike ride, plus I head down that way on a regular basis to meet with former co-workers. Plus, I have to go down their anyway to get some details for a shay that needs to be completed, and was going to head to the central library to do a little historical research for my layout. I also have a buddy that lives just a half a mile from there in the coronado historic district - a really great old neighborhood that you would never know was there unless you know someone who lives there. So don't worry about me having to make trips that way - it is usually on my way to somewhere else.

Also - these blackstone trucks roll great and I am quite confident these cars will operate awesome when finished. All the other HOn3 trucks do not roll nearly as well.

[TrainNut]

Narrow gauge boxcar restoration parts transported by pedal power.
Your a brave man to be biking in this heat. What'd we hit today???? Something like 108 I think.

[ocalicreek]

We'll take some of that heat out in the Pacific Northwest, thank you. Still feels like early spring/late winter around here.

Nice compromise on the functionality/detail balance. Good looking brake piping, etc. Can't wait to see them all painted & purty.

Galen