Fun with flatcars??????

[JaBear]

A while back my ferry project was beginning to “stall” and also I realised that w**k and family commitments were going to severely cut into my modelling time. While I’ve been reasonably pleased with my kit bashing efforts I still think I need to practise working with styrene and so with both reasons in mind I looked for a “Quick” project. I needed idler flat cars for the ferry and while looking for plans for wooden truss rod flat cars came across an article in the March 1958 Model Railroader, “Freelance Flat Car, an MR one evening project”. Hurrah, just the ticket I thought ...........

   

   

.......and here are the results from 5 weeks efforts.
Cheers, the Bear.

[Catt]

Bear,If that car was a one evening project who ever did it must have had some looooong evenings.Nice looking flat by the way. :mrgreen:

[Steamtrains]

Bear,If that car was a one evening project who ever did it must have had some looooong evenings.Nice looking flat by the way. :mrgreen:

Probably a resident of the polar regions...!!

Question: What did you use to make the stave pockets..??

Gus.

[Sumpter250]

Paul Larson, wrote the article, it was on two pages, but could have easily fit on just one. It was an "MR one-evening project".

In the same issue there is an article for a Narrow Gauge 25-ton Drop Bottom Gondola, by Len Madsen. I'm really tempted to build a few of those for the SHS&D - - there has to be something used in the shipyard that would be hauled by those gons.
There's also drawings for a Narrow Gauge coach, and a Narrow gauge Combine ( S scale drawings ).
1958 was also a good year for Jack Work construction articles - - Sept. the lineside supply shed, I did the first version of that one with the only materials I could afford at that time in my life - - Balsa ! :o
Have built that one ( slightly modified ) twice, since.
The shed in this picture is one of those variations:
   

[doctorwayne]

That's a good-lookin' flatcar, Bear.

...Question: What did you use to make the stave pockets..??

Gus.

Those look like Tichy parts to me - #3006 - 32 in a package.

Wayne

[nachoman]

Lots of good and fun construction articles in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Model Railroader. Nice work on that flat car!!

[JaBear]

Bear,If that car was a one evening project who ever did it must have had some looooong evenings

Sumpter250is right, it was Paul Larson and to be fair he was using commercial parts available at the time and obviously a lot more practised than me. I still think that it was one of those high latitude winter evenings though.

Those look like Tichy parts to me - #3006 - 32 in a package.

Yeah thats them alright. I'm also using Tichy #3074 10" Queenposts ; Tichy #8021 Turnbuckles: the brake reservoir is a spare from a Tichy Cement Car kit, and for this one, Walthers 933-1018 Arch Bar Rigid Truck with metal wheelsets: and of course Kadee #5 couplers and Kadee coupler pockets.

Lots of good and fun construction articles in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Model Railroader

Yes there are, and if my pace wasn't so glacial there are a lot I'd like to have a crack at, like that shed of Sumpter250s.
Thanks for the kind and encouraging words,
Cheers, the Bear.

[Sumpter250]

"nachoman" wrote: Lots of good and fun construction articles in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Model Railroader.
Yes there are, and if my pace wasn't so glacial there are a lot I'd like to have a crack at, like that shed of Sumpter250s.
Thanks for the kind and encouraging words,
Cheers, the Bear.

JaBear, if you are going to build that shed, be advised, That is one of my first hand cut, hand applied, individual, simulated, wood shingle roofs. Luck !
Oh!, That light blue "bit" left side of shed, is a phone booth ( plastic, from some kit I believe. I never throw anything away, never know when it will become an "added detail"

[JaBear]

That is one of my first hand cut, hand applied, individual, wood shingle roofs.

I'm not sure if there are any red oak or red cedar trees in this part of the world. Apart from that and the fact that I have no real idea how to split them so fine for HO scale, may I please be excused and use commercal offerings???
Cheers, the Bear.

[Catt]

Those old MRRs come in handy at times.My collection goes back to 1978.My current kitbash project a GE U-18B was built using a article from the March 1984 issue of MRR.

[JaBear]

I really shouldn’t have been so optimistic in calling this thread “Fun with flatcars”, I should have settled for flatcar, singular!!!
Apart from decals and weathering, here it is finally.

   
   


In a thread in another forum I became aware of doctorwaynes use of monofilament and Tichy turnbuckles, and decided to try to emulate the method. Of course being an optimist this was not going to be too difficult, Famous last words!!!   I had no end of bother trying to get the monofilament to adhere to the underneath of the styrene deck, and wondering how Wayne had coped, I revisited  the thread only to find that because he was kitbashing a boxcar, it was tied off inside.  I ended up sandwiching the monofilament between the floor and pieces of .010”, using a mixture of CA and MEK, messy, (there was also a fair bit of undesirable language I am sad to say) but it seems to have worked, though I would not include this in any Handy Tips Column.   I do think it was all worth the trouble though.

   
I have started the second but that could take a month of Sundays.
Thanks for looking,
Cheers, the Bear.

[Chuck]

Wow! That flat car looks great! Nicely done. Now I want to build one....... I love looking at old train mags --they had some decent articles on scratch building. I enjoyed and have built many of their "dollar models" and the One Evening Projects.

Chuck

[Sumpter250]

THAT, is SWEET !!


Waiting to hear if my scanner got fixed yet. Sounded like something in the "drive train" hung, or slipped.
The second surest thing in life? "It will break, at the exact moment you need it most" :evil:

[doctorwayne]

Nice job, Bear, and a good recovery on the truss rods. Truss rods on enclosed cars definitely are more easily done.

Wayne

[JaBear]

Thanks for the kind remarks Gentlemen.

and a good recovery on the truss rods.

More by luck than good management , I'm going to have to try to be a lot cleverer on the next one.
Thanks for looking,
Cheers, the Bear.