Hello- I picked up an Accurail outside-braced boxcar kit, and aside from the cast-on ladders and grab irons, I find it to be a nice little kit. But I’d like to add some underbody detailing. There doesn’t seem to be anything commercially available for this. Can anyone offer any suggestions? (Years ago I constructed some Ambroid kits and added full underbody piping, etc. That involved a lot of filing and drilling of tiny little pieces!) Regards- Richard W.
I usually add just the basic brake detail to these cars, since you can’t see too much under the car due to the fishbelly underframe. I fabricate simple brake levers from .010" styrene, and then use .015" brass or stainless steel wire run from these to somewhere near the truck bolsters. I angle this towards the centresill to avoid interference with the trucks - from normal viewing angles this is not noticeable. I also attach a short length of chain to the end of the lever attached to the brake cylinder and from that run a length of wire towards the “B” end of the car, terminating it as the others. Also run a pipe (.022" brass wire) between the AB valve and the cylinder ( I drill a suitable hole in the cylinder but often forget to drill one in the back side of the valve - in this case, simply bend the pipe appropriately and drill the hole up through the floor in a spot very close to the rear of the valve. Believe me, unless you are staging massive derailments, no one will notice either this or the fact that there is no other piping.
The time you save by using this simplification is useful for replacing those cast-on grabirons and sill steps and for making freestanding roofwalk corner grabs, all modifications that are much more noticeable than the brake gear.
Wayne
But you will know it’s there, and that car will be yours.
Will
One of the easiest things ato add is the train air line. I’ve done this on several of the old Walthers tank car kits. On some I also backdated the brakes to the K style. Bowser sells packages of K brake parts (used to be CalScale, I think). Careful! Once you start enhancing underbody detail, you might not know where to stop! I went from adding the trainline with brass wire, to adding missing brake linkages as Wayne described above, to re-working the whole brake system into the K style, then thought, Hmmm… those cast-on stirrup steps are a but bulky…"
But even though I don’t really even notice it when I’m just running trains, those modified cars give me a real sense of satisfaction when I get close to watch a train go by, and there comes one!
If you’re looking to replace and upgrade the brake machinery, Tichy makes K, split-K and AB brake mardware sets that are pretty much the best in the hobby. Their website is: www.tichytraingroup.com
As for brake rodding, most people bend it themselves out of .015" brass wire. The Tichy sets include general piping diagrams, so you’ll be able to figure out where the major piping goes.
cal scale parts, detail associates, and brass wire will make for some nice underframe air brake details…you can install them by drilling holes into the underframe with a pin vise and small bits and gluing them in place with CA glue… chuck