Has anyone ever built a working Ballast car? I’m Buying an undec Bowser kit from Micromark, and planning to do it up as a NS MOW car? Also, does anyone know of a color that would match the Orange they use?
If you’ve ever seen a real ballast car at work, you should know that they dump a LOT of ballast, which then must be spread by a regulator and tamped by a ballast tamper.
If you’re trying to create a model ballast car that will spread ballast on a layout and not need any futher work, I think you’re going to be very disappointed in the results.
I’m w/ Cacole on this one. Would end up w/ quite the mess.
If you were “staging” a scene, maybe, but a static display need not actually work.
Over the years there have been attempts to create working hopper cars in HO. In theory the Athearn Blue Box 4-bay hopper car (the B&O one) had “working” doors that would open when tripped, but you had to snap the doors shut again by hand, and after a few times the plastic latch would fail and the doors tended to hang loosely unless cemented in place anyway. I suspect Athearn was going to come up with a coal unloader to go with their coal/sand loader. If they ever did I cannot find it in my old catalogs or on HO Seeker.
Revell had an operating CB&Q two bay hopper car and if memory serves, the entire bottom of the car was spring loaded, a magnet would pull it down, and the sand or coal would spill out into the waiting bin below.
http://www.hoseeker.org/revellinformation/Revell1959infopage12.jpg
I have one of those Revell cars somewhere (bought used) but I never had the unloading accessory. The interior of the car gives away the need to alter scale appearance in favor of operating possibilities. Perhaps a fair tradeoff.
Tyco had something similar in its line in the mid 1960s (when Tyco was trainset quality but not bad quality). Their old catalog shows a Virginian hopper.
Lionel had an operating side dump car, of the kind often used for ballast, in its HO line in the mid 1960s as well. I suspect it borrowed from their O line in nature and probably just flipped over in a toylike manner.
I think the common theme to all these cars is that they needed something special and not particularly realistic looking in the area where they were expected to dump the load, and sometimes the dumping mechanism itself introduced a degree of non-scale compromise into the appearance that would be difficult to retro fit yourself into the very nicely done Bowser castings. And the dumping action itself was hardly realistic as I recall. &nbs
Perhaps I didn’t explain enough…there are spots on a layout where it would be fairly challenging to lay ballast by hand. I don’t need a realistic car, I just need something that can dump it where there is close clearance (Our Club decided to make the track operational and the tunnels, bridges,etc.
I worked a ballast train between Reno NV and Truckee CA with the UP…it was quite an experience. 70 tons per car and a very regulated flow between opening the doors as needed and the train speed. All the forces and dynamics involved just won’t translate into scale. Ballast in scale behaves more like a liquid than crushed rock. I think you’ll just end up with a mess, ballast pouring out like water in one place. I use kitchen utensils and artist tools for ballating in awkward places. The car you have…do it up really nice and run it around full of ballast. The color you looking at…well, I can’t suggest anything there.
Hi, Jimmy
If the areas you want to ballast are inaccessable then… why bother? I mean, has the rail and ties been painted? Once the ballast is down there’s lots of fussing needed to get it leveled, settled into the ties and off the rail.
THEN you’re going to have to make a wet water sprayer car, (weed sprayer?) then a matte medium dripper car (a CMX track cleaner with out the pad might work here!)
SO what I’m getting at is if the right of way is THAT inaccessable then dispense with the ballast and consider the scene as “off world.” ie. not part of the actual scene.
Take care, ED
Continuing on the theme “Answering a question nobody asked”:
My neighbor had the Revell hopper car and ramp. The car had two (breakable) arms out the side that would be engaged with the ramp as the car was shoved in. The arms were connected to the hopper bottom, and it was thus lowered.
http://www.hoseeker.net/revellinformation/Revell1959infopage12.jpg
Not mentioned was the excellent Ulrich triple hopper. Through a concealed linkage, all three doors would open when the car was pushed towards an in-track operating trip-pin.
http://www.hoseeker.net/Ulrich/ulrickflier7.jpg
Oh, yeah. (Not) speaking of ballast cars, Model Engineering Works made an operating side-dump car. Well, a manual operating one. As your giant fingers tipped the bed, a linkage would lift up the bed sides so the load could slide out.
http://www.hoseeker.net/mew/modelengineeringworks12yardsidedumpcarpg2.jpg
But wait, there’s more. Model Die Casting (Roundhouse) made a center dump ballast car that was “tripped” by pushing down on levers on the lower part of the side of the car. There were big handwheels that wound a chain (as I recall) that pulled the doors closed.
I can’t find an online photo of this one, but I’ve got one out in the garage in a box. I think later ones were made of plastic and/or were not operating.
Update. Found one:
http://www.bobstoyshow.com/93.JPG
This concludes our diversion from the actual question.
Ed
Oh I see. So is the idea to have the ballast loose and not bonded? Otherwise I do not see the advantage in using a piece of rolling stock to bring the ballast on site, and in any event ballast has to be spread around after being dumped, whether prototype or model. But the spreading would I suppose be easier to do in a awkward situation than the bonding with liquid glues or whatever.
Is the track laid? If not you may want to explore a technique I have used to ballast turnouts. I guess it would work on longer stretches of track. Have duct tape on the bottom of the ties, sticky side up, and pin or nail the track in place. Any ballast dumped on the duct tape, and then tamped in place with an old piece of cork road bed, will provide at least a minimal amout of ballast in appearance although it will not be to the top of the ties as it should.
Another possibility – and that would be to use one of the better quality of prefab ballasted track in that area. With careful coloring and some weathering it can match up rather neatly with genuinely ballasted track. Matching the height is the biggest challenge with some makes.
Maybe my operating hopper is not Revell since it does not resemble the above poster’s summary of how they worked. Maybe someone else made o
Well, it was worth a discussion anyway. Thanks for the words.
I was going to suggest using Kato Uni track in areas that are going to be inaccessible
Dave,
The doors on the Ulrich twin hoppers have latches. Rather than a friction fit, I think they lift up a little to unlatch. It’s been awhile since I’ve looked at mine. I was, however, referring to the Ulrich triples. On those, there’s a spring or springs to keep the doors shut. And no latches. The doors, incidentally, are all linked together–they all open and close together. And they operate “remotely”–hands free.
On the Revell car, the hopper bottom was spring loaded “up”. The two sidearms would engage in cams on the side of the walls of the coal ramp, and would get pulled down by same as the car was shoved in.
The Tyco cars had sorta-heavy metal doors that were held shut by gravity. They weren’t real hopper doors, as they spread open sideways by a special ramp. One nice thing about them was that they’d work as a cut of pull-through cars. The Revell and Ulrich would only work one at a time on a stub siding.
I liked the Ulrich triples, 'cause the operating feature was pretty much hidden and didn’t detract from the car’s looks. And being metal, it has a really nice heft that always made me feel