Being the tight wad that I am, I refused to pay $15.00 plus tax the other day at my favorite train shop for an N scale flat car pipe load… So when I got back home, I started looking around for something I could use to duplicate what I had seen at the shop when I remembered that I had brought home a hand full of coffee stiring straws from work a while back to use for “what ever”. Anyway, I cut the straws in half with a razor blade, then stuck toothpicks into a block of foam, stuck the straws on the toothpicks and sprayed them flat tan. After they dried, I painted the ends of each pipe flat black about one eighth of an inch back from the end. From there, I used super glue and glued the pipes in a stack with five on bottom, then four, then three. Using black cotton sewing thread, I tied it around the stack in the middle and on each end hiding the knot underneath the stack. Finally, I cut square tooth picks into four pieces and glued them across the bottom of the stack to serve as support posts. And there you have it, a really cool looking pipe stack that can be used on flat cars or in gondolas from the steam era on up to modern day. I’m not making another one any time soon, so I didn’t glue it down to any particular car so I can move it around when ever I want to…
Hope this is useful to someone out there.
Tracklayer
That’s genius! I’ll have to make me some of them when I get a chance. [tup]
Got any pictures of how yours turned out?
Sure! The electrical conduits on the walls of my tunnels are round plastic coffee stirrers. They replaced those at work with flat wooden ones, so I made a wood plank fence out of them. The Flavia coffee machine packets come on a plastic strip that just gets tossed. I cut it in half, and I’ve got 2 foot-long pieces of U-channel.
I’d post on this subject, but I’ve got to go get some coffee stir sticks right now!
Good stuff! Thanks for the tip!
Thanks Trainfreak. I’m unable to load and send pictures right now. Sorry… I’m working on it.
Tracklayer
It works for me.
I used coffee stirrers, spray paint black and automobile red oxide primer, Chartpak (r) metallic striping tape for bands, and scale 2x4s.
Tracklayer, are you from southeast Texas? Then this car might be right up your alley. It is a St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico (MP subsidiary) gondola, kitbashed from 2 Lima gons, with a scratchbuilt fishbelly center sill. StLB&M ran from Houston via trackage rights over Santa Fe to Algoa, then onto own tracks to Bay City, Bloomington, Refugio, Sinton, Kingsville to Brownsville.
StLB&M series 11001-11050 AAR mechancial designation GB
steel underframe, fixed ends, wood floor, 48’ IL 70 ton capy, 13-panel mill gon.
Blt 1926 by Pressed Steel Car Co.
builders photo in Train Shed Cyclopedia #5 p.219