I recently saw some photos of some cars with Van Dorn ends on them. Van Dorn ends appear to be some kind of stamped metal ends with concentric circles for reinforcement instead of ribs. It makes the end of the car look like a giant target. If you aren’t sure what I mean, you can see one here:
Westerfield Models did make a few cars that way but since they are no longer, I’m not aware of any other model of them available. Nonetheless, I want to try to build some. So the search is on for “something” with concentric circles molded in it. I have to believe that somewhere out there, there is a trinket, a bottle cap, a food container… something with those concentric circles. Once I find that, the rest should be easy.
Has anyone tried to scratch build something like this? Is anyone aware of something that might do for the circular impressions? I just have to believe that there’s something out there somewhere that can be cut down and made to work.
Any suggestions would be most certainly appreciated.
I’ve seen proto photos and thought they were fascinating. How to mak’em?
Maybe find brass tubing in concentric sizes… make “stampers,” one for inside and one for outside in alternating sizes. For instance INSIDE stamper has tubes of diameters 4mm, 8mm, 12mm, 16mm, 20mm, and OUTSIDE stamper has tubes of 6mm, 10mm, 14mm, 18mm I(ie in-between the sizes of the opposite “stamper.”) Then stamp a small sheet of thin brass…
I don’t know if those would be correct sizes, been years since I’ve seen the proto photos and I don’t know your scale. Just trying to get the principle…
danmerkel: I built a Van Dorn end for an early rail Illinois Central 50 foot boxcar from a photo in a book. What I used was 20 thousandth brass. To make the circles I used a draftsman circle maker and first etched the circles, then used a small screwdriver to make the circles deeper. Continue to make the circles deeper until it has a look that seems right. When the piece is turned over and glued on the end of the car it looks great! Experiment first on a small piece to get the technique down.
LION has never seen Van Dorn Ends before, But the name is familiar. Him was thinking of Van Dorn Couplers which were the standard on the IRT into the 1960s. All IRT stock used them, until the city took over the system. The first cars on the IRT to use the H2C couplers were the R-12s which were purchased by the City of New York in 1948.
I tried O-rings from the local hardware store. They were the right size but weren’t strong enough to press into the aluminum sheet I chose to make the ends from. Yes, I figured that the aluminum would be thick enough to stay sturdy but thin enough for me to handle easily.
Any other ideas?
I may not want to try too hard as rumor has it that Westerfield will begin production again soon. When that happens, the cars will probably be available again.
I recently recieved an email from Al Westerfield and he has indeed sold the business. The new owner has a backlog of kits to supply for prevoius orders then he will begin production again for the general public
Try a craft store. I have seen wooden discs with concentric circles. They mey be meant to be wheels or other decorative things. Not sure of the specific pattern, but you could give it a try. There’s usually a section of little wooden pieces parts in the few stores I have been in.
The idea above of having one made on a lathe would be the other option. Could get it just the size you wanted it, with the correct number of circles.
This sounds interesting and possibly the way to go. But could you provide more details on just how you did what you did? How does the screwdriver come into play? Did you use it to further emboss the brass? I’d think something a bit more round & smooth… like the end of a paint bruch might be less likely to mar the piece. What did you use under the piece when embossing it?
But do provide some details… I can’t be the only one who wants one of these on their layout.