I came across a drawing of a boxcar- transformed head end power car at the Trainiax web site (Michael Eby) which appears to be an interesting one-off type of car to model. On Google, a Nevada Southern Railway image of their HEP car, also a box car, shows large grill-covered vent areas cut into the car sides. The drawing shows both some of these and louvered vent areas. Question: what type of material could be used for the louvers? and for the grill coverings? I believe that roof vent items-similar to building roof devices and a roof-mounted cylindrical tank structure could be easily made from spare parts and findings. Take a look at the drawing and the Nevada car- mighty interesting! Any advice would be appreciated. Cedarwoodron
LION used combine cars for HEP, thus he could pull pax with any lcoomotive.
Him also put a control stand in the rear vestibule so that the train could run push-pull.
Other train sets used a converted BRD to provide hep and control.
Gotta keep those commuters happy.
Of course that was all one layout ago, now we run only subway trains.
ROAR
The louvers could be made from Styrene siding, lap type. The grills could be made from micro-mesh screen.
My prototype used HEP cars with a difference.
When the major JNR routes were electrified, nobody considered the steam-heated passenger cars. The catenary motors were built without train heat boilers.
To pull up the slack, serviceable boilers were taken from scrap-line teakettles and mounted in car bodies painted the typical JNR passenger grunge brown. Bunkers and tanks were provided, and they were in business - smoking up the catenary and filling tunnels with the delicate aroma of burning coal.
I have plans for two. One was just a windowed carbody on bogies (trucks) with openings for the stack, safeties, water filler hatches and bunker. The other, a four-wheeler, resembled a Reader’s Digest edition of the NYC carbody Shays that once ran on New York City’s west side.
Why past tense? After close to half a century, all passenger stock is electrically heated. Now heritage steamers have to pull HEP gensets. Of course, since I’m modeling late summer/early autumn I don’t need to worry about train heat. I’m not even going to model one as scenery,
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
My road is (fictitiously) located in western Minnesota, where the weather is not always the kind you want on a chamber-of-commerce brochure. Making one if these HEP cars from a box car appears to be a relatively easy, yet fun project and can be a unique ( only going to make one ) item to add to my inventory. I agree with using styrene siding for louvers, but who makes “micro mesh”? Or can I use that wedding material that is sold at fabric shops that “looks like” chain link fencing? Cedarwoodron
I found a good source for all dimensions and sizes of screening is Granger. They have real fine gauge wire screen that works for all kinds of model applications, and many different mesh sizes available. I bought some 12" x 12" (the smallest they offered) for about $4.00 a sheet, cyclone fencing, and a different size for grill work on a SD40-2T i was building. Also used the same screen for building vents. They have a variety in their online catalog.
I scratch built a “cabbage” car from an unused F40ph, and what makes my model different than Amtrak’s prototypes, is that I added a 670 KW generator set to it, in a closed in area at the back of the loco. I had the “shops” remove the sand bins, on each side of the interior of the loco, and added screen mesh vents, for air flow. When it’s not used as a cabbage on commuter trains, it’s used as HEP on some of my excursion / tourist trains.
Mike.