I’m in the stage of the layout well I have been in the stage of wanting to urchase semi trailers with opening rear doors. Does anyone know who makes any? I was thinking maybe A-line but not sure. Any help would be greatly appreciated thank you.
I have bought 1 and I do not know what brand it is all it says is “Made in China” I think I got it at WM but not sure, maybe one ot the Dollar stores. I was thinking it was Matchbox but the other ones have Matchbox on the bottom. Sorry not much help.
The matchbox trailers really aren’t 1:87 HO scale…the tires are too big and it does look akward and oversized on a layout…I purchased some scale semi- trailers from walthers but the doors don’t open…a lot of folks create their own open doors by carefully scoring out the doors on the back with a sharp hobby knife and gluing them in the open position with the doors cut from the back of the trailer…chuck
I believe most scale trailers, athearns,a-lines, atlas, accurails. don’t have opening doors. Chuck’s right, you have to score them open, most swing doors will open all the way to trailer sides. a-line also has roll up doors you can add, but you’ll have to score them open also.
Well guess I am gonna have to do it I was hoping I didnt. Thank the model railroad gods that I have some cheap trailers to try this out on before I do the good ones.
Its quite easy to do but,be sure to take your time and make smooth and even strokes with the knife while scoring.
The rear doors on most toy trailers don’t open like the real thing. If you look at a real trailer, you will realize the doors are designed to swing all the way to the sides of the trailer where they are secured open. This is so the trailer can be backed all the way up to the loading dock without the doors flapping and getting damaged.
With that in mind, there’s no real reason to agonize over the doors: you won’t see any of the exterior detail anyway. Cut a couple of pieces of sheet styrene to the right size and glue them to the sides of the body. You might want to put a small shim in so the doors look like they are being held open.
Remember that trailer doors are often lined with plywood or a similar material so you might want to paint them an appropriate color.
If the trailer is backed up to a loading dock and no one will see the inside of the trailer, there’s no reason to mess with the existing doors at all. Otherwise, just cut them out and don’t worry about being neat until you hit the door frame, which you can clean up with a file or sanding stick. Paint the interior a simulated plywood color and you’re good to go.
Bill C.
Atlas O makes 45’ Pines Trailers O Scale with opening doors.
Ask the people at the Atlas Model RR Company about the HO Scale 45’ Pines Trailers. They should have opening doors. If not, the people at Atlas Model RR Co. have to revise the tooling to offer opening doors.
Andrew
b cawthorn has it down pretty good.
On swing doors there’s not much more to say. for roll up doors you want to add the box they roll into in the top of the door space and some indication of the slot each side that they roll in. there’s usually also a strap that hangs down from the middle of the door to pull them down by.
Parcel vans have those big plate doors that slide up round a curved rail and along the roof. They also have the strap.
The great thing with both these doors is that there is very little to see in the back of the truck when they’re open.
Why not cut doors from the not-so-good trucks sacrificing the sides and use them on the better trucks if you want doors that haven’t been swung all the way open? They would probably want to be rubbed along a flat file to thin them.
The plywood interior doesn’t usually stay ply colour for very long! Depending on loading it usually goes stripey grey… and there are frequently scrape and bash marks all along the sides.
I don’t know what load restraint systems US trucks have in them??? Do they have the metal strips part way up the sides or the net systems?
Again… Do Reefers have the plastic strips hanging from the top that the guy in front always manages to let swing back to clout you when you’re not looking? You could probably do these with strips of clear plastic wrap. …or do they have the clear plastic swing doors inside? Clear plastic and paint for the fittings would do these nicely.
When removing the doors from the back I would taper the truck sides and roof (by filing) to give an imprsssion of the thin walls… then again the actual end is a post…? I’d check out what a trailer really looked like. Anyone got any good pics please?
Do US semi-trailer trucks often have the semi-transluscent GRP roofs?
Just be pleased you don’t use as many curtain-side trucks as we do[:D]
I found in the Walthers catalog that Herpa makes rear open doors so now I wish I knew that when I went there thursday night.
Thats the same thing I was thinking… You’re probably going to have to build it you’re self. Good luck on doing so but before I end this I recommend this. I would use a very fine brass round strip for the hinges on the top and bottom of the doors so they can swing in and out. But… If I were you I would cut those doors (Very carefully of course) out with an X-acto knife. Go around the edge of the door with the knife untill the door falls out.
James
Jaems,
to be honest I looked over herpas and the way it looks is fine to me, I will cut the doors off and glue them on but I’m not even gonna attempt to cut the doors out of a semi trailer. Theres one reason when I was 9 yrs old I was doing an art project for art class and I was using an x-acto blade and almost cut off my left middle finger. Since then I try not to cut with them if I dont have to maybe when I work up to it I will do it. But for now I thinkt he herpa container trailer will do just fine after I make it look more like a standard trailer.
When a trailer’s doors are open, it’s usually backed into a dock, which makes the back of it impossible to see. Scoring the existing doors, aside from being a “pita” will result in doors that are scalewise, far too thick, even if you’re modeling reefers. 1:1 freight boxes have very thin doors.
If freight boxes are your choice, why not just cut thin styrene of proper door size and glue them in position? Spot them at the dock and you’re done…
[2c]
Bill,I made my livin’ operating a forklift for the last 17 years before being medically retired…I can say this the trailer doors are thicker then the side walls on the freight or reefer trailer but,not by much.BTW…A reefer trailer can be use to haul general freight as well…
I will try and score doors when I get a trailer I can mess with maybe the bowser roadrailer that ehy wont sent me a part for that wasnt in the box say prayers for me that way I wont cut myself lol.