So I went to the local obscure bookstore to look around…wow what a wealth of things they had! From multiple original volumes of the Locomotive Cyclopedias, to catalogs for steam machinery,books on casting metal and smelting copper, to old model RR publications…the list just goes on…but I digress…
I picked up a book called “Rolling Stock Plan Book of HO and O gauge car plans” the first edition was printed in 1957…what i have is the second printing of the revised edition, which was in 1971… Well I picked it up due to some of the more obscure cars I saw…but I don’t understand the ‘plans’. They appear to drawings scaled exactly to O or HO, but no details about parts. I’m new to scratchbuilding, and what i’ve worked with so far have been pullout plans in Garden Railways(since I MOSTLY model G), so these are a bit different than what I’m accustomed to.
I’m guessing if I want to make them in G I just enlarge the drawings to fist the general size I need and then go from there, freelancing details for the parts the best I can?
In 1957, there were few parts you could buy; building was up to you. And so it remains, more or less. The purpose of scale drawings is to show you the configuration of the subject, in scale. If the details aren’t clearly shown, you’ll have to rely on your general knowledge of “typical” practice, look at photos of the actual thing, or find better drawings!
I use scale drawings in many subject areas (railroad, aircraft, cars, trucks, ships, boats, etc) and never change the drawing or try to reprint it to a different size. I measure the drawing, and convert the measurement to whatever scale I am working in. A scale ruler in the scale of the drawing, and another in whatever scale I am using for the model is very helpful. If I don’t have a ruler for both scales, I measure the drawing and do the conversions with a calculator.
I think the purpose of this book was to help those who wanted them, to build more obscure cars(like vinegar cars, dry bulk hopper cars, poling cars, etc) if they weren’t available, which in 1957 I doubt as much was available as now! I’ve got a few projects picked out, but just wanted to get input on if my intial thinking was correct!
Offtopic sidenote: G is STILL way easier than 009, lol…
There are two issues involved here. Make that three. Back in '57 most of the plans were drawn with actual dimensions for HO or O. N and G scales didn’t exist. Authors would say something like, “cut a 1/8” wide piece of basswood 3 1/4" long. That is issue one. Issue two is that somewhere along the line MR started to publish plans with real dimensions so they could be used with scale rules in any scale which made it all a lot easier. They also started to publish how much to blow up or reduce a plan for other scales. So here is the rule of thumb. If the plan is smaller than the scale you want you need to make it larger so divide the smaller scale by the larger. Example HO plan to O gauge. Divide 87/48 = 1.81 multiplier or 181%. If the scale you want the plan for is smaller than divide the original size by the new scale. so to convert an HO plan to N gauge divide 87/160 = .544 or 54.4% reduction. The third issue is the brake components on the bottom of the car. They are all pretty standard and to the best of my knowledge they all pretty much use the same equipment. The locations vary widely however. Hoppers and tank car really don’t have a bottom where they can be mounted. Once you study air brake components they will all make sense and are available from a variety of sources from plastic through lost wax brass. Most of the shake the box kit makers can provide them on a sprue as do several manufacturers.
In the fifties and sixties, plastic kits were considered acceptable for a kid or somebody just starting in the hobby…the kinda person who used snaptrack or that new-fangled flextrack instead of handlaying. However a “serious” modeller built everything either from scratch or from craftsman’s kits. Model magazines usually had at least one set of scale plans of a real car in each issue, so that anyone interested could scratchbuild one from wood.
Freight and passenger cars were built of wood and steel, and normally had parts (like passenger car roofs) that you had to sand or file by hand into the correct shape. Locomotives (steam locomotives that is, only a few oddballs liked diesels back then) were built from metal kits, or you’d pony up the $40-50 for a brass engine (which had to be painted, and usually needed considerable work to be able to run as well as the kitbuilt engines).
I wouldn’t know much about the good ol’ days, being born in the 80s… but I’m old fashioned when it comes to modeling, I like to MAKE things, not BUY them! As far as rescaling the drawings and such, I’ve done all that before since I like a lot of things that aren’t commercially available in large scale… still not GOOD at it…but practice makes perfect!
A lot of very early, 1930’s to 1950’s “scale” drawings were made into mass produced models in the 1960’s. Unfortunately, the early drawings could be inaccurate, but there was nothing better around. Thus we have composite models such as (possibly) the Athearn express or milk reefer which is neither fish nor fowl, and the ATSF heavyweight diner by Rivarossi (better but not perfect).
