[tup] Reasonable decision, Dave. If one’s going to such a great effort to model a particular prototype, staring to add significant (or any) mods seems kind of counter-intuitive.
John
Well, I tried to modify several Tichy archbar truck sideframes to replace the springs with a solid beam and I didn’t have much success. The styrene side frames are simply too delicate. After breaking the bars on several trucks I decided to seek another solution.
I’m going to see if I can find some delrin archbar trucks. They will be much tougher.
Cheers!!
Dave
Hi folks,
Again, sorry for the silence. I have been doing our income tax returns and I ran into a couple of situations where I couldn’t get the information I needed or I couldn’t see where a credit was actually included in the calculations. I’m still working on that. The good news is that we are both getting nice refunds!
I’m going to force myself to go to the workbench right now so I can make some progress. Stay tuned!
Cheers!!
Dave
I spent most of the night creating the somewhat complex ladders and platforms for the water tanker. I also started construction of the four separate platforms for the tanker.
In this photo you can see the ladders as well as the ‘C’ shaped brass angle iron pieces that will form the outer frames for the side platforms. They have yet to be trimmed to size:
It took me a while to figure out how to make the ladders without having a whole bunch of solder joints that would be prone to melting when the next piece was being added. Ultimately I came up with a very simple pattern that has only two pieces and two solder joints. I will have to add a third rung at the top of the ladders but I think I will use CA to hold that in place.
I wasn’t quite sure what to cover the platforms with. I was thinking of using expanded brass mesh but instead I have decided to use styrene planking. That will match the planking around the dome.
Cheers!!
Dave
[:)]TF
I have the ladders installed. They still need to be cleaned up and adjusted a bit. I still have to add the planks on top. They don’t foul the trucks which is amazing since I just eyeballed everything.
It took me three days of head scratching trying to figure out how to securely attach the ladders to the platform frames. I conjured up all sorts of scenarios, most of which involved rebuilding all of the ladders which I wasn’t about to do, and finally I decided to just solder the things together and it worked fine. The alignment isn’t perfect on the angle iron platform frames but even up close I can’t tell so who cares.
Cheers!!
Dave
Great work![Y]
I have made a little more progress on the water tanker. I have installed the tool boxes and the platforms on the tops of the ladder assemblies, and I have reduced the size of the platform around the dome.
The next steps will be to add the supports and guard railings for the dome platform. I also have to install a railing around the upper half of the tank and some grabs above the ladders. After that, I will be adding rivet details to the tank and the tool boxes.
I am going to state clearly that my work is a bit crude. Many things don’t line up as they should. The platforms above the ladders are a prime example. However, I have decided that the old adage that it is “good enough” will be applied in liberal quantities to my modelling. Like I have said before, if the trains don’t look very good then just run them faster![swg][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Cheers!!
Dave
Looks good from here Dave[Y]
TF
Thanks John and TF.
Cheers!!
Dave
I have been working on all of the hand rails and grab irons on the water car. Tedious fussy work, but I’m getting there. I will post pictures in a couple of days when all the bits and the rivet decals are in place.
Cheers!!
Dave
Edit: Update! I have installed all of the hand rails and grab irons. The ladders going up to the dome are a bit heavy but I can live with that.
I discovered a problem with one of the couplers. Apparently when I was gluing the side platforms into place some of the CA seeped into one of the coupler pockets.[|(] I managed to get the coupler to move but it is way too stiff to be functional. I will have to cut the coupler box out of the frame and replace the whole thing.[D)]
Next will come the rivet decals. It will be a bit of a PITA to apply them under the hand rails but, after my experience with so many rivet decals coming off of the plow when I was handling it, I decided to leave them until last.
WOW!!
Just went over 60,000 views! Amazing!
Cheers!!
Dave
Great looking tanker, Dave! [tup]
I got the brake wheel and the brake cylinder installed on the water tanker tonight. I will add more brake detail in the next few days, but other than that the water tanker is pretty much complete. All it will need it paint and decals.
Cheers!!
Dave
P.S.
I would like to offer a sincere thank you to all the people who are following this thread! I am humbled by the level of interest in my project.
Looks great Dave!
For those who might be interested, this is the original tank car:
I’m going to wait until I have all of the various cars built for the snow plow train before I start painting. Then I can do them all at once.
Cheers!!
Dave
I need a clerestory roof for the ‘Cook Car’, and I found a suitable donor car on eBay for what I guess is a reasonable price. I got it for $41.00 Cdn including shipping.
I say that the price was reasonable only because everything else that was listed was $65.00 Cdn and up! Some sellers wanted $65.00 just for shipping!
Please refrain from turning this into a ‘how expensive the hobby has become’ rant. All I’m saying is that it seems like a lot of money just to get a roof and a frame. Most of the rest will be scrapped.[|(]
Cheers!!
Dave
There is going to be a pause in the snow train construction while I wait for some items to arrive. Specifically, I have two speakers on order from Scale Sound Systems which will replace the sugar cube speakers in one of the pusher locomotives and the round speaker in the other. Neither locomotive sounds particularly good to me so I’m hoping that the SSS speakers will be an improvement. Also, as I mentioned in my previous post, I’m waiting for a clesestory roofed passenger car so I can build a proper looking cook car. Both are scheduled to arrive in mid May so I won’t be posting much until then.
The train will also need a tool/work car and a caboose. I have both cars already and they will run ‘as is’. The caboose will be taken from my fleet of detailed Athearn units, and the tool car is a Walthers unit from their somewhat older work train set.
Cheers!!
Dave
Will someone explain to me what that small thin tank running the length of the D&RGW car does? I see that it has been removed as the C&TS now has it. Or is it only ‘on the other side of the car’? – something I’d doubt for lateral balance reasons.
I’m at a loss to even see what small thin tank you refer to. Sorry. Even after studying the soft B&W photo.
Water Car by Patricia Henschen, on Flickr
Rotary OY after dark by Kevin Madore, on Flickr
Excellent workmanship on those brass drop steps, Dave [bow]. I would have been chasing gremlins trying to make that many solder joints without the previous ones melting free.
Regards, Ed