Hello everyone out there!
I’ve been recently thinking about adding more and more loads to freight cars that I have. Any suggestions for types of loads that can be made from materials lying around the house? Can’t wait to see these responses!
Nate
Nate
Take all of the old Plastic Wheels (left over from changing over to Metal Wheels) remove them from the axles
Paint them with RUST and then glue them into a load for a Gondola.
I use Mat-Medium for the glue and just put the wheels in a dish and pour the Mat-Medium in and stir the mixture until the wheels seem to have a even coating.
Place a piece of wax paper in the GON and pour the wheels into the wax paper.
Mash the wheels down all over so they completely fill the inside of the Gon.
Let dry and then remove the load and pull off the wax paper
Touch up the paint and weather
Load is finished and looks real !
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Nate,While one can find or make several types of loads I recommend going to the next step and modeling the unusual loads instead of-if you’ll permit-copycat loads one sees on most layouts.
As a example I have seen old upside down trailers in gondolas-it reminded me of a dead cartoon animal with its legs sticking up in the air-a load of crush glass,old simi cabs or for the transtion era a load of dirty hay.
Something of odd shape under a tarp - to find out what it is, read the waybill.
A gondola load of gas bottles made from sprues. If you’ve built a Walthers mine or gravel pit you already have the `makins.’
An old, battered, rusty locomotive without wheels - good use for a Life-Like Dockside.
Re-bar (cut lengths of wire, appropriately painted, banded with black chart tape.)
After de-needling them, I used a bunch of the lancets from my diabetes test kit as prestressed concrete pilings.
One suggestion - keep your loads removable. I have some, each with its own waybill, that can be moved from car to car while the cars are in staging.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Broken VHS/DVD players, CD/DVD Rom players all have nice plastic gears inside them, as well as fishing reels.
Get some drink straws and paint them to make a pipe load.
Go outside and pick up some small pieces of tree limbs, cut to length painted /stained to make a log load.
I have a Rivarossi 4-8-4 steamer body that would make a fantastic load for a heavy-duty flatcar. Problem is I have no such car.
RC car suspension parts make great gondola loads.
I use a NWSL chopper to cut spaghetti into 3-4 foot long pieces to make pig iron loads.
BB’s can be used be used for ball mill balls.
Straws make good pipe loads.
Scrap sheet plastic can be cut into rectangular pieces for plate steel.
Take an old switch, cut it into two pieces and add bracing to lean it on edge in a gon for a panel switch.
Go to a craft store and buy a plastic water color pallette with little water depressions in it. Cut those out and use them for stamped dished vessel ends for gon loads.
Cut some track into 39’ sections, paint the ties steam powered black and the rail boxcar red, and stack about 5 sections high as a track panel load. Works for both gons and flatcars.
Howdy, Jeffery,
If you just have the superstructure (no frame, wheels or machinery) the boiler, smokebox and cab shouldn’t overload a standard flat of appropriate length. A lot of a steam loco’s weight on drivers is the water in the boiler. I presume that it would be drained to reduce shipping charges if being moved as freight. (Railroads, and railroad museums, are nothing if not cost-averse.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)