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Part 19: A scratchbuilt Boxcab for my layout!


M Graff

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Hello in the summer heat :lol:

I have always had a desire for a special locomotive for my layout.

It all started when I read about the small port terminals in New York and the locomotives they were using.

Central of New Jersey had an Ingersoll Rand locomotive that is one of the first commercially made diesel locomotives:

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A very beautiful locomotives in my opinion :pleasantry:

Then came Tim Warris with his Bronx Terminal in HO (an incredible layout).

There he showed how to take a brass Boxcab and rebuild the drive to get it to run as well as it looks.

The problem with just Boxcabs is that the only models that are available are either made of brass and costs a fortune, and runs like a bag of s**t.

Or you may have to be be content with an old Roundhouse locomotives in plastic that is also going like muck ... Plus, you have to add the extra detailing to make it look reasonably good .....

Neither option was very good :(

I thought it would be nice to build one myself.

One problem was that it was really tricky to get hold of the drawings of the locomotive.

Luckily, as I am a member on a U.S. forum, where one of the members have recently built an I-R Boxcab in brass and in S-scale.

I emailed him about the drawings and he emailed me back everything he had as PDFs :D

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I had to resize it a bit before I got the printouts right for HO.

After some thoughts and inquiries, I finally found a locomotive that would do as a chassis donor:

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(See http://www.rmweb.co....__1#entry410924)

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Apparently it is a bit of a difference in length. but very acceptable to me.

I decided that I would build the new body in plastic, which could be a challenge.

I used 1, 0.5 and 0.25 mm plasticard and some profiles.

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This is about everything you need for the basic construction (needle files and tweezers are not in the picture).

I drew up the parts with an ink-pen and drilled the corners of the windows before I cut them out with an Xacto-knife.

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This is "the base wall" , made of 0.5 mm plastic On to it, the embossed outer skins of 0.25 mm plastic will be applied. That way I get good stability in the body and a "plate-like" appearance.

The chassis was shortened 4 mm on one side, and the entire original decoder with lights sent into the round-archive ;).

I made two boards to mount my LED's and resistors on.

The Lenz decoder was hard wired in and mounted above the motor, but under the weight.

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I made a new base of 1 mm plastic.

This is how it looked after I glued the walls to the base:

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I made the outer skins and the inner window frames of 0.25 mm plastic.

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The outer skins, I placed (upside down) on the drawing, and used a self-made light table to emboss all the rivets with a needle in a wooden holder.

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I can now reveal, that when you venture into this kind of construction, without having tested the techniques, it can REALLY go down the drains!

The picture that follows shows just that:

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First, it did not work out with my roof, it was formed like a Banana..... Luckily I found a roof in the scrap box that could be cut to shape and be used instead.

It was not the biggest problem .......

I had glued the body together and glued the window frames in place before applying the outer skins with the embossed rivets :(.

It did not work out that way, so I started from scratch :blink: .

But as I had done it once, it went rather quickly the second time ......

The Chassi beams are plasticard I-beams 2.5 mm.

I had almost feared the construction of the roof mounted radiators ....

Fortunately, I had a piece of corrugated patterned plasticard. I shaped a piece of 0.5 mm metal in the right curvature, then I took the plastic, forcing it to follow the shape of the plate and secured it with clamps and then dipped the whole shebang in boiling water for a few minutes. When it had cooled down I had a row of convincing cooling tubes in the right shape!

So here is the build as it stands right now, just some paint and small details remain:

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The exhaust pipes on the roof is turned from beech in a drill stand ;)

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Scratchbuilding is FUN! :D

 

Source: The M-K & Eastern RR Harbour branch

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A very nice job, thanks for sharing.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing it with a coat of paint.

 

Paul.

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Good job! I was a bit unsure about the extra length, but it really doesn't show on the finished model. I guess that shows that you've captured the character of the thing.

 

Jim

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Thanks :sungum:

I am in dept to you John! I have had an urge to build a Boxcab for a long time.

I think this suits my needs for now (until I build one in brass :pleasantry:)

I was also unsure about the added length of the chassis, but it works actually quite well....

The boggies has the correct wheelbase, its the spacing between them that´s wrong (10 mm to long!).

I have painted it now and I will possibly have it ready by tomorrow :yes:.

I´m supposed to have it with me to a model railway meeting this weekend...

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Top stuff. Really catches the look of the machine. :clapping:

 

Cheers

Dave

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