Sycamore Creek RR: Building flat cars...

[PeterR]

Hi,

 

James wants some details of how I build my rolling stock: so I will start with the universal vehicle of the Narrow Gauge - flatcars --

 

The American Narrow Gauge originally used just two styles of freight cars, flatcars and box cars. Later things became more complicated but in my period (approx 1880) it was still quite simple.

Flatcars were used for everything that did not needed protection from water or where security was required (hence gold/silver ore in sacks was shipped in boxcars, with small (& heavy ) loads over the trucks.

 

I looked at the Bachmann flatcars, but those are the wrong size especially being too narrow. However the ‘kits’ for them are very useful for a supply of trucks for modifying, and the deck makes very good ‘boardwalks’ for the buildings in hamlet of Sycamore Creek. The LGB freight car trucks are virtually rthe same so can be used insted if required.

 

The DSP flatcars were slightly unusual insofar as there were an extra two holes cut in the flatcar deck close to the end of the car; these were used to put in a couple of stakes (at each end) that helped contain the load.

 

I have also built some of the earlier designs of flatcar, which are smaller, and as I have some Hartford transfers (from the USA) I added another one of the 8 stake pockets per side version that uses those, the earlier ones have different spacing’s for the (usually 6) stake pockets, and the Hartford decals will not fit these.

 

I use the ‘Ron Rudnick’ books on the CCRR & the DSPRR freight cars, these being available from the USA, and my computer enlarges them to the correct size: they are an absolute gold mine, for my drawings. CCRR is the initials of the Colorado Central Railroad, for which I have also built some freight cars. Both railroads interchanged loads at Denver.

 

Leaving the trucks till later, the flatcars are of a simple construction: I now use 3mm thick PVC solid foam sheet for the flatcar deck, (see the website http://www.vekaplan.de/vekaplan/divers/en/vekaplan_sf.htm for one manufacturer, to wehich I have no connection. The stuff is sold in BIG asheets 8ft x 4ft, so is not cheap but you can build lots of vehicles etc with tyhe sheet; my main thickness id 5mm but I do ise otyher thicknesses as well (eg for wagon (coal boxes) sides. It is inert, and can both be cut, and scored easily, I did use plywood, but my supply ran out, and the local model shop closed. I use Evo-stik for gluing them all together, in tubes as it is easier to use, and needless to say I use quite a lot! The scoring is done with an Olfa cutter but that is pushed, pulling it on PVC solid foam will rip the surface.

 

The chassis, is made from wood strips, cut on my very useful indeed small (Proxxon KS230 ) circular saw. Add some weight to the underside, I use sheet lead, and wash your hands please after using it, and in the centre of the deck between the two centre beams there to give them some weight. The stake pockets are made from the grey coloured Plastruct sections (ABS Plastic, not the white styrene) ; this has become difficult to find in the UK but ‘EMA Model supplies’ still sell it. They are at the following link, which takes you direct to the size I use. The DSP originally used vacumn brakes made by Eales, but at 5000 feet to 11000 fett they were not really 'up to the job', so instead of pushing from tha atmosphere they changed to the air pressure verison - Westinghouse. I amke the (westinghouse) cylinder from bits of scrap tube and such like and leave it at that - it can only just be seen in the 'gloom' of the wagon underside and thus it gives the impression. The pipes om the ends are made from the insulation off the black wire that used to be used in your household electrics, with one (out of the 3) conductor wires to give some stiffness to it. The end connectors are bits of square section plasticard and a plasticard disc glued onto a small projection of the wire past the 'pipe'. Hold it in position with some twisted 10 amp fusewire to look like fine chain - this is also used for bell pulls on my locomotives. It will keep its shape well and looks quite good.

 

http://www.ema-models.co.uk/shop/prodpages/page-FPH-8.html

 

It is still sold at some of the better model shops as well – try your local one if possible first.

 

 

The fixing staples are copper wire, fitted into pre drilled holes with Evo-stik, and the extra casting stiffeners are square styrene strip glued on when they have been glued in position. File out the edges of the flatcar deck to the same size as the centre hole, and make your stakes, mine are 3.5mm square.

 

To stop them going further in than the bottom of the stake pocket I add a small piece of .040 rod into a pre-drilled hole near the bottom of the stakes. I also have some thicker stakes again made from scrap PVC solid foam. The )full size) stakes were made from any scarp wood that was large enough to be used so you can have plenty of variations.

 

The bogies as supplied by Bachmann are a very good for modifying, so they always have visits to the surgery for some changes to be made.

 

The Denver South Park & Pacific Railroad had three distinct designs of freight car bogie during its lifetime and this was the first style. I have also made the others using the same basic idea, if you have a drawing the rest is easy! The CCRR were also different but slightly easier to make.

 

 

There are slight mismatches for what I do, for example the wheelbase of the Bachmann bogie is 3foot 8 inches and the DSP were 4foot, conversely the wheelbase of CCRR bogies was 3foot 4 inches!

 

This style of bogie had the brakeshoes hung from the cross pieces at each end; I do not do that as it makes it more difficult if I want to dismantle the bogies. Later the DSP hung them from the underside of the floor which for my purposes is even worse so they stay attached to the bogie itself.

 

 

Back to my work on them - first the all the detail was removed using a sanding drum and a dentists burr for the small work, removing the center spring detail and half of the thickness at the ends of the top frameworks, be careful, and work slowly checking the levels, also take off the detail on the axleboxes and the vertical bolts each side of the axleboxes. When finished add each side of the central area, where the springs were at each side a strip 1.5mm x 1mm – this levels up the outer edges of the sides of the central part to the level of the rest of the area.

 

 

The bogies for early flatcars have extensions at each end, which is the reason for the work above, the extensions are made from 60 thou plasticard, with the slightly difficult bit being the diagonal slopes that run from the underside of the level top pieces to the outer edges of the axleboxes.on the lower parts of the bogie, the lower end fits close against the axlebox and under the end piece of the new top extensions. Ensure these are level by ‘squinting’ along the bogie frame – any difference will be quite obvious. Glue the new ‘bits’ to the frame with Evo-stik, or styrene glue when possible, as it is faster to set. It will not work on the black plastic .

 

 

One side frame has a small amount of play added into it (like the LGB version of these bogies) - shave off the lower end edges of the fixing spigot, and make the fixing hole on the sideframe an oval shape so the frame when fitted has some up & down movement.

 

 

Moving to the centre unit fill in the holes each side of the centre pivot with some scrap (PVC solid foam) bits (they are 20mm deep) and a stiffener piece at the side of the main pieces. These will support the ‘end to end’ beams that the brake shoes and beams are going to be fixed to. The two sideframes can be fitted back onto the centre unit with the painted (rust and muck colour) wheels fitted at the same time.

 

The brakebeams , and brakeshoes are made from PVC solid foam scrap, and the ‘end to end’ beams, which are slightly flexible can be made from .060 plasticard, though I have used (as I had it in stock), some PVC sheet from the centre of doors. Fix the brake shoes onto the beam allowing for some side play by the wheels, and paint the inside face, which is against the wheels of them before fitting. When fixing them to the (pre-fixed) end to end beams they will need to be at a slope to match the wheels, add a tiny wedge to lift up the inner edge of each one.

 

 

One sideframe has some compensation to it: to keep this working the cross pieces at the extreme ends of the bogie frames, and at the coupler end need to be free, I leave the inner end unglued and add a piece on the coupler shank to act as a stop

 

Transfers I buy form ‘Stan Cedarleaf’, in Arizona: I also included some sets for my Colorado Central vehicles which I have also been building. These can also make up some trains for my CCRR Porter locomotive that I built with the assistance of the web group ‘myLargescale.com’ whwre an Australian architect ‘David Fletcher’ did the instructions, including drawings and photos, using the chassis of the Bachmann ‘Indie’ mogul. The ‘masters’ for the transfers were eventually finished ,with Stan’s help, which were printed and delivered to the American postal service, and they arrived in a mere 7 days (certainly express delivery!).

 

The first addition to flatcars were sides and ends, that were separate, so they could be removed in the summer, with the ends being contained by square timber inside the sides – these slotted into the stake pockets on the sides. A later variation was to add a top and the vehicle was then used for carrying powdered lime (used in smelting) Later some of the flatcars gained a top and internal ‘end to end’ seats for excursions; a modification to these cars were a few baggage cars (called in the USA, ‘head end (of the passenger trains) cars).

 

Being a firm beliver of the phrase that a photo is worth a thousand words, rather than me typing away another 8000 words haer are some 8 photos, of some of my flatcars and variations. Alas I cannot see the way to give them some explanatory captions.

[James Hilton]

Wonderful input Peter - thank you This reads really nicely.

I have split it out from your garden line thread to keep comments and discussions on topic more easily.

[PeterR]

Wonderful input Peter - thank you This reads really nicely.

I have split it out from your garden line thread to keep comments and discussions on topic more easily.

 

 

Thanks James, I should have done that - will do for the next one!

[trisonic]

Good work. Nice to see real modelling in the larger scales. Thanks.

 

Best, Pete.