a couple of flatcars

[PeterR]

Hi,

 

Hi,

 

I have just finished a couple of Denver & South Park RR flatcars; the shorter one needed some smaller transfers which I dfid not have in stock; those have now been delivered.

 

So having applied them to the narrow depth of the solebars I added some heavy weathering to the vehicles deck, these vehicles date from 1879; and to provide some contrast a couple a new planks that have been fitted into the (older) flatcar deck.

 

Most of the weathering is washes of (very thin) acrylic paint; but I have also used some of the very fine pigments (or powders) that are available from the Military Modeller’s equipment. These are MIG pigments, and are the ‘European dust’ and ‘Light rust’ colours.

 

They look very light in colour, but when mixed with an applying varnish darken down considerably; I used Johnson’s Klear for the varnish, and a dense colour can be built up with multiple applications of them.

 

The second, and larger flatcar is finished as being ‘brand new’ dating from 1883 there were also some companion boxcars with both vehicles being 30 feet long: I have the transfers for one of these. The boxcars were not quite the longest the Denver & South Park had, those were the charcoal cars which were very large, almost to standard gauge dimensions, and 31 feet long.

 

All Denver & South Park RR flatcars had two stake pockets inset from the sides, at the ends. These fitted into hidden stake pockets at the junction of the intermediate ‘end to end’ longitudinals; these were used when the flatcars carried sleepers (or in American ‘ties’) and who help to stop the falling off the ends. The stake pockets along the ides are made from small pieces of Plastruct ABS plastic, glued on to the junction of the 3mm thick PVC solid foam, deck, then a piece of copper wire is fitted into pre-drilled holes in the centre, and small bits of 1mm square plasticard added top and bottom for the stiffening there.

 

Here are some photos of them together, taken inside, as the weather was a bit cold! First a top view, then a lower view, and finally a couple with some of my ‘loads’ for them, and others I have built. Both loads are in two parts so there is more variety for their use.

 

A final photo shops my model of DSP&PRR number 1 built of the chassis of a Bachmann ‘Indie’ (Industrial) mogul. The sun came out (for all of 20 minutes!) and I quickly got the equipment out, the early flatcar is in the train, with another load – a canvas tarpaulin covered load of I think hay or fodder. That is made from some waste polystyrene packaging with some lead added for some extra weight, and then a piece of heavy paper glued over the load using PVA; carefully fold it when it is being applied; the PVA glue wets the sheet which is then very weak; when dry it was then painted. The photo it was built from did not show any fixing ropes; I can only assume that the speed of the train was quite slow, or the load was not travelling very far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yours Peter.

[James Hilton]

Lovely scratchbuilding Peter - and lucky to get any photos with sunshine at the moment!