Building a (small) fleet of Mount Blue Boxcars

[Rick]

Nice work Ron.
Don't think I've seen a door handle placed like that on a boxcar.

[elwoodblues]

Outstanding modeling on the cars Ron.

Thanks Curt. 

[elwoodblues]

Nice work Ron.
Don't think I've seen a door handle placed like that on a boxcar.

Rick,

Prototype photos show the handles that way.  Rather that cut and paste a photo here (which is probably an issue) here is a link to a prototype picture showing the door handle on the car.

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=57593

[Rick]

Nice work Ron.
Don't think I've seen a door handle placed like that on a boxcar.

Rick,

Prototype photos show the handles that way.  Rather that cut and paste a photo here (which is probably an issue) here is a link to a prototype picture showing the door handle on the car.

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=57593

I had no doubt it wasn't prototypical.
Just something I don't remember seeing before.

[deemery]

That door handle position makes sense.  If you're in the freight house, standing at the same level as the car floor, that handle is conveniently located to open the door.

dave

[friscomike]

Thanks, Ron.  I've seen so many cars and cabins patched with plywood in their later years that I couldn't tell.  Nice work as usual.  Have fun, mike

[deemery]

It's best to do trucks and couplers before gluing the undercarriage permanently to the rest of the car:

For HOn30, the Kadee N scale gauge works for coupler height.  Those are the Grandt Line SR&RL 4' trucks.  They look great, but the wheelsets suck (plastic wheels.)  The replacement wheelsets from NWSL are prohibitively expensive ($24 for 4 wheelsets.)  The Fox Valley N scale wheelsets have a different axle shape.  I've asked the HOn30 groups.io list for what people are using these days for trucks and wheelsets.  I do have some Shapeways 3D printed trucks, but I think they're wider wheelbase, which looks a bit funky on the 20' car.

dave

[elwoodblues]

Thanks, Ron.  I've seen so many cars and cabins patched with plywood in their later years that I couldn't tell.  Nice work as usual.  Have fun, mike

Thanks Mike,  I'm having a lot of fun building them.

[elwoodblues]

It's best to do trucks and couplers before gluing the undercarriage permanently to the rest of the car:

For HOn30, the Kadee N scale gauge works for coupler height.  Those are the Grandt Line SR&RL 4' trucks.  They look great, but the wheelsets suck (plastic wheels.)  The replacement wheelsets from NWSL are prohibitively expensive ($24 for 4 wheelsets.)  The Fox Valley N scale wheelsets have a different axle shape.  I've asked the HOn30 groups.io list for what people are using these days for trucks and wheelsets.  I do have some Shapeways 3D printed trucks, but I think they're wider wheelbase, which looks a bit funky on the 20' car.

dave

Dave,

Fortunately (or luckily) for us modeling in On30 in that we have more options.  Because I'm modeling Maine 2 foot prototypes I use Ticky archbar trucks which have 3ft truck spacing instead of of the required 4ft that the prototype used.  But, they are readily available at a very reasonable price.  I use Intermouintain 36" wheels which scales out to 20" in O scale which is the diameter wheels that were used.

[deemery]

I should have mentioned the reason the weights are on "stilts" is to make sure the truck screw doesn't accidentally push into the weights and knock them loose.  Plus with the nylon truss rods, they wouldn't sit quite flat on the floor.

dave

[deemery]

I need to add the brakewheel, touch up paint on grabs, etc, and put the wheels back into the trucks (or replace them.)  The thin cardstock parts, like the door hangers, are very fragile.  They really should include extras, a comment I'll be sending back to Mount Blue.


I have yet to find a really good paint that sticks to phosphor bronze.  And if there's something more frustrating than detail parts/grabirons/NBWs that fly off the tweezers, I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW...

dave

[elwoodblues]

Dave, I agree with you about finding a paint that sticks to phosphor bronze is like finding the holy grail.  What I do is first use a product like blackin-it or Pewter Black from Jax to blacken the phosphor bronze and then paint it.

The boxcar looks great, and if there's something more frustrating than detail parts/grabirons/NBWs that fly off the tweezers, I do not want to know about it either.

[Larry C]

Dave the boxcar is really looking good. When stuff flys off tweezers they end up in the same place as that odd sock you can't find; mine must be getting pretty full by now.

[elwoodblues]

Time for another update. . . . . 




The ladders are made on the carrier sheets.  The reason for this is to keep everything aligned during the construction process.





The first step is to add the rungs to the ladder.  this is done by cutting the grab irons down to size.  The grab iron on top is the original while the grab iron below is the modified one.




The rungs installed on the ladder.





After the rungs were installed, the NBW castings were added.  Once all this was done ACC was used to glue the rungs and NBW casting to the ladders.





The ladders removed from the carrier sheets.

[elwoodblues]

The ladders installed to the boxcars.

We are almost done with the build.  There are just a few details to be added to the boxcars.

Thanks for looking in.