Building a (small) fleet of Mount Blue Boxcars

[elwoodblues]

If I didn't have enough projects on the go, I figured I would resurrect one that I started a couple of years ago.

Over the years I have accumulated a bunch of Mount Blue Models SR&RL RR 28ft Boxcars with the goal of replacing the Bachmann cars on my layout with more appropriated 2ft gauge Maine narrow gauge cars that I prefer.  If I was to start over I would build something based on the WW&F.


  
Above is one of the kits in the wild.





The majority of the parts are laser cut on basswood and very thin material something like chipboard.





There is also some brass wire, a bag of parts and a bag containing some clear fishing line.





At the NMRA meet last Saturday I was able to build the frame.  The frame is very designed with the laser cut pieces fitting together tightly.





An with "Abracadabra......." three more completed frames     I did say I was building a small fleet of them.

Not sure how long this will take considering the other projects I have going on, but we shall see.

Thanks for looking in. 

[Jerry]

Your off to a good staart Ron.  I hope you get these done in a timely manner!! 

Jerry

[elwoodblues]

Your off to a good staart Ron.  I hope you get these done in a timely manner!! 

Jerry

Jerry,

You are going to have to define "timely manner" 

[friscomike]

Howdy Ron,

That is some project.  I'm watching your assembly.  How do you plan to add weight to the cars?   I have a MBM boxcar to build, too.

Have fun,
mike

[ACL1504]

Ron,

Looks like a great boxcar to build. Looking forward to you build, timely manner or not! 

Tom 

[Rick]

Looks like a nice kit.
Have fun building it.

[elwoodblues]

Thanks for looking in Tom and Rick.

I was able to make some progress on the boxcars so I thought I would post an update



Before installing the queen posts I painted them with Vellejo's Black Grey (70.862).  I don't use black on my models as I find it to stark.





The instructions call that the center of the queen posts should be .290 from the edge.  When I built the last 3 frames and I knew I more to build I made myself a little jig so no measuring is involved any more. 

[elwoodblues]

According to the instructions the next step is to install the truss rods.



The truss rods are made from clear nylon filament.





Maine 2-foot equipment typical have only 2 truss rods so I cut the supplied filament into 4 pieces that were approximately the same size.  At this point there are two ways to install the filament through the turnbuckles.  The first method is to just thread the filament through the turntable.  The second method is to melt one end of filament and then thread it through the turnbuckle.





I chose option #2.  I used a butane torch to melt the end of filament.





The truss rod ready to install.





The truss rods installed.  In order to take the curve out of the filament I centered the turnbuckle between the queenposts and glued the filament to the queenposts making sure they were straight using thin ACC.  Once the ACC was applied I used a kicker to cure it.  Once that was done I threaded the ends of the filament through the holes in the frame I applied pressure to straighten out the filament and applied the glue and kicker.

[elwoodblues]

Once the filament was cured it was cut flush with the end beam.





The last step was to paint the truss rods.  For this I also Vallejo black grey.

[Jerry]

Ron nice job.  And thanks for the tutorial.

Jerry

[Rick]

Ron, a good how-to and end result.
Thanks

[Larry C]

Ron those frames look fantastic; as one would expect of your work. Have fun and I'll be watching this one.

[friscomike]

Howdy Ron, nice work on the boxcar frames.  They look great!  Have fun, mike

[Philip]

So much better working with soft metal or brass. I colored the filiment with permanent black marker. Years later not peeling.
 Nice work Ron!

[elwoodblues]

Thanks for the comments Jerry, Rick, Larry, Mike, Philip.

More progress has been made on the boxcars.



Now that the boxcar frames are complete it was time to glue on the deck to the frame.  I used white glue for this and used a few 'mini" clothe pegs to clamp it together till the glue dried.





The decks glued to the frames.  The boards on the decks are etched on both sides.





The decks glued to the frames of the four boxcars.