Kennebunk Models snowplow kit

Hi Gang,

Train and Trooper tank cars

>Anyone built one of those Train and Trooper B&SR tank cars?  If so, just
>wondering how you found it to build, any tips, etc.?
>
>cheers,
>
>Roberto Lombardi

I built both of the T&T tanks cars, and you'll find a photo of the finished products on page 64 of the March 1997 Model Railroader.

I liked the kits. One of the tank castings was egg-shaped, but a note to Martha Sharp brought a replacement. I built the kits as intended, with only a few exceptions:

1. The most important change was to replace the resin-cast timber framing (which held the tanks to the flatcar decks) with stripwood. This adds a LOT of rigidity to the flatcar, which is needed to keep the truss rods from warping the car.
2. I discarded the kits' resin ladders and made replacements from old-style stamped ladder stock (remember that stuff?).
3. I spent an inordinate amount of time fussing with the handrail stanchions, which should not be made of resin (too delicate, too hard to clean up the flash). If I built these models again I would substitute either turned brass handrail posts, or try to find a Kemtron or Precision Scale replacement. In the end I got them to work, but it wasn't worth the swearing.
4. The kit has no way to get the oil (or kerosene, or gasoline, or whatever they hauled in these old tubs) out of the tank. The prototypes had a pipe sticking out of the tank at the middle of the car. I made one from a couple of different diameters of plastic tubing, painted it black, and glued it to the bottom of the car between the queenpost beams.
5. Except for the habndrails, the fussiest part of the kits was cleaning flash out of the stake pockets. Take your time and bring a lunch.
6. I added tack boards made from 14" squares of styrene, and painted them yellow. The prototypes had them, though I have no idea what color they were.

Hope this isn't too late to do any good!

Sincerely yours, Bob Hayden

C&DR No. 31

>Maybe Bob could tell us about #31 when he gets back from Oz.  I don't
>remember seeing it before, and its provenance isn't mentioned on the
>HOn30 page.  Looks like two hoods from the Grandt end cab diesel (or
>Bachmann center-cab) with the cab from the Grandt box-cab unit, but
>what's under the hood(s)??
>
>Narrow-mindedly,
>
>Fred Nangle

OK Gents,

I'm just getting caught up from the Australia trip, a week-long trip to the IPMS (Plastic modeling) national convention, and last week's NMRA national (which included about 400 visitors to the layout last Wednesday and Thursday). If I can survive the Narrow Gauge Convention two weeks hence, I may actually get back to work on the layout before the snow falls!

Let's see, No. 31. The mechanism is from a Con-Cor (Kato) N scale Japanese-prototype General Electric diesel that I bought sometime around 1978. I think they may still be available. I used the mechanisn as-is, except that I replaced the traction-tire wheelsets with all-metal ones from a second unit. Makes it pick up a lot better.

The truck sideframes are cobbled together from the frames of a couple of AHM Minitrains Plymouth diesels that had long since been sacrificed for cabs and hoods for other C&DR engines.

The cab is from an AHM Plymouth. The hoods were made, as on many C&DR diesels, by chopping up Athearn SW1500 hoods to make flat panels, then assembling the panels with various bits of styrene sheet and strip to build the hoods.

No. 31 also has a constant-brightness headlight (one end only; has to be turned for return trips), and a goodly amount of lead sheet added inside those high hoods to get the weight up to 4.4 ounces. She's a little fast (as were most of the early Kato diesels), but runs smooth, and there's enough oomph there to handle a fair-sized train (8-9 cars).

And just in case you think I build things fast, I reckon it was roughly 10 years between the time No. 31 made here first trip over the layout and the day she finally got her paint and number. And she STILL lacks a crew! Sometimes I think my motto ought to be "Never finish anything!"

Note to the HOn30 guys with modules at Cinncy: Yes, I'll be there (Wednesday evening), and yes, I'll have one 4-foot module with me. In fact, I expect to run a locomotive on it for the first time tonight, and it should be fully operational by this Sunday. That'll give me another week to finish the scenery (it's already 80% done) and install the structures (all built). I'll bring a box of rolling stock (probably including No. 31), and a power pack. plus enough tools to cope with the inevitable incompatibilities.

Looking forward to seeing you all at the river (Ohio).

Bob Hayden

Recipes for powered boxcar and Forney truck

To the Mail Car members:

Fellow HOn30 modeler Peter Bartlett of England faxed me a question about building a powered boxcar for the Carrabasset & Dead River. Here's my reply to him, plus a note about building an all-wheel pickup Forney trailing truck.

POWERED BOXCAR RECIPE

My powered boxcar (No. 137) is nothing special; in fact, now that it's done and operating, I wish I'd chosen a higher-quality N gauge diesel for the mechanism. I think the key is to find a mechanism that will run at roughly the same speed as the engines that it will "help." I started with a cheap Life-Like N gauge F unit. I chose it because (1) it was around, and (2) it had a plastic frame that I could cut apart and splice back together to get roughly the right wheelbase.

Building the C&DR's steel-sided coal gondolas

To the Mail Car:

Looking for a project? You might want to build some simple (but good-looking) HOn2-1/2 coal gons for your layout. This material will eventually appear as an article in MR, the Gazette, or the 2-foot Quarterly, with photos and drawings to make it easier to understand, but I thought some of you might want to get started with the text-only version. Two of the gons show up fairly well in the photo on page 63 of "303 Tips for Detailing Model Railroad Scenery and Structures" (Kalmbach, 1995), and several more are visible in the "Great Model Railroads -- 1991" story on the C&DR.

Building the C&DR's steel-sided coal gondolas

These cars were inspired by the low-side coal cars owned by the Kennebec Central. The KC cars had swing-out sides to help with unloading (but there was still a lot of shoveling involved). The other roads used stake-side gondolas on flat cars to deliver coal, which was loaded and unloaded with shovels.

The idea is that the C&DR, like the KC, hauls a lot of coal. After wearing out a few dozen gondolas with wood frames, decks, and sides, the super decides to try steel replacements. It's still shovel in, shovel out, but the cars don't need as much maintenance and they promise to last a lot longer than the old wood ones.

So far, the C&DR has 15 of these low-side gondolas, all numbered in the 450-, 460-, and 470-series. They scale 25' long over the coupler faces, and although nothing on the Maine roads looked exactly like them, a string of them looks convincing, or "right."

Since we're not constrained by an exact prototype, we can have some fun! The main ingredient is a Bachmann No. 53-1036 N scale 42' steel gondola. These aren't particularly expensive to begin with, and the last one I bought cost $1.88 in a toy store. Since you need only the sides, you could also rummage through the trade-in bins at your hobby shop. All of the other ingredients are easy to find.

Best of all, the conversion is easy, so easy that it makes sense to build at least three at a time. I'd suggest you start by building a couple of loaded cars, since the load covers the splicing and the conversion is super easy: Just saw the car down the middle, add a .040" styrene splice on the top of the floor, and continue on from there. (I even use the Bachmann molded load as the base for a real-coal load!)

Building empties is slightly more challenging, since the thickness of the floor needs to be kept to a minimum. Here's a step-by-step procedure for the empties; those of you building loads and pick and choose the steps you need to perform.

HOn30 trucks

Hi Guys!

I've been watching the HOn30 truck discussion with interest, and I'll throw my two cents worth in now. Here goes.

Coupler question, F&C boxcar

> Joseph, do you remember which coupler? Looks like the #1027 could fit
> after some fi(dd)ling.
> Also, did you remove the small 'lumps' before drilling holes for the
> grabirons, or am I missing something here.. I would think that small
> dimples were better for starting the drill :-)
>

Some more F&C boxcar tips

On Wed, 27 Nov 1996, Jorgen Rygh wrote:
> Joseph,
> What M-T couplers did you use on the F&C boxcars?
> Those I have handy seem either too low or to deep...

> Also, what kind of glue did you use on these models - i tried CA on
> one. While the result was okay, I feel that it was too much of a
> gamble to get it correct.

> I ordered the Grant Line trucks with the NWSL wheels, and when
> properly fiddled, gauged, flash-removed and otherwise cared for, they
> look and run very well I think.

- Joseph

HOn30 Co-op: Whateley's Garage, Pt.3

Welcome to Part 3 in the Whateley's Garage series.

For those new to the group or who have missed earlier posts, the HOn30 Co-op is a broad subject heading that can be used by any Mail Car members to describe their efforts at a particular modeling project. Jon Piasecki (versed@ican.ca) and I (lrickert@ix.netcom.com) started by describing our modeling efforts with two different Design Preservation Models kits. Joerg Seiler (joerg@mail.islandnet.com) has joined the HOn30 Co-op banner and is writing an account of building one of Brick Price's Forney conversion kits.

I'm assembling a garage structure (Whateley's Garage), and Jon is building a small hydroelectric power station (H & L of B Generating Station). We're both experimenting with different modeling techniques in an effort to make the commonly available DPM kits more unique and individual, and are posting our progress here on the Mail Car. If you missed any of our previous posts, just contact us for 'back issues'.

Part 3: Delay's Halt Construction of Whateley's Garage!

In this installment I was planning on covering door and foundation construction, but delays have forced me to hold off on this. It all started when I became unhappy with the idea of having detailed large garage doors next to the rather plain regular doors that come with the DPM kit. These doors didn't even have doorknobs! How the heck could my HO scale folk get in and out of the building?

So, the quest was on for HO scale doorknobs. I posted messages and scanned through back issues of the usual model publications. The only reference I could find to modeling doorknobs was one article in the NG&SL Gazette. This suggested using a pin, but I found the pinhead to be much too big. I tried to find pins with smaller heads, but to no avail.

Jon Piasecki mentioned that someone manufactured HO doorkobs, so I turned to the Walthers catalog. Lo and behold, Master Creations listed not only doorknob & plate sets, but larger door handles as well that would work well on the larger garage doors. I called Martha at Train & Trooper, and she placed some on order from Walthers for me. I also ordered a Grandt Line hinge assortment and some other detail items.

So, the necessary parts should be arriving this week. It's a good thing, as the construction crew was getting a bit antsy!

Another delay was caused by the foundation treatment. Initially, I added a foundation (about a scale 4 feet) to the building using cardstock and H&R stone sheet. I wasn't totally happy with the results. Then I received an article from John Saxon on using foam board to model brick and stone.

Since I plan on making all of my structures removeable, the foundation has to be strong enough to stand up to some handling. The foam board seemed ideal for this. In addition, this technique allows for interlocking corners that look much more realistic. So, I removed the first foundation and am now experimenting with foam board.

And then, the Fall semester started, so I'm back to work teaching computer courses four evenings a week.

My next installment will detail the garage door construction, regular door detailing and foundation construction. Hopefully, it won't take another 2 months ;-)

Larry

HOn30 Co-op: Whateley's Garage, Pt.2

Welcome to Part 2 in the Whateley's Garage series.

For those new to the group or who have missed earlier posts, the HOn30 Co-op is a series of articles posted by Jon Piasecki (versed@ican.ca) and myself (lrickert@ix.netcom.com) describing our modeling efforts with two different Design Preservation Models kits. I'm assembling a garage structure, and Jon is building a small hydroelectric power station. We're both experimenting with different modeling techniques in an effort to make the commonly available DPM kits more unique and individual, and are posting our progress here on the Mail Car.

1. In Search of the Ultimate Brick Finish

I wanted to try something new (to me) for simulating the brick and mortar walls of the building. I posted a request here for techniques that could be used for this purpose. Thanks to all who responded. I decided to use the method Brick Price described. The basic technique is to mix up a soupy slurry using plaster and water. A bit of color can be used as well. You would then 'paint' the walls using this mix. Let the plaster set for awhile (10-15 minutes) then wipe off using a clean dry rag. The plaster will remain in the mortar lines. If too much comes off, slop on more plaster and try again. When you are close to the effect desired, let the walls dry thoroughly. You can then go back with a damp cloth and rub the walls from top to bottom to removed any excess plaster on the brick.

In addition, I wanted to use dry tempera colors to tint the plaster mix. I ordered some dry color from a local hardware/paint store. I then got the runaround from them for 3 weeks, until finally I just gave up. I decided to try using Tintex black fabric dye instead to get a dark mortary effect. This worked out fairly well, though it was hard to control what the final color would look like.

Before I applied the tinted plaster mix I assembled the walls and sprayed them with Testor's Dullcote. I mixed the plaster and dye to a dark gray color. After applying and wiping off several coats of the plaster soup, I ended up with a very grimy looking building, which I hadn't intended to do, but I liked the result and decided to stick with it.

To summarize, this is an easy technique to use and gives a very nice simulation of mortar to the brick. One mistake that I made initially was after applying the initial coat and wiping with a dry cloth, I didn't allow the walls to thoroughly dry before wiping vertically with a damp cloth. When the building finally dried, it looked quite different than I had thought, as I had rubbed off too much of the plaster. This was remedied by applying another coat and following instructions ;-)

I will definitely use and experiment with this technique again. Thanks, Brick!

2. Raising the Roof

With the walls assembled and treated, I turned to the roof. Unlike most other DPM kits, #201 has a peaked roof rather than a flat one. I decided to build the roof per the instructions. I cut the two roof halves from the sheet styrene provided using the template in the instructions. I placed the ridge support and roof stops, and test-fitted the roof. I found it to have a higher peak than shown in the photo of the completed kit, but I liked the effect and left it that way.

I was still unsure if I wanted the roof to be removeable, so I added two triangular braces cut from sheet styrene for extra support just in case. I used 3M silicon carbide sandpaper (the dark stuff) #302-extra fine to simulate tar paper. I think this has a very realisitic tar paper appearance. I cut the strips to a scale 3 foot width. I applied them from bottom to top using Elmer's Glue-All and slightly overlapping each strip. I capped the ridge of the roof with a slightly narrower strip. After everything had dried I applied several washes of Poly S Grimy Black paint. I'm quite pleased with the overall result. I added a metal smokestack rather than use the chimney casting that came with the kit. I may also add a stovepipe coming out of the sidewall where the front office would be so old Whateley doesn't freeze come winter.

3. Windows, Doors and Other Matters

In a crude effort to show the door and window placement, I present my attempt at ASCII art:

           Rear
  ___]    dd   [___ w ___
 |                       |
 |                        w
 |     Garage            |       w = window
 w                        w      d = door
 |                       |      dd = large double doors
 w                       |
 |             __________ w
 d            |          |
 |            |          |
 |            |  office   w
 |            |          |
 |_          _|_ d  __ w_|
   ]   dd   [
          Front

I decided to paint the small door and window castings with Poly S MOW Gray in keeping with the utilitarian appearance of the building. I removed the castings from their sprues, removed flashing and trimmed them to fit. Before gluing them in place I carefully scraped off any of the plaster mix from the window openings and painted any areas that would show in a medium gray. I then p[ainted the castings and glued them in place....nothing fancy here!

If you've been following Jon Piasecki's posts in the HOn30 Co-op series, you know he's building his DPM kit with interior detailing. Since this is the first kit I've built in close to twenty years, I decided to keep it simple. I may add a few minimal interior details for those areas that can be easily seen, but that's where I'm drawing the line.

In my next post I'll cover scratchbuilding the large double doors and building the foundation and base, as I initially plan this to be a small sceniced diorama.

Also still to come will be detailing the building's exterior and adding a little bit of scenery and other detailing. Since the building is fairly dark and grimy looking, we'll take a look at adding a bit of color via details.

Hope you've enjoyed this installment in my attempts to reacquire my modeling skills. Your comments and feedback are welcome.

Larry

HOn30 Co-op: Whateley's Garage, Pt.1

Whateley's Garage Part 1
or Out of the Armchair and Into the Fire!

When I started out to build DPM#201, I thought this would be easy. What I forgot was how long it's been since I've done any modeling! I didn't think I'd have to buy too much in the way of supplies, since I had a stash of paints, glues, etc. Unfortunately, when I went to use them, I found most of the paint dried up. Also, no sandpaper or #11 X-acto blades. Well, glue was still good.

Next step was to make a shopping list. After reviewing the responses I received from my post on painting brick, (thanks to all who responded), I decided to try Brick Price's method, with a slight variant. I dug out an old article from RMC about using a combination of plaster and dry tempera color to finish brick with, so I added dry tempera to my shopping list.

This method calls for mixing the tempera with the plaster. You then wet down the wall you want to treat and brush on the dry mix. Next wipe off the excess with a dry cloth until you achieve the results desired. In my next post I'll report on the results.

I went to the local paint store, and of course they didn't have any dry tempera, so I ordered some. It's due in today (I hope). I also bought sandpaper, Krylon dulling spray (they didn't have Testor's Dull-cote), a small bag of plaster, knife blades, etc.

I cut the walls, windows and doors from their sprues and removed any flashing. I sanded the beveled edges and bottoms of the side walls flat as per instructions, then test fitted the windows and small doors. There are two large doors in the kit which I plan on replacing with scratchbuilt ones, so they fit the period and can be modeled open.

I'm still not sure how I'll treat the roof. For awhile I considered changing it from the peaked roof of the kit to a flat roof. Now I'm leaning more towards building it peaked. Decisions, decisions!

Hopefully I'll have decided by my next post, which will cover treating and assembling the walls, adding the windows and small doors, and adding the roof.

In the meantime, two questions:

1. Any special tips or techniques for modeling tar paper roofs?
2. If my tempera colr doesn't come in, can I use Tintex fabric dyes to color the plaster?

Box Car Kits - Chris Cardinal

Long over due - but hopefully - better late then never!

Chris Cardinal Box Car Kit.
Before building the kit you have to decide wether you want a HOn2 or HOn30 boxcar. If you want HOn2 then follow the instruction for building the box. You will need to file down the side of the under frame to fit inside the box, this will also help when fitting the under size roof bits. If you want HOn30 then the following steps will help. I follow the same idea as Dave Frary - cars need to be wider to get the "low and sleek" look of the Maine Two Footers when running on 2'6" track.

In both cases it is much better to drill all holes before assembly, a small bench drill is ideal for this. I do not possess a Dremel Tool but a12-20 volt unit of similar size. Assemble the walls with the end walls INSIDE the sidewall - opposite to the instructions. This will make the cars about 6" wider than the prototype (1.75mm or #^*/*%$ins). You will have to file down the ends of the underframe to fit inside the assembly. Before gluing the underframe in place, file a recess in the end beams to accommodate the KD 1023/1025 coupler. The recess needs to be 2/3 the depth of the coupler. Dry fit the underframe and mark the centre (center for Yanks) sill. File this to the same depth as the end beam.

Before fitting the underframe you must fit the roof. Because the car is now wider you will have to fit a centre (center) beam down the middle of the car. I used Evergreen 6" X 10" on edge. Glue the beam in place with its top edge level with the point on the end walls. There is no need to bevel this piece to match the angle (pitch) of the end walls. Glue the two roof sections in place. You will notice that the 'cast on' roof walk supports are level with the 6 x 10 ridge piece. The cast roof walk is too narrow so you will have to fabricate a new one. I used 3 pieces of 8 x 1 for this. As I am not lucky enough to have calibrated eyeballs the finished item looks OK.

The trucks are another item of choice.

Box Car Kits - F&C

F&C Box Car Kits (2 cars per box)

I put these cars together as per the instructions with the slight variation of mounting the trucks (KD archbar trucks with low profile wheels) and fitting KD 1027 couplers.

The method of mounting the trucks is the same as for the Chris Cardinal cars but with a thinner wash (as supplied with the archbar trucks) and using the KD kingpin instead of a screw.

The under frame and end wall were recessed for the KD 1027 couplers. Why 1027? - I have a number of sets bought at a very reasonable price at a used train stand a few years ago.

The under frame has a tendency to flex (arch) when the truss rods are fitted, I would advise gluing a piece of brass down the middle before tightening the turnbuckles on the middle of each rod.

Regards
Gerry

Converting Atlas's 70 ton ore cars into Hon30 ore cars