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BUILD A 1:22.5 SCALE STANDARD GAUGE BOXCAR, PART 3
The final touches

BY "DO IT YOURSELF DAVE" CUMMINS



Editor's Note: The correct "standard" gauge for 1:22.5 scale is Gauge 3. NMRA standards list Gauge 3 as an actual 2.500 inches between the rails. Technically, the perfect scale for that gauge is 1:22.6.

LAST TIME I described how to add a roof to the boxcar and how to build and attach much of the hardware. The article ended after we added the coupler release levers. Now let's turn our attention back to the sides of the car. The big item there is doors. To maximize the model's visual aspect, I wanted to be able to show the car with the doors either open or closed. Remember Part 1, when we used scribed wood for the inside walls and the floor? Now you know why.

THE DOOR HARDWARE

Making your own door slide equipment is less tricky than it looks, but it does take careful work. Let's face it: Nearly everything visible on the car takes careful work, but it's worth it! Door hardware is just a little more complicated than some of what you have already built, so let's begin.

We will use brass sheet and shapes as our building materials. Let's start with the door hanger. We'll make it from two pieces of sheet brass and the hanger glide from square tubing.

Scribe the outline of the whole hanger on the sheet. Center punch and drill the four holes for the escutcheon pins and starter holes for the open center. After you drill the starter hole, use jeweler's files to open the center to the proper shape. I admit to cheating again; the prototype has a much more complicated design. I simplified construction but kept the appearance somewhat complicated.

Finish the contours of the outside with the files, then bend the top of the hanger into an "S" to clear the door facing. You will need four door hangers.

Make the hanger guide from 1/16-inch square brass tube. Grind off one side of a six inch length of tube to leave a channel (U shape). To assemble the two pieces into one hanger unit, set the door hangers in proper position against the channel, spacing all four evenly along the entire six inches. We will sacrifice the whole channel to solder them one by one. That will prevent the heat from unsoldering an adjacent hanger.

Use the pin holes to pin the assembly together prior to soldering. Warning: Do not cut the channel into four pieces first! The resulting disaster would be too mind boggling for rational men to contemplate! Finally, cut the channel apart and clean it up with a file. We will hold off attaching the hangers to the doors now, but we can make the tracks.

I made mine from 1/8-inch brass angle. I ground down one flange to .070-inch. Two supports in the doorway opening and another on the side of the car secure the track strip. Make the supports from .035-inch thick by 1/8- or 1/4-inch wide brass strip. Make one right hand and one left hand version when you solder them together.

I discovered wooden doors warp so I built new ones from styrene. That worked fine. I used a 2-ply lamination, with .040-inch vertically scribed sheet on the outside and .040-inch horizontal scribed sheet on the inside. The cross graining resists the sheet styrene's tendency to curl.

I covered the bottom edge of the door with Plastruct angle and added a center stiffener of the same material. Then I cemented .010- by 3/32-inch styrene strip around three sides of the front face.

ATTACHING THE DOORS

Hold the door, a hanger, and the track in relative position and note where to mount the hanger so the top of the door almost hits the track. The idea is to use the door to keep the hanger from moving vertically off the track. That way, after installation, the doors won't lift up and off the car. Later we'll add door stops to prevent them from running off the ends of the tracks. Bottom guides will keep the doors tight against the car.

Mark the location of at least one pin on each hanger. Drill a small enough hole there so you can barely force through a pin. Put a pin through. Then mark and drill the remaining pin holes. When you install them (and other pins holding hardware to the thin doors) you must cut off the ends and file them flush with the back of the doors. Be gentle; avoid loosening the pins.

Install the top door guide using one or more pins at each brace to attach it to the underside of the top inside beam. Use ore or two pins to attach the other end to the side of the car. I eliminated the ribbing from the prototype's bottom door guides and end stops; reproducing it would have been too time consuming. Make those parts from brass strip, too. Note the end stops mount on short wood blocks.

We also must limit door travel beyond the fully closed position. Glue a 5 inch length of Plastruct 1/8-inch angle inside the left C brace.

The same drawing shows the door latch. I filed a simple version from brass; the original is much more complex. Bet you didn't notice that at first glance!

On the other hand, the door handle is a reasonably close copy of the original. I filed mine from brass and used pins to attach it.

Several reinforcement clips where Z braces attach to the iron sill. I simulated them from .010-inch styrene. I have no idea why the prototype had only a few; maybe a repair shop added them. Also look carefully for rivets. The full size car had a jillion of them but I decided to add only a few and only in prominent spots. The idea is to fool the eye. A few rivets imply the existence of many more. Escutcheon pins make great rivet heads. Drill a fairly tight hole, push in the pin, and the rivet will stay in place forever without glue.

FINAL ADDITIONS

Hang in there, folks, there really is an end to this! Only a few more parts remain!

I epoxied Ozark Miniatures grabs in place. The stirrups are from Trains of Texas and had been laying around for a long time so I am unable to remember the part number. They seemed oversize for narrow gauge but perfect for the standard gauge car.

The steel underframe is next. Since it is almost invisible, no need to get fancy. Cut some .060-inch thick styrene sheet to the appropriate shapes and glue them together. Then glue the assembly to the center of the car's underside between the body bolsters.

I omitted air brake tanks and rigging for two reasons; they are hard to see and no commercial parts exist.

The roofwalk consists of three boards perpendicular to a series of metal brackets. I simulated the brackets with .040-inch styrene and the walk with 1/16- by 1/4-inch stripwood. Use styrene boards for a more rugged model. Also, if you want more durability, make the end support brackets from brass strip instead of styrene.

Finally, the roof platforms. You should make them from scale lumber and the same brass strip you have used for the other hardware. Again, I used epoxy to hold together the brass, wood, and grab irons. Pin the units to the car, but note the outer attachment: The pins enter the edge of the 1/16-inch roof sheet. Better drill a pilot hole for them to avoid splitting or creating a hump in the sheet.

Construction is done.

PAINT AND CONCLUSION

Unless you plan something exotic, the only color to consider for your car is boxcar red. And, in my opinion, the best way to apply boxcar red is from a spray can of Krylon Ruddy Brown Sandable Primer. You will need about a can and a half, but hardware store paint tends to be less expensive than hobby paint because the pigments can be more coarse. (Fine pigment to preserve the minute detail of the smaller scales is unnecessary.) Another advantage of Krylon Ruddy Brown Primer is its shade-more "railroad red" than many model paints.

I lettered the car with leftover dry transfers. I think the large "MKT" letters came from an alphabet sheet I bought at an art supply store. Some of the smaller lettering came from that sheet and some came from hobby transfers. The car is sufficiently generic to appear correct with lettering from almost any North American railroad.

If you actually built a model of this car or a similar one, congratulations. Even if you only read the series, I hope you added a few tricks to your arsenal. I have tried to break down the construction into sub-projects so you could apply the information to any kind of scratchbuilding. After all, explanations and illustrations are really pretty generic. Either way, I hope you enjoyed yourself.



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