Boxcar GG 31 of 'Plettenberger Kleinbahn'

[Hydrostat]

Hope you all are well - it won't do any harm to tinker around a bit with railroading:

B/w picture taken by Reinhard Todt 1956, Wolf Dietrich Groote collection.


The 'Plettenberger Kleinbahn' owned two nearly identic 4-axle boxcars, N° 31 and 32, built in 1913 and 1922. I've chosen the older one for my project, because it had lateral movable buffers with respect to the tight curves of the line and the back then used sytem of buffers and lateral coupling chains, the latter being out of use in the later years.

After some reverse eingineering the first parts for the bogies arrived:






Bogie pivots are wax plots and cast in brass:




Frame parts are mostly etched, alongside with a lot of other parts for the body:




Inner crossbeams consist of nine parts each:




For the rivets I've chosen same approach I've shown here at the Oester bridge




Some areas aren't accessable after soldering. Pre-rounded pins and spacers from aluminum help soldering those pins with correct protrusion:




That's the 'etched parts state' of the frame:






The other pieces to come are milled and cast brass parts.

Cheers
Volker

[finescalerr]

Now we know what you've been doing for the past few months. So far, so good. -- Russ

[Bernd]

Video doesn't work.

Bernd

[Hydrostat]

Bernd, thanks, now it should be working.

[Barney]

Very Very Nice Stuff - But still no video
Barney

[fspg2]

The video won't play with Safari on my Mac - try Chrome and Firefox, it works for me there.

[Bernd]

As Frithjof said "works with Chrome". Same for me.

Thanks for fixing it Hydrostat.

Bernd

[finescalerr]

Barney, download Firefox to your Mac. Some years ago my bank's website balked at Safari. It worked perfectly with Firefox. Firefox also offers other advantages so, since then, I use both. -- Russ

[Lawton Maner]

Where can I find how to instructions to prep the parts for etching?  I need to learn how to make pieces like yours for a couple of 1:48 scale East Broad Top rail cars and feel etching will be easier then milling them.

[Bernd]

Where can I find how to instructions to prep the parts for etching?  I need to learn how to make pieces like yours for a couple of 1:48 scale East Broad Top rail cars and feel etching will be easier then milling them.

This might be a place to start:

http://www.nigellawton009.com/Etching_for_Beginners_Version_5.htm

Bernd

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

It's hard to do better than: http://ppdltd.com/

They have an artwork guide and they deal with hobbists around the world.  Note that the most economical sheet size is approximately 300x300mm.  They can do larger or smaller, but can work out more expensive. Their minimums are conservative and I have often gone finer than recommended with success.

Another option would be to collaborate with somebody who is doing this stuff often.  I typically get etchings done every 3-6 months and I often have 'spec' sheets containing 1 offs, custom parts etc.  You might be constrained by whatever metal I'm using, but I'll also tell you if what you have drawn is likely to work.  It depends what area of metal you are after.

[Bernhard]

This is an interesting project, Volker. I am curious about the further progress. The animation at the beginning of the thread is very illustrative.

Bernhard

[Ray Dunakin]

Top-notch, as usual!

[Hydrostat]

Some parts for the brake system:




The braking traverses shown in green in the drawing are functionally composed of several parts.







At the opposite end they have a stop and a 1.6 mm thread. The rods engaging in the brake pad also have such stops.






They were created from 2 mm long tube sections that were bevelled on one side, which I was able to solder to the rods in the desired position with the help of an aluminum gauge.




The trusses are inserted into the hangers and secured there with washers and splints. For this purpose, the castings were each given a 0.4 mm hole on both sides.




A simple drilling aid with 0.4 and 1.2 mm drill holes arranged at right angles is sufficient.




A turnbuckle, which is not available as a finished part, is built into the connecting linkage from the bogie frame to the attachment point at the frame. The functional turnbuckle has a right-hand and a left-hand thread.




Since the M 1.6 lefthand thread cutters and drills were too expensive for a one-off use, I bought a working turnbuckle from Knupfer, which isn't prototypical at all, but has the requested threads.




I cut off a 2 mm long piece of the "nut" part on both sides and brazed these parts to two 1.2 mm thick brass rods, which were rounded at the ends and half reduced to 1 mm in length. I sawed open the ball head of the left-hand thread rod and brazed the pull rod and then ground off excess material.
   





Cheers
Volker

[finescalerr]

Stunning. -- Russ