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Ale-8-One Reefer

Started by EZnKY, January 28, 2011, 08:00:27 PM

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EZnKY

And here's what it looks like from below.  No big deal, and it only took about an hour per bunker, but I think it will help with the believability of the hatches from the top.
Eric Zabilka
Lexington, Kentucky

Ray Dunakin

Looking good.

I wonder, how did they eliminate the water from melting ice? Did reefers have a drain in the floor or something?
Visit my website to see pics of the rugged and rocky In-ko-pah Railroad!

Ray Dunakin's World

EZnKY

Thanks Ray.
This is a simple, quick project.  No ground broken here.  But fun none-the-less.

From what I've found, each bunker had at least one drain through the bottom of the car.  Most of the good drawings I've found don't go into much detail on the drains though.
I'd love to find a picture of one, but no luck so far.

Eric Zabilka
Lexington, Kentucky

finescalerr

Eric, when did you develop all that modeling skill? You never sent me photos of models like that back in the FR days. -- Russ

EZnKY

Gradually over time like everyone else Russ.  Plus, I'm not showing all of the miserable failures.  It took me a long time to convince myself I had something to contribute to the community here.  It's a tough crowd with exacting standards - exactly what I like...
Eric Zabilka
Lexington, Kentucky

granitechops

Quote from: EZnKY on February 03, 2011, 04:31:24 PM
Thanks Ray.
This is a simple, quick project.  No ground broken here.  But fun none-the-less.

From what I've found, each bunker had at least one drain through the bottom of the car.  Most of the good drawings I've found don't go into much detail on the drains though.
I'd love to find a picture of one, but no luck so far.



Not really into reefers myself, but I believe I remember reading that when they carried stuff in cartons they had a false slatted floor for the water to swill about below before finding the drain hole(s) so that the card boxes did not disintegrate
Don in sunny Devon, England

MT Hopper

I can confirm the slatted false floors for goods in cartons. I lived near "fruit row" serviced by Great Northern. When I was a boy the dock workers would often look the other way as my chums and I climbed into the cars and helped lighten some of the loads.

Cheers
Will
From the Heart of the Continent

EZnKY

Good to know about the raised floor.  It makes sense since gravity was used to drain the water.

I haven't worried about the interior details much since the doors won't be able to open.  I would like to detail the drains on the underside of the car, but I haven't been able to find any good pictures.  And the closest reefer to me is at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

I have made progress on the roof though.  The D&RGW cars the kit was based on had a later Murphy roof.  Since the era I'm modeling is earlier, I decided to approximate Mr. Murphy's early design based on the original patent in 1889.  (He would later modify the patent in 1896 because of problems with the roof panels getting damaged at the edge.)  I used metal foil duct tape for the sheet metal.  (Not "duck tape".) 

Basically the roof is a series of formed metal pans that interlock, with standing seams similar to roofing used on buildings.  The foil tape is too flimsy to form the standing seams, so I glued strips of basswood to the decking for the ribs.  Each strip was rounded along the top edge, and although the width of the ribs is about a scale 1/2" wider than it should be, I decided I could live with the inaccuracy in favor of a stronger rib.
Eric Zabilka
Lexington, Kentucky

EZnKY

I used the laser cut walkway supports that came with the kit and just notched the center rib around them.  Here's the car body with all of the ribs in place.  The patent drawing showed the panel layout with a partial panel on each end, which made the layout a little weird.  I centered a panel on the car instead of centering a rib to make sure the rib layout worked with the hatch placement.  Water would need to drain from above the hatches, which means only one rib can intersect the top side of the hatch.  If that makes sense.

The whole point of the foil tape was to end up with wrinkled and overlapped joints along the edge of the car, with rivet detail at each joint.   I did a couple of experiments with different ways of treating the edge and decided it worked best if there was a little strip of paper underneath the edge of the tape so the tape wasn't in direct contact with the wood surface. 

I went ahead and painted my tests and decided there was little to no difference in the appearance of the roof with the metal foil tape versus styrene versus sealed and sanded wood.  But I also decided I liked the edge detail, so I pressed on.
Eric Zabilka
Lexington, Kentucky

EZnKY

I cut a panel pattern from paper, and once I fine tuned the fit, I replicated it in styrene so I could trace it on the foil tape.
Eric Zabilka
Lexington, Kentucky

EZnKY

The foil tape was really fussy to work with.  It shows the slightest touch as a dent, but I found I could burnish the dings and bumps once the panel was in place.  I also tore the foil on the early panels because I let the tape touch the standing seams before I had the tape pressed tightly into all of the corners and crevices.  Having thirty panels gave me lots of practice though, and some bourbon helped me through it.
Eric Zabilka
Lexington, Kentucky

EZnKY

I used some fattened brass tube to form the platform supports.  One end of them is bolted to the fascia with small brass pins, and the other end is supported by notches in the wood walkway supports.  The notches were easy to make because I realized I need more height on the walkway supports once the foil tape was in place.  I had to glue 1/32" strips on top of each support, but the joint and the different wood grains won't show once everything is painted.  I've read that the walkway supports were supposed to be unpainted like the walkway boards, but I've seen more painted supports than not, so I'm painting mine.

For those of you with sharp eyes, you might notice I did not take the foil tape up onto the hatch curbs.  I had planned on adding the flashing at each hatch, but was so fed up with the tape, I decided to skip it since  the curbs would be hidden enough by the platforms. 
Eric Zabilka
Lexington, Kentucky

EZnKY

I'm fairly happy with how the edges turned out.  The natural variation in each panel from the installation process makes the edge inconsistent, which I like.
I'll post some pictures of the edge once the paint has dried.

Here's a shot of the painted roof until then...
Eric Zabilka
Lexington, Kentucky

Malachi Constant

There's a lot of really neat, clean assembly work there ... shaping up very nicely!

Cheers,
Dallas
-- Dallas Mallerich  (Just a freakin' newbie who stumbled into the place)
Email me on the "Contact Us" page at www.BoulderValleyModels.com

finescalerr

This is really quite satisfactory, Eric. I want an article on this car, too, if it's not too much to ask. -- Russ