Foothill Model Works Flat Car Challenge

[marc_reusser]

I gave up on the wood...just wasn't getting the right look/feel in conjunction with the styrene frame....so in the interest of moving the project forward, I went for a different approach, using styrene "wood".







Marc

[finescalerr]

Beautiful knots! And the model looks almost exactly like your 3D drawing -- just gorgeous. Really shaping up nicely.

Russ

[marc_reusser]

Thanks Russ...I was glad to get some time at the bench.

This though is actually not the car from the 3D drawing (that one needs several hundred more holes drilled before I can move forward)...this is the Molino Timber Co. inspired car from the photos in this post.

http://www.finescalerr.com/smf/index.php?topic=109.msg1885#msg1885


Marc

[marc_reusser]

I was not happy with the real wood finish/appearance/texture,..and I really prefer working in styrene over wood?..so I needed to start experiment/learning how to do acceptable ?styrene wood?.

The board/wood process is of course again one of those things that falls into the ?grain vs. no grain? , ?scale grain effect?, and ?prototypical vs. caricature? debates.

Two initial issues:

The smooth properties of styrene really require that one either ??faux paint? or scribe grain that the eventual ?washes? will fill/follow/accentuate.  In the end it will likely come down to some kind of combination of both methods.

The Molino cars that I used for inspiration are somewhat caricatures in themselves,  and looking at the photos, the deck boards ranged from new to a beat up jumble?.depending on which cars and photos one looks at. So?. since logging does tend to beat up cars pretty heavily?and the caricature of the cars  I felt I had some leeway in distressing the boards.

Creating the Boards:

1). Cut the strip styrene to slightly longer than the required length.

2). Using a disk sander with 180 grain disk; tightly stack the boards into a block, and batch sand the ends to get them to the proper length and to create the ?radial end graining? .  Take care not to press the stack too fast/hard/long into the disk sander, or you can fuse all the pieces together.  By lightly holding the block/stacks in the same location on the disk (not moving side to side) one can deepen/accentuate the end grain a bit because the styrene will pick up the path of the grains on the disk (make sense?) Also a note?as whenever disk sanding small or flexible pieces, it is advisable to attach or use a piece of material (in my case Masonite) to the sanders table surface, so as to minimize/close the gap between the disk and the table?this will prevent warping/deforming of the pieces and lessen the sanding flash.

3). Once the pieces have been sanded to their proper length and disassembled from the stacks back into individual pieces, a #11 Xacto is used to carefully trim some of the excess sanding flash from all sides at both ends.

4.) Using the #11, 4-6 score/spawl/grain  lines were cut into the board surface. (I try to keep these to a shallow arc at most?otherwise it makes it hard to follow in the following steps).

5.) Once all the boards have been scored, the #11 is used to nick, spawl , and wear the edges as desired/needed. The Xacto is also used to create shallow long ?V? cuts in from the ends of the boards (often easily done by following one of the initial score lines) .

6). Next, each board is individually ?grained?, using the Micro-Mark wire pencil. This is drawn in the grain direction and if possible, following the previous score marks.  I use/adjust a very short stiff bristle for this, and try to draw in a single continuous pull/stroke from one end of the board to the other. (This is not always possible if you have no room to hold the piece down)..so I may need to start  ? of the way in, and then pull. The pull should extend off the end of the piece. If you are wanting more or deeper grain, make sure you pull in the same direction (along the previous pull/grain)?otherwise you will ?cross-grain??and that is not a typical wood feature. (If I need to start part way across a board I will then turn it and repeat on the yet un-grained end. Care needs to be take to try to align/match the grain direction/location and quality, from the first part.)

7). When all the boards have been grained ?0000? steel wool is used to remove surface fuzz, and excessive raised styrene grain edges. The steel wool is rubbed along the direction of the grain till the desired surface finish is achieved (this is often just a3-5 firm passes).  I often/generally will steel-wool several pieces, laid tightly side-by-side at once, as this helps reduce the edge ?easing?/rounding that the steel wool can cause.

8 ). Lastly I will take each piece, and using the #11, clean up any new burrs/fuzz/flash that has occurred at the ends of the boards.

(Note the steel wool will leave fuzz/pieces/and discoloration on/slightly embedded, in the styrene. When all the pieces have been ?wooled? I go over them with a stiff brush to remove any embedded wool??and of course all the pieces are also washed in warm water and dish detergent using a stiff brush, prior to painting.


Creating The Knots:

The Knots were made with .020, .030, and .040 styrene rod. After the boards were grained, the appropriate (slightly larger than the rod) size holes were drilled at a slight angle through the deck boards (the angle allows for a more elliptical shape to the hole)....the styrene rod is then trimmed/cut at a matching angle and inserted into the hole (turned so that the cut rod surface is parallel to the deck board), and held just a bit below the deck level [knots are generally level with the board surface, but I wanted to create some visual differentiation...and give the eventual paint/washes a place to settle and accentuate the knot appearance]. Glue is then lightly applied to the protruding rod from the rear of the board, (don?t use too much, or it will melt/weld the seam together too much, and you will lose the definition), and once dry cut off flush. On boards that will be seen from both sides, the rod should be held back a bit more from the primary face, and then cut from the rear right after lightly applying liquid glue....then (while glue has not yet fully set) carefully pressed/recessed into the hole with the tips of tweezers or a toothpick. This will result in a slightly indented knot from both sides.

In defense of the Knots and Grain:

My "wood" had a combination of several factors that contributed to not having the grain looping around the hole effect:

1.) I was too lazy to deal with it at this scale...and was a bit tight on time.

2.) Because of the graining technique/approach I use it was better to do the knots after...as it keeps the hole edges sharp/crisp...and I didn't plan for their location beforehand.

3.) It's a bit of a pain on 4-6" long x10" boards to get the wire pencil to behave properly and "loop" around the knots in the correct manner. There is no real place to hold the boards?as one needs to start and stop the wire pencil stroke off or at the very end of the board, also when applying the pressure and smoothness of pull required to get a good grain finish the wire pencil tends to want to go in one direction..or at best a slight curve/arc...could probably be done around the knots  with some patience and practice?and maybe a smaller pencil....but that goes back to reason #1. [:-grin]


Installation:

On the deck, I decided to not fit the boards ?tight? against each other. I left just the slightest bit of space to accentuate the individual boards, and give the paint and washes somewhere to ?go?, so as not to have a problem of ?filling? the small board joint had it been tightly fitted??plus looking at the prototype, they didn?t have a real tight fit either?and wood shrinks over time [:-grin]




Marc  (phew?what a long winded explanation of knot-holes and boards!)

[lenelg]

Marc,
What are you planning to use for trucks? If I remember correctly, the Molino used German Orenstein&Koppel type trucks ( source: Shelburne, D J, Molino Timber Co. - The Liliput Ridge-Runner, Pacific News, August 1971 ).

/Lennart Elg
http://web.telia.com/~u85436044/30inch/molino.html

[marc_reusser]

Hi Lennart,

Funny you should ask...I started buiding the trucks today...well, making the parts.

They will be built out of styrene channel, and i plan to use the Grandt Journal bearings. The Grandt pieces unfortunately are Delrin  , and have a long mounting pin, so I will need to make some adjustments to hide the pin, and allow me to anchor the delrin part.  I will also be using an angle iron at the truck frame ends to connect them and help with integrity. Though these two items will cause the trucks to not be exactly like the Molino prototypes, they should still have the basic "feel"....which should be OK as the car is really only Molino "inspired".  .

The detail I will be using for the sideframe/bearings will likely be the same as or sim to the one I used here on this side dump car project




The wheels will also be the same as the ones in the side dump project (If I can find some in my scrap boxes....or find 2 Grandt kits to pirate them from  )


Marc

[marc_reusser]

After my post/reply to Lennart's question last night I began thinking about another way to attach the delrin journals to the styrene frame, and making the assmlby rigid and lasting, while keeping the look of the Molino prototype.

This is a quick test and it's result: [The wheels are from a different project, but will be sim. The final truck will be 8" longer.]




Since dellrin does not bond well and the journals needed to be securely mounted to the truck frame, I decided on a  "mechanical" method of fastening rather than adhesive.

The prototype car has a spacer/mounting block like on the test example, between the bearing journal, and the frame. On the test this was made from .030 x .080, through which was drilled a .031 hole (into this will be inserted the .032 mounting pin found on the Grandt Journal).  The the hole on one side of the styrene is then reamed/partially beveled halfway through the strip, using a .048 bit.  Then Using a #11 Xacto, two V-shaped nothes are cut into the surface, extending from the reamed hole, on opposite sides. (these will help keep the journal from rotating once installed)

The journal with its mounting pin is then inserted through the hole from the unreamed side. When firmly seated, heated tweezers are used to melt the portruding pin flat, pressing the molten delrin firmy into the reamed area, and v-grooves. When hardened, the Xacto was used to trim away any exces molten delrin.

Lastly, the block with the attached journal was then glued to the underside of the styrene channel.

Marc

[marc_reusser]

Thought I would show and clarify what the Molino "trucks were all about.

This is a detail view of the prototype (I have not found this exact model of truck in any of my 3 O&K catalogs, so it could be that this was a special order, or modified from a small "car frame".) Note the inside hung brakes.




This is a catalog cut from a period O&K catalog which shows one of their "typical" trucks, and shows a view of what the cross bracing/pivot looked like on these types of trucks (some Molino cars used this type of truck rather than the one shown in the photo above):



Note in the cut above, the springs between the journal bearings and the truck frame; note that in the prototype photo, instead of springs this area has been filled by a wooden block. This was available in both ways, from the Mfr., or was able to be "field modified"

This is a catalog cut showing the type of Journal Bearings shown in the prototype photo:




Marc

[finescalerr]

For those new to industrial modeling or who never really paid attention, "roller bearing journals" were very common on small rolling stock. Many Pennsylvania and California logging disconnects had them and, of course, thousands of ore and cane cars. They are very simple, almost crude in design, but look just right under a lot of cars. In most cases, the journals mount directly to the underside of the side sills of smaller wooden ore and log cars.

Marc, Chuck, Gordon, and a few others probably could create an encyclopedia about this subject with all kinds of great rolling stock examples. So my little paragraph is just for the uninitiated.

Russ

[marc_reusser]

Shucks...you're makin  me blush!

Here is the entire catalog page for those that might be interested:

http://www.steaminthewoods.com/International/OK_Catalog_WheelBearings.jpg


Marc

[marc_reusser]

I finally got myself to build the trucks for the car.

The main parts are Evergreen Hill styrene channels & sheet, .020 & .025 rivets from Tichy, 18" whells from Grandt with new axels, and holes drilled in the wheels. Brake hardware for the one "braked" truck, was cobbled together from code 55 rail, brass wire, some brake shoes (Grandt?) from the scrap parts box, and pivots made using the "cut lever" brackets supplied in the FMW kit. The roller bearings are from Grandt, and he truck pivot bearing is from the McLeod trucks that come with the kit, and the black NBW's are also from McLeod. Pror to assembly all the Delrin parts were scrubbed with a Micro-Mark fiberglass pencil, so as to give the surface a bit of tooth, so the primer and paint would adhere better.




Here they are once primered with Mr Surfacer. [Unfortunately I grabbed my can of 500 instead of 1200, and that combined with the hot dry weather today when I shot them, gave me a bit of texture/orange peel in the finsh, that was not easily rectifiable...so I left it figuring it might work to my advantage during weathering.]




And lastly, two views of the car with the trucks underneath. At this point it is pretty much ready for paint. ?.which is too bad in a way, because I actually like it in the monochromatic primer color. Not shown are couplers, truss rods and brake staff stuff?and the chains for binding the loads and retaining the bulkheads?..as those will all be attached after paint.






Though shorter than the original by 4?,and some difference in the end sill/coupler set-up, I think it captures the spirit/feel of the Molino cars ok.  Not too unhappy with it.


Marc

[marc_reusser]

Time is fleeting for me to get these done.....and now it's back to the one that got me into this in the first place...the cane car...which has proven to be way more work than I ever anticipated for something that seems so relatively simple in design and construction.

Due to time I am taking some shortcuts with this project and no longer drilling all the holes for all the remaining needed NBWS (I plan to try just gluing them on in the end, and hoping a light weathering will hide any glue that might happen to show).

At this point the center and then the outer bulkheads were glued in place, then the end boards were added, which was followed by the .060 styrene angle "steel" frame. What became very apparent here was that the frame had developed a slight bow of about .5mm to .7mm (being lower at the center)....as there was no good way to rectify this without having the deck slats start to pop off, I decided to leave it, and use it to show a car with a slight amount of "sag". This though also necessited that the "steel" angles be shaped and installed with a sim bow/sag.




Next came the side stakes:



Once the stakes were in place, what showed up was that the deck slats have a bit of "variation" in their paralell-ness.....not enough to see when looking at the deck alone....but definitely apparent when the side stakes went on (due to their alignment with the stakes on oposite sides). Also, I was off in the overall dimension of the two bays One being 2.225" the other being 2.250".....thus causing the stake spacing to be slightly different by .005".   

So...next it's on to the diagonal braces, gussets, and starting to place some of the NBWS that can go on prior to paint.....and of course fabricating the "custom" trucks.


Marc

[marc_reusser]

So this is where I am currently at with this. still lacking some detail parts and the trucks, and some 75-100 rivet heads, before I can shoot primer. [The holes that you see are for some additional 350+ rivet heads and nut/bolt details that need to be added after the car receives its final paint]





Marc

[marc_reusser]

Finally got over one of the last construction hurdles with the cane car....the construction of the trucks.

The prototype car only had braking on one of the trucks, and they were inside hung.

I wanted to replicate the feel of the archbar trucks, as well as the ride height proportion of the images in the catalog cut. Unfortunately the McLeod Russel trucks were intended to be used with car hung brakes, and their wheelbase is too short to install inside hung. The appearance of the McLeods was also not right for the desired look.

I decided to use the side frames from Grandts 2'ga Gilpin trucks. Because these are made of delrin, and will not hold glue well enough to stand up to the use, some creative engineering was needed. The Grandt bolster that came with them was too narrow, so the 36"-ga bolster that came with the Russell trucks was modified, by cutting a section out of the middle, and re-bonding them to eventually space the Grandt sideframes for 30"-ga. The russel trucks also needed some shimming at each end, to create the proper plastic thickness, a solid styrene brace was inserted into the bolster for stiffness/bond. Once the GL frames were cleaned and "roughed" with the fiberglass brush, the mounting tabs were trimmed to fit the Russel bolster slots. After inserting into the slots, a piece of strip styrene was glued across the entore bolster bottom to lock the frames in place.

New bearing pivot plates were made from styrene, and part of a GL D&RG steel bolster.  The brake rigging was made from a combination of styrene, the FMW coupler lever brackets, Grandt brake shoes, code 55 rail, and some .022 brass rod.

Though not prototypical, the visual appearance from the side when installed under the car provides the visual effect and detail I was after.

Here is a quick snappie of the trucks prior to primer (sorry for the poor quality pic)





Marc

[marc_reusser]

Lastly,

Here is some progress, and quick pics, on the logging flat. It is still missing the brake staff hardware, the binder/log chain anchors (as well as the chains), and the 4 truss rods.....this will all be added after painting. The deck is temporarily held in place for the NNGC with double stick tape.





Marc