Since many of you saw our ATSF 1/32 stock car in the current Modelers Annual, I thought you might enjoy a few construction shots of the next in line. The slightly shorter and taller Southern Pacific version. The first picture is of the bottom of the truck showing the brake detail. Note on the side the unusual horizontal tiedown brackets. No idea why horizontal, they just mounted them different. The second shot is just a closer picture. The truck side frames are resin. We found that works, but the bolsters themselves are brass. Otherwise they tend to warp in time. It was a great surprise in a show I went to when I tried to couple my cars together and found none of the couplers would line up. The bolsters had all warped. The brake shoes are spin cast. Extras leftover from a different project. The brass also adds weight in an ideal location. These stock cars have a tendency to be quite light. A real problem, particularly when run in trains with very heavy scratch built resin models.
Next comes the brake actuating components. These cars had a long life span starting in the 1920's and running well into the 1950's. At one point they were extensively rebuilt and the older K brake system was replaced with the newer AB system. They also received newer trucks. This is the newer version though strangely enough still retains the older vertical brake wheel rod.
The second shot is the bottom of the coupler box. Marc, you will want to note that these are to scale (1/32), metal, and do work. It can be done though they are very hard to cast and assemble.
The brake platform was made with real wood boards, a resin ratchet and pawl, then brass framework around it. The square head bolts are Scale Hardware. As mentioned before, note the vertical shaft left over from the older K brake system.
The bottom stirrup was made up of two pieces of brass, cut out and soldered together. Getting everything to fit right with all the curves and angles was fun. This thing is maybe 1/4" x 3/8". The drum was turned from brass bar stock.
The side view of that bottom stirrup gives you more of an idea of the curves. Lots of filing, plus throwing away and trying again. It also has to line up with the brake platform and the brake wheel brace at the top. I make the brake rod itself from brass tubing with piano wire down the center. Two reasons. First the brass solders easier and second, I leave a tiny hole at the top for a simulated bolt to hold the brake wheel on. The piano wire is there as these are not shelf queens. They do get hauled around to shows and get handled a lot. This one was at the SWLSTS and everyone was carrying it around.
The second shot is the feed door. It is a sandwich with the brass rods in between. Just drop them in and glue it together. Rods are .022" brass
Way to go, McGuyer! Perhaps you and Marty can compete for "jeweler of the year". -- Russ
Wow, an incredible amount of fiddely detail work!.....Looking forward to seeing what you do with the paint on this.
Do you have an ovrall pgoto of the car?
MR
Thank you Russ and Marc for your comments. To me the challenge of making those fiddely bits and making them work is a major part of the fun of model building. Thinking about how to keeps 'Old chuckers' disease away.
This next picture is an overall side view in construction. These construction shots quite often show the details better.
The second picture is the feeding door end. Many of these cars were later sold to Union Pacific who made them two level and removed this door. 'Tis a shame as that is one of the things that makes this little car so interesting.
Next is the brake wheel end. When Union Pacific bought many of these cars, they also put the Acme type wheel in place of the vertical rod. Does make it easier on the model as you don't have that fragile shaft sticking up.
The second photo is one of the door latches. Yes they work. Cutting those notches on a mill is fun.
WOW looks great
Down at the bottom of the door, on the other side, is a more complex latch. The chain controls the limits for the door and you'll see a tiny rod that guides it.
This second shot might be of interest to a number of you. They are 00-90 square head machine screws. It is a different way of making them. Instead of making a bigger head and trying to file it square I do the following. First I buy all my 00-90 screws as 1/2" long. I then cut them to the length I want and save the excess. Now I found I could cut a tiny length of 1/16" square tubing and run a tap through it. I then screw it on one of my excess lengths and fill the gaps around the screw with solder. A little clean up with a file and you have it. Easy! Sorry about the focus. I didn't get enough light to get the depth of field as deep as I needed. These things are pretty tiny and I was in limited light.
Back underneath, the truck now has all the linkage hooked up to the cylinders. One of the hard parts of making linkage like this work is the trucks on our models turn so much further than our 1-1 counterparts. That means you need to make a slip joint of some sort. If you let all the levers move, they become too fragile and will break after prolonged running.
The actuating levers here are made of brass strip. The fittings are bent brass strip and brass tubing. What I do is slip everything on the shaft and pin it down on a piece of ceramic foam to hold it while I solder it. I use tweezers with a resistance iron and paste type acid flux applied with a toothpick. Generally you will eventually want to solder everything together once assembled because, as I previously said, these things do get handled.
Love all that detail!
Wow, great detail! Good tip about the square head bolts too.
Here is a shot of the overall bottom so you can see where all the linkages go. One of the tough things was that we had info on where all the various tanks and cylinders were located, but not where the lines went. So from other cars, this is our best guess.
The second shot is the start of a bad day. Apparently the side of the truck frame cracked when I was drilling a hole for the bushing the axle rides in, but didn't separate until it was assembled. It was a surprise. To repair it, gluing was not good enough as remember this thing gets run and banged around. So what I did was to glue and clamp it. Then when dry, I drilled vertically through it and tapped it all the way. I then ran a threaded rod through it, cut off the head and filled in the top of the hole. That gives it the strength it needs.
Here is a shot with the paint. The interior was all done with oils with streaking to simulate wood. Very hard to see though through the slats.
This should give you a better idea of the bottom portion of the side. I'm afraid the passengers in this vehicle were not potty trained so the bottom of these cars looked like the lower deck of Noah's Ark. They would hose them out which means those lower boards would get stained and chipped. This car represents after the rebuild in the late 40's or early 50's.
Here is the painted end from the door side. These also got soot from the steam engines all over the top and two streaks of dirt thrown up from the wheels.
And the other end from the brake side. As I mentioned before, the cut levers do work. They had several versions of these levers. On this car, it was the one with multiple bends.
This last shot I had to throw in just to show engines other than gas mechanicals. The GS-4 is later in life when they started hauling freight. They took off all the side skirts and painted them all black. The AC-11 is one of the last of the Cab-forwards. At times these two engines hauled many of these stock cars. I can recall as a child counting 100 cars behind one AC-11/12. This also gives you some idea of the size of these little stock cars.
Really nice... I am a big fan of your work.
Geoff
What kind of resin do you use?
Quit showing off, McGuyer! You already know it's an excellent model and you are just trying to get me to admit it. But I won't. -- Russ
John
Outstanding detail and model. Question for you the cab forward did you build that? And the second question can you post a picture of it. Just my favorite line and engine every built just love the Cab-Forwards
Jerry
This is just gorgeous. I love all those little hardware pieces and the
"square-headed bolt" technique is priceless! Well worth the effort.
Don't listen to Uncle Russ - the rest of us like it................
Thank you very much for your kind words.
Uncle Russ, this one is barely adequate but I keep learning.
Ray, I don't know what kind of resin Bob uses. I do know it is not some exotic stuff like my old business partner Lloyd Asbury used.
Jerry, The cab-forward is also my favorite. Goes way back to when I was 5 years old and the SP tracks ran behind our house. This one was an Accucraft factory damaged unit that I got and repaired. It was then extensively detailed and painted. Here are some pictures:
The first shows the front of the smoke box. You can see some of the air pumps and lines.
Second is the side of the smoke box. Note all the different rods and levers. Accucraft really blew these.
Here I tried to get you a straight on shot of the plow as they are quite unique on the cab forwards. Sort of a double compound curve. Really fun to make. The setting is Bob Uniack's layout in Los Angeles
The second shot is at the BTS in Ontario pulling a string of scratch built drop bottom gondolas.
Two more shots at the BTS. The sound system is Phoenix. I managed to find a tape of this particular engine (#4274) and sent it to Phoenix. They made me a sound system from that tape that has the compound chuff, plus the air pumps that are so unique to cab-forwards. The cab-forwards are also one of the few engines with both a horn and whistle.
You'll notice in the second photo how some of the pipes were moved to clear the front truck. This engine was modified to where it will now go around 10 foot diameter curves (stock are 20 foot). That way it will operate on Del Oro Pacific.
It's enough to make someone question his allegiance to narrow gauge. -- Russ
Hey John
You just made my day. Just beautiful thanks for all the pictures.
Jerry
Great work John, as usual. I was thinking about making another stock car, did one last year, but after seeing yours I may just go hide mine!
That cab forward is awesome! I love those things. For a few months in the winter of '51-52, my dad worked as a brakeman on the SP and rode trains pulled by cab forwards.