Passenger Truck Question

[Bill Gill]

Geez, Eric, that's very well done. That's going to be one impressive car. I thought I was doing well with 'the wheels on the trucks go round and round...'

[finescalerr]

Most satisfactory. -- Russ

[Chuck Doan]

Amazing fabricating!

[Ray Dunakin]

Holy carp, that is some great work!

[Allan G]

Beyond incredible!!!!!!!!.... Allan

[EZnKY]

Thanks folks.  I'm moving slow, but steady.
If I'd been smart, I would've been making molds of the details as I went in case I ever want to make another set.  Too late now.

The next task is the brake gear.  My prototype has four different brake beams on the two trucks, and I can't really tell which one is the oldest or most original.  I like the "trussed" type with the diagonal truss rods shown in the picture, but this will also be the most difficult to make since it has angled fittings at the ends of the brake beam. 

[EZnKY]

Last night I got started on the brake beam hangers.  For now I'm planning on using the basswood brake beams that came with the Hartford kit, as well as the brake shoes.  My prototype has the beam hangers mounted to the underside of the end beams.  The hangers themselves are round rod that hangs from a mounting plate held to the end beam with a U-bolt that has two nuts on top of the end beams.  You can them in the photo.

This is different than the hardware included in the Hartford kit, which has the hangers mounted on the side of the end beams facing the wheels.  I could probably live with this compromise, but I don't have enough room for the hangers between the end beams and the wheels since my trucks have a shorter wheelbase.  So this means I'll need to make eight beam hangers from scratch so they can be mounted to the underside of the end beams like the prototype.  (Makes me think the clearance issue is why they original manufacturer configured them this way.)

[EZnKY]

I started making the hanging brackets by soldering a piece of 1/16" brass tube to a brass strip.

[EZnKY]

Once this was cleaned up, I squared the end of the brass, drilled a pair of holes for the U-bolt, and then cut the first finished bracket off of the strip. 

Here's how the first one looked temporarily mounted to the underside of the end beam.  You might noticed I'm going to have to fill the original Hartford mounting holes in the sides of the end beam. 

[EZnKY]

I repeated this seven more times, and cleaned up the edges of the mounting brackets with files and sandpaper.  The U-bolts were bent from brass rod, and I'll eventually use Ozark Miniatures nut-bolt-washer castings for the hardware on top of the end beams.

The hangers themselves were also bent from brass rod.  I decided to make them in "halves" to make it easier to position the brake beams when I glue things together.  I also had to add a small brass tube in the large hole in the Hartford brake shoe castings so the hanging rods were a tight fit.

[Ray Dunakin]

Very interesting!

[Hydrostat]

That's some fine fabrication ... I like your solution for making the hanging brackets. Looks very good so far.

Cheers,
Volker

[EZnKY]

So I've made some more progress on the brake beams.  The bearing saddle for the tension rods is 1/16" brass tube soldered to either side of 1/32" by 1/8" brass bar, and then filing off the top half of the tubing.  I made a strip of this profile about 2" long to get the four pieces I need now.  (I'm saving the left overs for future projects.)

[EZnKY]

The end caps for the tension rods use the same basic approach, except that I left the tubes full round.  After doing some filing, I added an end plate and filed it to a profile that is reasonably close to the prototype.  This is a shot of the underside that will be glued to the wooden brake beams.  I'll post a better shot once I have a completed brake beam assembled and painted.

[EZnKY]

I've also tried my hand at pin striping for the first time.  I SERIOUSLY underestimated how difficult it would be to apply the decals on the pieces.  I originally planned on using dry transfers, but I needed the ability to move them around to adjust their position.  I'm not very happy with their raw appearance, but I think they'll be okay once they get a coat of flat finish and the trucks are weathered.  My goal is to barely see remnants of the "original" paint job showing through the grime and dirt.  We'll see how well I can pull this off...