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JoebTX
Engine Wiper
USA
152 Posts |
 Posted - 08/09/2012 : 1:17:38 PM
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Hello On30er's
I thought I would give a little history on the real Choctaw Lumber Company. The real lumber company was called the Direks Choctaw Lumber Company. The Direks brothers were Danish immigrants. They started a the Dierks Lumber and Coal Company in Nebraska. They contracted with an outfit in Poteau Oklahoma to supply their lumber. When the contractor could not supply the lumber they took over his saw mill and started their own logging operations. The Direks Lumber Company grew and at one time had 5 double band saw mill running 24 hours a day. the area they logged was in Southeastern Oklahoma and Southwest Arkansas. This is the approximate area of the Direks Lumber Company.
They logged Southern Pine, Oak, and Cypress in their mills and built two railroads just to support their operations. The first was the DeQueen and Eastern and the second was the Texas and Oklahoma Eastern. Both railroads are still in use today. They owned 15 standard gauge logging engines similar to number 227 located at Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Number 227 had 44 inch drivers and 27,000 pounds tractive effort, and was standard gauge. For SG it is a real good looking locomotive.
They also had 150 log cars, everything from regular flat cars with stakes to home built wooden log cars. The log car was 37 feet long and about 10 feet wide. Definantly wider than the engine
The Direks Company was one of the first to replant trees to make a sustainable operation and they always left trees along rivers and streems to prevent soil erosion. All of the Direks operation was sold to the Weyerhaeuser Company in 1969 who continues the tree farming operation today. The single-largest land acquisition in Weyerhaeuser Company history occurred with the addition of the 1.8 million-acre Dierks Forests in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Though the Direks Chocktaw Lumber Company was standard gauge, in my little world I'm creating it will be Narrow Gauge. There were narrow gauge logging operations in both Oklahoma and Arkansas, and this is my railroad and I will make it narrow gauge if I want to. |
Joe Batson MMR#475
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=37549
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Edited by - JoebTX on 08/09/2012 1:25:08 PM |
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JoebTX
Engine Wiper
USA
152 Posts |
Posted - 08/09/2012 : 3:52:27 PM
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Thanks Heath
I have put 6 pieces up so far. The last 2 were not square, because the building is not square. The next two will have to be cut to fit and then the ceiling will be finished. The rest of the walls will be easy in comparison. |
Joe Batson MMR#475
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=37549
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JoebTX
Engine Wiper
USA
152 Posts |
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Carrie Creek
Crew Chief
USA
950 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 3:49:33 PM
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Hi Joe,
Wow someone else modeling in the same area as I am. I might be a little north as I'm more around the Mena to Hot Springs area. Modeling around 1910. |
Phil
POR (press on regardless) |
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JoebTX
Engine Wiper
USA
152 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 4:45:31 PM
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Hey Phil
Not very many people know that one of the biggest lumbering operations was in Southeast Oklahoma and Southwest Arkansas. What are you modeling? I'm doing the Oklahoma side and your doing the Arkansas side.
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Joe Batson MMR#475
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=37549
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Carrie Creek
Crew Chief
USA
950 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 11:33:08 PM
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Joe, I am not doing any prototype. The Carrie Creek is a fictional RR.
This area doesn't seem to modeled very much and I have always been intrigued by this uniqueness.
Some how, CCLC has been able to stave off any take over attempts by the Frisco which has/had the reputation of removing all competition either by out right take over or run out of business. Anyway, this is my story.
I am going to have to take a trip down to the area sometime soon as I am finding it hard to find pictures of the area. I have DVDs of the KCS route though the Ouachita Mts which gives me overall views but no details of the ground, steams & etc.
Do you have any sites? |
Phil
POR (press on regardless) |
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LongHornCaddy
New Hire
11 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2012 : 01:19:11 AM
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Looking good Joe! I'll be watching!
FYI, Joe designed a unique track plan for me. He's a very good modeler and it will be worth watching this thread! |
Edited by - LongHornCaddy on 08/13/2012 12:15:08 AM |
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JoebTX
Engine Wiper
USA
152 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2012 : 12:30:35 AM
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Phil
Use Gogle Earth and look at the area of the Ouachtaw Mountains. The are lots of pictures of the area attached that you can look at. If you don't have Gogle earth just down load it, it's free, it is a very use full tool. Many of the old abandoned railroad grades are still very visible. With Gogle Earth and a topo map overlay that used to be avalible I was able to map out the whole RR of the Montazuma Lumber Company in Colorado. There lots of pictures on there. |
Joe Batson MMR#475
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=37549
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JoebTX
Engine Wiper
USA
152 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2012 : 12:35:11 AM
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| Well I finally got all of the sheetrock on the ceiling, so the rest will be a lot easier. I just have two more side walls to put up and I will be finished hanging sheetrock. Tape and bedding will go pretty fast as I won't have to do much where my backdrop will be as it will cover it up anyway. |
Joe Batson MMR#475
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=37549
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Carrie Creek
Crew Chief
USA
950 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2012 : 5:22:47 PM
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| Thanks Joe, I quess that I had concentrated too much on the Talimena Scenic Drive area and didn't look further a field. A lot more pictures out there. Also seems that there are more picture since '08. |
Phil
POR (press on regardless) |
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friscomike
Engine Wiper
USA
483 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2012 : 5:39:41 PM
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A little motivation for ya Joe!
~mike corley |
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JoebTX
Engine Wiper
USA
152 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2012 : 1:23:35 PM
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Hello Guys
Well a logging operation ought to have log cars. I don't really care for any of the ready made cars, and the kit from San Juan Car Company (wich is a full scale 38' long) is to long for me, so I am making my own.
Scratch built log car for the Choctaw Lumber Company.
This is one of the cars I built for my NMRA Cars AP on my way to becoming a NMRA Master Model Railroader. In the following I will describe how I built it.
The Design
Although I had made hundreds of resin castings, I had never used metal. These cars needed weight, so resin was out of the picture. Metal was the solution, so I decided the best approach would be to try casting the primary frame in metal. I had used Cerrobend to weight locomotives, but never to cast parts, let alone a frame for a car. Cerrobend is easy to use, and I discovered that it casts well in silicon molds. The project steps were straight forward: design and make masters, make molds, cast molds, assemble and paint castings, and have fun.
The car is 32 feet long, which looked right for my railroad and layout. Using photographs of WSL log cars from books and magazines, I laid out the design. Principal components were the center frame, log bunks, bolsters, trucks, brake rigging, and minor detail parts. The next step was to build the casting masters.
The Masters
The first step in making my mold was to create the frame master. Figure 2. Frame master shows the completed center frame master, ready to be installed in a mold. The center frame was made by laminating four pieces of strip wood, grinding wheel wells, making the coupler pocket, adding mounting pads and nut and bolt castings, making molds, and casting the parts.
Frame Master
First, I made the outer sills using two 3/16th square pieces of bass wood cut to 32 scale feet in length. I decided to use the San Juan Car Company trucks, modified for On30, so I used them to mark the wheel wells and bolsters on the outside sills. Using a motor tool with a round sanding drum, I carved out the wheel wells on the two outer sills. Then using a steel brush, I distressed the wood. The center sill was made by laminating two pieces of wood, the top from 1/16 by 3/16 and the bottom from 1/8 by 3/16. The sills were combined (outside, center, outside) and marked for mounting the On3 Kadee coupler. The mounting pad was made by cutting the 1/8 by 3/16 piece short and leaving the 1/16 by 3/16 full length. I then milled out the area with a motor tool.
Coupler Pocket
I glued the four pieces of wood together to form the center frame of the log car frame. At this time I marked where the brake cylinder would mount and glued mounting pads in place, followed by nut, bolt and washer (NBW) castings to the side of the car. A 1/16 by 1/8 piece of strip plastic was added across the ends of the car to represent the steel beam located on the top and end of the car.
I drilled all the holes for the brake hangers through the car. This would mark the location of the NBW castings on the top side of the frame. A funnel shaped piece of wood and sprue were added to one end of the car for casting the metal. On the other side another sprue the same length as the funnel was added to allow air to escape from the mold during casting.
It is important to note here, that the detail on the top side of the frame was not added at this stage to allow the frame to lie flush on the bottom of the mold box. If the NBW detail was installed at this stage, they would not lie flush, but be lifted up by the details thus allowing the RTV silicon to flow under the frame. This prevents having to cut the frame master out of the mold.
Frame Master and Frame from Mold
The Mold
Using a two part mold allowed adding detail to all six sides, so that is the approach I used. The process involved molding one side, then flipping the casting over and pouring a second mold. The two RTV molds would be sandwiched together to form the finished mold. Here are the steps to create the two part mold.
First I made a mold box using scrap lumber. The frame master’s flat side was tack glued to the bottom of the box with the detailed side facing the open top of the mold, and the
sprues butted up against the end of the box.
Mold box with master installed
After the glue dried, room temperature vulcanizing silicon (RTV) was poured over the top of the frame to a depth of ¾ inch.
Twelve hours later the RTV had cured, and I removed the mold bottom, sides and ends without removing the frame from the mold.
Mold removed from molding box but mast mot removed.
I turned the mold with the frame in it over being careful not to disturb the frame while in the mold and added the NBW detail to the top of the car frame. I cut a 3/8 inch bevel around the edges except where the sprues were located. Cutting the mold this way aligns the two parts of the mold when placed together.
After spraying the RTV mold and the frame with mold release (very important), I reassembled the box with the frame and mold in it, see Figure 87. Mold ready for second layer of RTV. Once the new mold box was dry, I poured a one half inch layer of RTV over frame and mold and allowed it to cure for another 12 hours.
Mold ready for second layer of RTV
I removed the mold and master from mold box, (If there was adequate mold release on the lower mold the two parts of the mold should separate easily). Next I removed the wooden frame from the lower mold. I now had a two part mold with a funnel in one end and a vent hole right next to it.
I'm having trouble with uploading files at the moment, so I will continue later.
To Be Continued
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Joe Batson MMR#475
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=37549
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JoebTX
Engine Wiper
USA
152 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2012 : 3:15:55 PM
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Now where was I?
Finished two part mold and master
Pouring the Frame
I sandwiched the two part mold in between the sides of the wooden mold box and held it in place with a “C” clamp. This made a silicon mold sandwich with the wood keeping everything straight. I heated the mold in the oven set at 200F. This allowed the Cerrobend to flow freely and fill the mold before cooling.
I put the Cerrobend into a small ladle and placed the ladle in boiling water until the Cerrobend melted. I let it heat a little longer while I removed the mold from the oven. With the Cerrobend and the mold at about 200F and the mold standing on it’s end, I poured the Cerrobend into the funnel end of the mold until it filled up to the top of the funnel. Then I let it cool completely.
The first time I cast the frame, I didn’t let it completely cool, and as I was removing the mold material, the newly cast frame just fell apart. The cooling process is real important.
After removing the “C” clamp and the wood supports, I slowly peeled the mold away from the frame and removed the newly cast log car frame. I trimmed the sprues from the end of the frame and filed any flash. The center sill casting is now finished.
Frame casting removed from the mold
Making the Log Bunks
I decided to make these log bunks without as much detail as the San Juan Car Co.’s log bunks, because I wanted something that was reproducible in large numbers for my layout. So, using Plastruct channels and dimensional plastic, created a simple log bunk that would be flat on one side and be easy to cast in urethane resin. I made two of the log bunks to use as masters.
Log bunk and bolster frame masters
The Swayne and Westside log cars had bolster castings under the log bunks on each side of the frame to put the weight of the load directly onto the truck. The frame of the log car was just to connect the trucks and couplers together and hang the brake gear on, not to bear the load.
The actual name for this type of car is a connected truck log car, according to the Seattle Car & Foundry Co. catalog. Looking at the very fine San Juan Car Company’s model and pictures of the real WSL Co. log cars, I decided to make each bolster side in two pieces which would be glued back to back. This was done in order to make a simple one sided casting. Again I got out some styrene strips and started cutting and gluing until I had something that looked like half of one side of the bolster. I then made the opposite side and placed the two of them together and sanded and adjusted them to fit together. I made a small mold box of styrene and glued the two bolster halves to the bottom and poured silicon rubber over them and let them cure. I removed the mold from the box.
I mixed a small amount of casting resin and poured the resin into the bolster mold. I used a pin to release any bubbles and then took a straight edge, a scrap piece of card board, and scraped across the top of the resin to make the flat side. When these had cured I removed them and repeated the process. I needed four of each of the bolster halves for one car and wanted to cast then in one mold.
Bolster, bearing plate, and bunk mold
Next I created the bolster plate that goes on the underside of the frame. On the real log car these plates are just a little bit longer then the frame is wide. It has the pivot bearing mounted to it and is bolted to the frame and to each bolster casting on the side. The model bearing plate was made from a thin piece of styrene with a pivot bearing and NBW detail. I made two of these, one for each end.
Next I made another mold box out of styrene and glued the two bunk masters that I had made, the eight bolster casting pieces, and the bolster bearing plates into the mold box, pouring some more silicon rubber into the mold box and letting it set.
After curing I removed the mold from the mold box and poured casting resin in. Using the pin to remove bubbles and scrapping with the straight edge, I let it cure then removed all of the castings.
Assembling the Car
First I marked where the log bunks would go and glued the bunks to the frame using Loctite super glue gel. Next I glued the bolster halves to together and trued them with a file and sandpaper. I then fitted the bolster castings to the frame, sanded and filed a little more and glued them onto the frame and log bunk as well. Lastly, I glued the bolster plate on.
Bolster, bearing plate, and bunk castings installed on the car
I used the San Juan Car Company trucks, but I modified them for On30. To do this I removed the wheels by pulling and twisting. Then I chucked the axles into a motor tool, and with a file turned the axle shafts enough that they would gauge to scale 30 inches after the wheels were put back on. I checked them with the NMRA HO gauge, and put a drop of supper glue at the joint of the wheel and the axle. San Juan Car Company now makes them in On30. I assembled the trucks according to the instructions and mounted the trucks to the car. Kadee On3 couplers were installed into the coupler pocket and checked with the coupler height gauge. It was just a little low, about the size of one washer, so this was close enough. I used canopy glue to mount the couplers.
I used a Grandt Line On3 brake kit, which has everything to make a complete brake system in it except the brass wire stock for the air lines and linkage. I drilled #74 holes for the brake hangers which were marked with a dimple from the holes I drilled in the master and made the brake hangers out of .019 brass wire. I installed the hangers with the Loctite gel. I decided to use the San Juan Car Company’s brake cylinder which has a modification made to it to match the Swayne and Westside log cars. These cars had both the standard automatic brake and a straight air brake, with two separate air lines for this car. I mounted the brake cylinder and ran the piping for the air lines, using .019 brass wire for the hangers and glued them in place. I used the air hoses and the cut off valves from the Grandt Line brake kit on one end and some Precision Scale brass hoses without valves on the other end. These log cars only had the cut off valve on the B end of the car. I added the brake linkage and the fittings to the brake cylinder finishing everything on the bottom of the car before working on the top.
Flipping the car over on its trucks, I added the strengthening straps that I could see in the pictures to the log bunks and added the NBW detail to them. I added the brake staff, ratchet and brake wheel, and the chain that is used to position the chocks on the log bunks. Strap brass was used to make hangers for the air lines and hoses at each end of the car. The steel plate that mounts to the top of the frame over the coupler pockets was the last addition. Now it was ready for paint.
Painting and Weathering
I painted the car with Floquil Santa Fe car mineral brown, and followed with mineral spirits and powered chalk. Most pictures I have seen of the Westside cars show the wood painted well but all the metal parts rusted dark brown. To get a rusty and worn look, I dipped the paint brush into mineral spirits and wetted the places that I wanted to make rusty. While the mineral spirits was still wet, I added powdered brown chalk to the pieces and let them dry. I used a mixture of 70% rubbing alcohol and really black industrial stain to bring out the wood grain in the casting. After painting and weathering the car, I chopped up tree bark in a blender then used dilute white glue to attach it to the frame, bunks and top of the car.
Completed connected truck log car
Bill of Materials
Dimensional strip wood. 3/16 square, 3/16 x 1/16, and 3/16 x 1/8th
Scrap plastic strips
Brass strips and wire.
Cerrobend, 2 Walthers 3 ounce Low Temp.
Smooth-On Corp. Mold Max 40 silicon.
Smooth-On Corp. Smooth Cast 300 plastic resin.
Grandt Line WESTINGHOUSE TYPE K NARROW GAUGE BRAKE SET
(which includes brake clevises, brake wheel, air line cutoff cocks
Grandt Line 1 1/4" HEX NUT, BOLT, 2 1/8" SQUARE NUT, 5" RIBBED WASHER
Precision Scale brass airline elbows on the A end. #4279 modified.
San Juan Car Co. Westside trucks (modified to On30) and brake cylinder from kit.
(Trucks can be purchased separately)
Kadee Couplers (#803)
Campbell chain.
Floquil mineral brown paint
Gallery artists’ soft pastels ground up on sand paper
Alcohol 70% and Mineral Spirits
Black commercial dye or India ink
The completed car weighs 6.3oz which will make it track really well. Cerobend is pretty stiff and don't bend like lead. I tried to bend a piece and instead of bending it broke. I don't think I would leave one of the cars out in the sun as cerobend melts at around 170 degree F. The car will negociate an 18" radius curve, so should be fine on my minimum 27" radius curves.
The Westside Lumber Co. had up to 65 degree curves which works out to a little more than 25" radius in "O" scale.
I only need about 19 more log cars, and I will have enough. But on the bright side, it will be fun to do, after all modelrailroading is supposed to be fun.
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Joe Batson MMR#475
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=37549
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moore
Engine Wiper
United Kingdom
225 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2012 : 3:30:08 PM
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Wow!!! incredible!!
John |
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Rick
Administrator
USA
17742 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2012 : 3:41:20 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by moore
Wow!!! incredible!!
John
I was thinking of what to say, but this works perfectly.
Thanks Joe. |
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CHOCTAW LUMBER COMPANY
