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Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
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 Posted - 01/30/2012 : 11:19:20 AM
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Bobby,
Don't feel bad. I solve some of my toughest modeling problems at night, waking up with the idea. How does that work, anyway.
I always pick the brains of the 'old timers' I meet. Now I'm coming to the realization that I'm becoming one of those old timers myself.
Moving the trucks in towards the center of the car would solve that problem, but would not be 'prototypical', and would interfere with truss rods if you were building a truss rod car.
Not on these two builds, but on the next ones I'm going to leave enough room between the two center beams to nestle the coupler box between them. I'll then have to play with the bolster height to get proper coupler height above the rails.
BTW, I use Kadee #714's. I'm pretty sure that the only difference between the 713's and 714's is the color.
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Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Country: USA
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Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 01/30/2012 : 7:44:39 PM
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Well, I ran out of reasons not to tackle the brake rigging, so I finally dug in.
First I pre-fab (solder) the main air line and the cut-off line that will feed the brake cylinder. The main line is .019" brass wire and the feed line is .015" brass wire.
After soldering, I clean the flux off with alcohol, rinse in water, and then soak the assembly in Blacken-It. Again, it gets washed off.
I tackled the 26' underframe first. The brake cylinder is a Grandt-Line casting. There are some Tichy parts under there, too.
Tomorrow I will finish the brake rigging on the 28' frame. Then I will temporarily put trucks and couplers on the frames to see how they line up with other cars on the rails. After than it is (1) attach queen posts and truss rods and (2) add the decking.
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Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Country: USA
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George D
Moderator
Premium Member
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Posted - 01/30/2012 : 8:05:06 PM
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I like your Blacken-it idea. What do you use to fasten the wire to the car?
George
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Country: USA
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Frederic Testard
Engineer
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 01:36:32 AM
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Very nice progress, Bruce. The connection between the main air line and the cut-off line is always something fragile and your soldering method is certainly one to consider, especially on scratchbuilt models.
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| Frederic Testard |
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Country: France
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Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 07:33:25 AM
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Thanks, guys. George, I used Loctite ACC, both liquid and gel.
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Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 23277 |
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luvchikn
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 08:47:37 AM
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That is the clearest picture of a brake system I have ever seen.
So the rods actually go up inside the center beams or pass through holes inside the queens?
Would you please post a picture of the side elevation? And, this is HOn3 correct?
Looks like I am going to learn to solder brass now. You have my undivided attention.
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luvchikn
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 08:59:02 AM
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Bruce, thank you so much. This changes everything. There are so many questions. But let me just ask them a little at a time. Are your trucks connected with a threaded insert? Your brake cylinder, what is securing it to that center beam?
Amazing. It is so beautiful.
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Country: USA
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Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 11:15:19 AM
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Thanks, Bobby. When I get down to the bench I will take some more pictures and note the screw size I use on the couplers, etc. I can then better answer your questions.
In the meantime, the easy ones are:
(1) yes, this is HOn3
(2) I do indeed use screws to hold the trucks in place.
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Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Country: USA
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Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 11:20:23 AM
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I'm getting ready to draw the diagrams for the cabin on the caboose. In the bright sun, and using a large magnifying glass, more details come out.
Note 1: The siding on the side cabin walls does indeed extend down to the bottom of the side frames.
Note 2: There is a platform behind the cabin and it also has 'typical' caboose hand rails on that end of the car.
I can also see that there are two 'typical' horizontal hand rails/grabs on the font wall of the caboose, below each window.
I'm trying to capture as much detail as I can from the original photo.
Boy do I love the fact that there are no muntins on those windows!
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Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Country: USA
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Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 1:02:12 PM
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Some thoughts on assembling Kadee #714 Couplers.
 !%@!*#@@%&!
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Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Country: USA
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Schoolmaster
Fireman
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 1:06:58 PM
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Keep up the inspiring work. Makes my want to scratch-build a car (or wrap myself up in red-hot barbed wire and roll down a hill )
I'm always up for a challenge!
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Edited by - Schoolmaster on 01/31/2012 1:10:18 PM |
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Country: USA
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luvchikn
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 3:18:21 PM
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Thank you, Bruce
I have some pictures to post, but I am suddenly feeling very bashful.
I guess I cannot become a master with out being a novice.
Bobby
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Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 4:04:18 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by luvchikn
I have some pictures to post, but I am suddenly feeling very bashful.
Never hesitate to post your work, Bobby. When I first joined the forum back in July 2002, they were a few weeks into one of the first group 'Challenges' on the RR-L Forums. Not knowing the crew, and being a novice modeler, I had great trepidation jumping in. I did anyway, and learned a great deal. You can check out some of the give and take back then by looking at a few pages of this thread: http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4293&whichpage=18
Anyway, we are a friendly bunch, can remember when we first started, and encourage our new members.
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Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 23277 |
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Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 4:34:20 PM
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Let me try to answer some of Bobby's questions.
Sometimes I model both the needle beams (that support the queen posts) and the bolsters so that they are the full depth of the side frames (by piecing the center beams). In that case you need to drill holes in those in order for the brake lines (air lines and push/pull rods) to go through.
More often I do what I did on these cars. The needle beams and bolsters are glued to the bottoms of the center beams and nestle up to the side frames. That is possible since the center beams are 'shorter' than the side frames. (Look at the dimensions on the drawings that I posted.)
Since the needle beams and bolsters are on the 'surface' of the longitudinal beams, I can run the main air line and the other lines/rods between the longitudinal beams and over the tops of the needle beams and bolsters. (No drilling.) The air feed line that goes from the main air line to the brake cylinder needs to be 'bent' a little to go into the cylinder, but ii isn't a significant bend.
I can then glue (using ACC, both Gel and liquid) to the tops of the bolsters and needle beams.
I mount the brake cylinder differently depending on which casting I'm using. In this case I glued it to the side of one of the center beams using gel ACC and making it flush with the under side of the decking that I will put on top. Sometimes I glue a 'platform" flush with the decking and then glue the brake cylinder on that platform.
Let's talk brake cylinder castings. I'm limiting myself to the older K-Brake since I model narrow gauge logging, and the used those right up to the end of service in most cases. Logging concern ignored RR Regs as much as they could. Some used Link and Pin couplers up to the end.
Anyway, I've used three different types of brake cylinder castings on my HOn3 cars. (Papa Bear, Momma Bear, and Baby Bear.) The largest casting in all dimensions is the one from Tichy (Set A#3005). It comes as a set with all the associated 'goodies' modeled as well (levers, mounting plates, brake staff bracket, etc.) Even when I use the Tichy, I don't use most of the stuff they provide. It is a beautiful casting and the way I make my cars, I can use it on larger cars (approx. 30' and up).
Next in size is the set from Grandt-Line (#5040). Again, a beautiful set of castings and more parts than you will probably use. It is a bit smaller in all dimensions than the Tichy set, and I'm using it here on these cars.
The smallest casting that I use if a brass brake cylinder from Precision Scale. I use it on the real short cars like my little caboose. It comes packed with no other brake line goodies, so I use a Tichy set to provide the levers, etc. The Precision Scale part number is 31103.
You can get all of the castings from Walthers, but the Precision Scale and Grandt-Line are often on back-order for a while. I order a few packs at a time and re-order when I still have one or two on hand.
I think that covers most of it.
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Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 23277 |
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Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 01/31/2012 : 5:26:12 PM
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I almost forgot, the screws I use to mount the trucks are Kadee #401 or #402. Both are 0-48 screws and only differ in length. They also are available at Walthers.
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Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 23277 |
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