Fun with loads


C

cnwfan

Guest
I've been busy with various loads for flatcars & gondolas.
First up is a scrap load in a Walthers 65' gon, 2nd up is a billet load, also in a Walthers 65' gon, and lastly, I have the THING, on a Walthers QTTX straight deck heavy duty flat.
 
Hey, cnwfan, care to enlighten us what you used for those awesome loads? All three look great, but the first one is second to none.
 
I'm not sure what it is, maybe a cat cracker, but I know I saw something a lot like the third one last time I was at the local oil refinery...
 
For the scrap load, I built a styrene tub using 0.040" as the base, and 0.020 x 0.188" as the sides. If you use the Evergreen tiled styrene, it makes creating the base a snap. 0.25" square tubing was used under the tub to set the right height in the car. I painted the tub with Testors Model Master Panzer gray from a spray can.
The scrap itself is aluminum chips from a plate saw, bonded in place with dilute white glue like any ballast or other scenery material. I drybrushed it with rust, then gave it a wash of a flat black/rust mixture to tone it down.

The billet loads are 0.080" square styrene, cut to about 50' long, which is the equivilent to a 7" square billet, about 6000 lbs each. I glued them together with 0.015" x 0.030" spacers between each bar. I then painted them with Testors Model Master Acyrl Panzer Schwartzgrau. While the paint was still wet, I gave them a coat of a custom chalk mix for that scaly look. (gray, black, blue). The chalk was given another coat of the Panzer Schwartzgrau. When all was dry, I drybrushed some streaks of SAL orange to represent fresh rust. I also painted the ends of the billets SAL orange, as those are fresh cut ends, and would rust quite quickly.

The THING is a generic cracker, pressure vessel, reaction chamber, what have you. I wasn't following any particular prototype when I built it. It was just one of those fun projects to do. The body is from an Athearn 62' tank car, with various Plastruct tubes, nozzles, manway covers, and reducers. It was one of those projects that was quite fun to do. :D

That, in a long winded explination, is how I built those loads. Now you know the rest of the story.
 
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Well, there you go. Nothing looks quite like aluminum chips like the real thing. That gives me the idea that I should cruise the part of town where all the machine shops are located and see if I can pick up some scrap... I have a couple gondolas begging to be loaded.
 
Very nice loads. I very much like the 'billet' load and keen to give that a go. Chris D.UK
 
Scrap 'cubes' are easy to make. Squeeze pieces of aluminium foil into random size cubes, & spray with various weathering colours. Can do one gon' a night. Chris D. UK
 
I got a few "odd loads" of myself...

Some new International Fire trucks and a chev bus on a CP flat, there is a PRR flat with 2 Armour trucks in the background too.

A transformer on a QTTX. Motor from a locomotive, put on pieces of match sticks and tied on with metal wire.

Then a Sue Line gon with some rail
 
Kurt:

Nice looking loads. I'm building several for depressed center flatcars. Check out Alan Curtis models (UK), he has a unique HO transformer load that I picked up. Easy kit to build.

KCSMIKE
 
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I saw on QVC when they had a segment on model trains,they were talking about putting candy in open hopper cars and gondolas.I thought about putting candy in hopper,gondolas,and woodchip cars.It's recommended you put wrapped candy or put a lining in the car for unwrapped candy.If I'm not mistaken,I put candy in my woodchip or hopper car.Not recommended in a train show or displaying the layout.
 



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