While I don't have a layout, I've decided whenever I do, it will be based on turn of the century central Vermont - Montpelier, Barre, and especially the Barre granite railroads. I've read a lot about this era, and have seen many pictures of locally built flatcars, so I decided to take a crack at modeling one of them.
This car is 36' long by 8.5' wide, built using wood and truss rods. It was called a "Sixty" as it was rated for 60,000 lb capacity. As best I can tell, these were originally built in the 1870s, with upgraded models including Westinghouse K brakes coming later.
I started by cutting the various pieces of wood nearly to size, and staining them all with a mixture of rubbing alcohol and cheap acrylic artist paint (brown and black). Both sides, of course, to avoid warping. The long pieces in the foreground will be cut into the decking later. Note that the barcodes don't matter - but be sure they are hidden when the final assembly of the deck frame is done!
I also cut some bolsters from scrap basswood. These take some fiddling to get just right - later builds of this flatcar have replaced handmade bolsters with plastic bolsters from the Tichy Train Group. These were drilled and tapped for a 2-56 screw.
The lynchpin for this project is the jig. I made this one using a sheet of styrene and bits of scrap styrene to separate the boards. I spent a lot of time making sure the corners were square on this. The nice thing about using styrene for a jig is that wood glue won't stick to it. Once everything is laid in the jig and glued, I jammed scrap wood in the end to approximate clamping the joints.
After drying for ~24 hours, carefully pop the frame out of the jig.
While the frame was drying, I cut up the scale 2x6s for the decking. These were cut a bit long on purpose, as you'll see.
I used CA to glue these on - it sets up much faster than wood glue and makes it easier to get solid bonds with a minimum of mess. I did a few boards at a time, checking the square every so often and adjusting if necessary.
Once everything is glued and place in dry, I sanded the edges (carefully!) until they were flush with the side of the frame.
Next, the cross members (not sure what the technical term is here
) to support queenposts and truss rods.
Lastly, installed the bolsters, and the bumpers on the ends.
For truss rods, I used 8 lb test fishing line. For my first flatcar build, I used 0.015 PB wire, and let me tell you, it was an incredible pain to get right! Fishing line isn't quite as satisfying, but it is much easier to get right, and looks just as good once painted. Plus it's not totally impossible to thread the turnbuckles on, like it was with the wire
Then, I installed the brake staff/wheel, Kadee arch bar trucks, and Kadee #144 couplers.
The final product, with iron steps, and a bit of rust drybrushed on:
That's all! If you got this far, hope you enjoyed it, and that it inspires you to try something new. This was my 4th attempt, each better than the last, and I've built another 3 since then, refining a bit each time. It's built using various sizes of basswood, mostly from Midwest Scale Lumber. All plastic bits were from Tichy Train Group. Happy to post a fairly crude sketch of the plans, including parts list, if anyone wants to see it.
This car is 36' long by 8.5' wide, built using wood and truss rods. It was called a "Sixty" as it was rated for 60,000 lb capacity. As best I can tell, these were originally built in the 1870s, with upgraded models including Westinghouse K brakes coming later.
I started by cutting the various pieces of wood nearly to size, and staining them all with a mixture of rubbing alcohol and cheap acrylic artist paint (brown and black). Both sides, of course, to avoid warping. The long pieces in the foreground will be cut into the decking later. Note that the barcodes don't matter - but be sure they are hidden when the final assembly of the deck frame is done!
I also cut some bolsters from scrap basswood. These take some fiddling to get just right - later builds of this flatcar have replaced handmade bolsters with plastic bolsters from the Tichy Train Group. These were drilled and tapped for a 2-56 screw.
The lynchpin for this project is the jig. I made this one using a sheet of styrene and bits of scrap styrene to separate the boards. I spent a lot of time making sure the corners were square on this. The nice thing about using styrene for a jig is that wood glue won't stick to it. Once everything is laid in the jig and glued, I jammed scrap wood in the end to approximate clamping the joints.
After drying for ~24 hours, carefully pop the frame out of the jig.
While the frame was drying, I cut up the scale 2x6s for the decking. These were cut a bit long on purpose, as you'll see.
I used CA to glue these on - it sets up much faster than wood glue and makes it easier to get solid bonds with a minimum of mess. I did a few boards at a time, checking the square every so often and adjusting if necessary.
Once everything is glued and place in dry, I sanded the edges (carefully!) until they were flush with the side of the frame.
Next, the cross members (not sure what the technical term is here
) to support queenposts and truss rods.
Lastly, installed the bolsters, and the bumpers on the ends.
For truss rods, I used 8 lb test fishing line. For my first flatcar build, I used 0.015 PB wire, and let me tell you, it was an incredible pain to get right! Fishing line isn't quite as satisfying, but it is much easier to get right, and looks just as good once painted. Plus it's not totally impossible to thread the turnbuckles on, like it was with the wire
Then, I installed the brake staff/wheel, Kadee arch bar trucks, and Kadee #144 couplers.
The final product, with iron steps, and a bit of rust drybrushed on:
That's all! If you got this far, hope you enjoyed it, and that it inspires you to try something new. This was my 4th attempt, each better than the last, and I've built another 3 since then, refining a bit each time. It's built using various sizes of basswood, mostly from Midwest Scale Lumber. All plastic bits were from Tichy Train Group. Happy to post a fairly crude sketch of the plans, including parts list, if anyone wants to see it.
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