Got yet more questions for my Forum friends. First, are there any commercial kits out there that fit the new RTR Walthers GSC bulkhead flat cars? I've tried looking without any success.
Secondly, does anyone know if anyone has 3D printed an interior that fits the Con-Cor Dome observation car? I looked at adapting pieces from Athearn interiors but the Con-Cor car is quite a bit longeer.
As usual, any assistance would will welcomed.
What size is the flatcar? From what I can see, Jaeger products would fit the bill. For example:
https://midwestmodelrr.com/jae6835/
For the interior, you might have to cut some pieces to size. Shapeways sells these parts:
https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace/miniatures/trains?tag=passenger%2Bcar
Simon
Hello All,
FRRYKid...are there any commercial kits out there that fit the new RTR Walthers GSC bulkhead flat cars?
Bulkhead flatcars carry many different types of loads.
What type of load(s) are you looking for?
Walthers offers a pulpwood load (# 949-3100).
Chooch Enterprises; now sold through Walthers, has many different types of loads in different sizes (scales).
One or two of the Walthers 20' Tank Container Kit- a cylinder in a frame- -could be used.
On the Walthers main page type "load" in the search field, then under "Category" choose the first "load".
Shapeways (Formerly Multiscale Digital) has hundreds of loads that are 3-D printed.
Go to Shapeways>Trains>Load or Cargo.
Scene Master; now out of business, produced many types of loads from power generators to milled lumber. You might be able to find them on the used market.
"Wrecked" rolling stock can also be used.
If you have a heat gun, like those used to set shrink-wrap tubing, you can use that to carefully melt the plastic to replicate bent metal.
De-constructed vehicles; construction vehicles and farm equipment, make good loads too.
For larger vehicles, the wheels and attachments; blades, buckets, etc., can be removed and "packaged" separately or represented by crates on the same car or shipped in an adjoining box car.
Central Valley Model Train Supply makes girders in different sizes that can be used a loads.
If you have replaced the plastic wheels on your rolling stock these can also make a load, either a single or double layer of them.
Sheet styrene can be cut and painted to replicate steel plates, along with different sizes of "I" or "H" beams.
Other loads can be fabricated from common objects and your imagination.
Pipe loads can be made from black plastic drinking straws. You can get a box of 250; 7.75", from Amazon for $6.50.
Small-diameter PVC piping can be used to replicate larger pipe loads.
Wooden Stir Sticks can be cut down to replicate dimensional lumber loads.
Rather than raiding your local coffee spot, you can buy a box of 1,000; 5.5" from Amazon for less than $10.00.
Some people harvest components from old printers. Some of the gears and fans can be used to make unique loads.
For tie-downs or banding material 1/64" "Chart Tape" can be used. For wider banding 1/32" works too.
You can also find scale chain in different sizes from many sources including Micro-Mark and PPW/A-Line.
To stabilize the load(s) blocking can be made from scale dimensional lumber, wooden stir sticks, wooden ties used to hand lay track, or plastic ties from old brass track.
Cables can be represented by thick sewing thread.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
As to the car, same type as this: http://www.walthers.com/53-gsc-bulkhead-flatcar-ready-to-run-great-northern-60564
As to the load, I has thinking about the wrapped lumber load kits that were done in HO in the past by using wood blocks and wraps done in paper that were wrapped aroung the blocks. Prototype: http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/other_cars/np_cars/np_number/067100-067124.htm
Those Jaeger wrapped lumber load kits may be found on eBay and often at train shows.
Real lumber loads will add quite a bit of weight to any car, so keep that in mind.
Consider the rail-served industries on your layout. A car with no destination and no source for loading is much less interesting than a closed reefer at a meatpacking plant or an old style icing platform. A bulk flat car might best be matched with a small lumber distributer. My packing plant gets livestock into its small stocķyard from stock cars, and ships meat in refrigerator cars. Some pigs in the stockyard are the only visible evidence of loads. I also have a couple of "Hide Service Only" boxcars that take hides from the packing plant to the tanning plant to make leather. The tannery also gets loads in of salt, fuel oil and acid, and ships via generic boxcars.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Mrchickenstrips Real lumber loads will add quite a bit of weight to any car, so keep that in mind.
I don't run long trains (4 cars + caboose) so that shouldn't be a problem.
maxman Those Jaeger wrapped lumber load kits may be found on eBay and often at train shows.
That's what I was thinking of. I couldn't remember the name.
MisterBeasley Consider the rail-served industries on your layout. A car with no destination and no source for loading is much less interesting than a closed reefer at a meatpacking plant or an old style icing platform. A bulk flat car might best be matched with a small lumber distributer. My packing plant gets livestock into its small stocķyard from stock cars, and ships meat in refrigerator cars. Some pigs in the stockyard are the only visible evidence of loads. I also have a couple of "Hide Service Only" boxcars that take hides from the packing plant to the tanning plant to make leather. The tannery also gets loads in of salt, fuel oil and acid, and ships via generic boxcars.
I actually model a railyard. What I have is a printing plant, a car shop and a woodchip load facility online. There is also a team track as well. Everything else is offline as in pass-through traffic. But with switching everything it still generates interest.
Having a yard offers a lot of operational interest even without many industries. Perhaps consider businesses, which can satisfy various types of cars also. For instance, my grain area can receive closed grain/corn hoppers, tank cars, and boxcars.
Your wood chips and printing industries suggest both wood and paper as rail-shipped cargoes. It might take a bit of extra work, but removable and interchangeable loads for your bulk car could serve both industries. In the future you might use a hopper for hauling out wood chips and a generic boxcar for printed products.
MisterBeasley you might use a hopper for hauling out wood chips and a generic boxcar for printed products.
you might use a hopper for hauling out wood chips and a generic boxcar for printed products.
As for the cars, I have them already. I have a whole fleet of 62' woodchip cars (6 E&Cs - 2 each Milwaukee, Great Northern and Northern Pacific). On the printing plant side, I have a boxcar specifically for bringing in the paper (CP paper products car), an RBL (Walthers - BN scheme. It isn't accurate but I live with it) for it going out and any of my many boxcars can handle the barrels of ink.
Bulkhead flatcar loads. I have photos of loads of wallboard that show large inflatable "pillows" that fill up any space between the loads so there is no load shifting. Similarly on some lumber loads I have photos showing large cardboard tubes that serve a similar function: fill any gap so there is no load shifting. The point is there is no need to have the load go from bulkhead to bulkhead; the prototype is rarely that lucky!
2. Passenger car interiors. AHM at one time sold passenger car interiors of a sort of vacuum formed styrene. They came in a small tube as I recall. There were kind of generic but normally you do not really see much interior detail when you look into a passenger car from the outside, largely due to tinted windows. You sometimes see these for sale at swap meets
Also do not overlook the line of plastic passenger car seats sold by RIX products
Coach Seats – Rix Products Inc.
I think at one time Rix made seating section specially for dome cars (they still make a dome window casting),
Dave Nelson
I think I solved my dome car interior problem. I looked closer at the Athearn 3D interior (as my Athearn observation had beccome unusable at some point) and discovered that I could use a part from another one and the deck from the vista-dome car to bash an interior. (3D printer via eBay. The seller was nice enough to print me up the bare dome deck and the seats to match the ones in the observation car.)
As for the bulkhead load, I have an idea (again via eBay) to build it. However, the seller is away so I will have to wait.