passenger cars

[Anonymous]

sorry I'm back again so soon, but does anybody have an easy way of making the large windows in apassenger car when making your own? i am in h.o, and tried drilling the corners and then cuttig out in between. is there any way I canpunch out these windows?
thanks in advance
danny
meandmrd@sbcglobal,net

[orsonroy]

It all depends on the car. Are you looking to scratchbuild a wood heavyweight, a steel heavyweight, or a streamlined car?

If wood, it's easy enough to just completely scratchbuild the entire window area out of styrene. No holes to cut out; the entire side is just fabricated out of strip styrene. There's a great (but sorta basic) Paul Dolkos article about scratchbuilding wood heavies in the May, 2001, MR. If you're looking for arched top windows, LaBelle woodworking sells car kits with cast metal windows (the only arched top passenger car windows in HO!); they might be persuaded to sell you JUST the window castings (http://www.labellemodels.com/dhop.htm#top)

If you're building steel heavyweights, don't worry about cutting out windows. Just go to New England Rail Service and buy their windows, to be added to scratchbuilt steel sides. Their website is currently down (http://www.newenglandrail.com/) but Walthers carries what they make (http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?manu=529&split=300)

If you're trying to scratchbuild streamlined cars, your best bet is to have a tool & die company make you a gardened steel punch for every size of window opening you'll need. (got that trick from an old MR backissue too!). You'll have to come up with the VERY detailed and scaled artwork for the project (including the proper radius for the curved corners), and it'll cost you some, but in the end you'll end up with a timesaving device that will whip out car sides in no time. You'll need an arbor press for the die (this isn't something you'd want to whack with a hammer!) but with occasional proper sharpening, the tool should last longer than you.

[markpierce]

Why not try using Kalmbach's track plan search engine. Go to "index", then "for trackplan", then "advanced trackplan search." The advanced search has criteria you can select such as "passenger train operations." For the size of your room, I'd stick mainly with around the wall layouts which provide larger track radius.

[markpierce]

Oooops, posted to wrong topic.