SP Articulated Chair cars by Union Station Products

[califnative]

Hey Gang,

I was wondering...does anyone have any advice on how to model the articulation between two chair cars; like the SP prototype.

As a long-time SP passenger train modeler, I've always wanted to model an authentic articulated chair car for my pike, but my modeling skills are sometimes less than ideal...I need help!

Comeon help a struggling modeler out!

[TomDiehl]

There are several articulated cars on the market that have the coupling between the cars made over the truck, but these are all freight. I assume you're looking for info on how to make the articulated coupling. The simplest way would be to purchase a car set like the Athearn Trailer Spine Cars and just steal the coupling set from them.

Of course, I'm assuming you're talking HO scale.

[West Coast S]

I did such a conversion back in my HO days, using Athearn cars, hard to describe without visual aids how I accomplished it, but, i'll try..

What you seek is known as a span bolster. This physically replaces the indvidule couplers and trucks with a single unit , with SP chair cars you will need the correct truck, I suggest 0.80 Sheet brass ( one could use Styrene I suppose) as your span material and prototype photos. The truck must be placed in the center of the span, so widen the span in that specific area to provide latteral stability and provide for secure mounting of the span truck, for which I would use a small machine bolt in leiu of the traditional truck screw, SP used sliding shoes to address this issue , but I don't think they would scale down and still be operable. As one unit, the span length must be taken into account, determine what radius curves you will be using and let that be your guide, unfortunetely no hard or fast tips to profer here as each layout will vary.


Span bolster design:

Think of a Capitol letter I with the tails replacing the couplers and mounting in the same fashion, do what you must to the car floor and ends to provide a smooth surface for the tails to slide upon. Mount the truck dead center of the I, also add some additional clearance on the mounting tail to carbody screw holes to provide adquate rotation on curves, a slice of unexposed 35mm film glued to the car floor will serve to reduce any friction caused by the tail. , also provide some rotational ability to the span truck. I recommend a metal truck as the weight is welcomed.

You will have to fine tune all mountings once you have operated it. The car ends will require modifications as there were none on the prototype in the traditional sense as we know it! The space was open and spanned by rubber diaphrams covering a steel wire mesh with mechanical locks to prevent unwarrented seperation of the units . Changes to skirting will also be required regardless of period modeled. Most importantly, I can't state often enough, study some prototype photos.

It may take several tries to achieve the "right one".

Best of luck , PM if I can be of additonal help

Dave

[jimrice4449]

It depends on how fussy you are. The old Athearn blue box streamlined coaches are about the right length but the corrugation pattern is wrong. as for the articulation, you'll want rigid tongues attached to the non-vestibule ends of the car floor, Cut 4 pieces of .040 styrene in a triangular shape the width of the car floor at one end and about half an inch at the narrow end. Then cut two of them short by about half an inch. Round the corners of the full length pieces and laminate a short and long piece together This should give you two tongues mostly of double thickness w/ single thickness tabs at each short end. Flip one of them and place it (at the single thickness end) over the other. Drill a hole through both located so that the 2 tongues can pivot around a pin placed in the hole. If you're using the Athearn trucks there's a bushing extending up from the truck bolster, widen the hole enough so that bushing extends through the 2 tougues and put a screw and washer in the bushing to hold everthing together,
. Glue the tongues onto the bottom of the car floor spaced so that the car corners don't meet (just) on your sharpest curve and you're in buisness. I think those old Athearn streamlined cars even come in Daylight paint.

[jimrice4449]

If you need any clarification email me at [e-mail]

[oldno9]

http://www.flyingyankee.com/images/37.jpg

http://www.flyingyankee.com/images/54.jpg

http://www.flyingyankee.com/images/57.jpg

http://www.flyingyankee.com/images/66.jpg

Here are links to the Flying Yankee restoration showing how they did it on the real thing. I have models of the Zephyr, M-10000, and RI Rocket (all articulateds) and the manufacturers used pretty much the same technique as described in jimrice4449's suggestion.

Pitch in and help save a great train!