I've damaged plenty of HO boxcars, but never on purpose.
Yes the forklift jockies have done their share of damage to doors, sides, ends and roofs. If the roof is dented but not punctured no harm done I suppose UNLESS the dent actually pulls the metal and separates the roof panels where they interlock. I have seen boxcar roofs where the joints have been caulked or puttied with some sort of sealant. In fact I have photos of one boxcar whose roof must have had many leaks where the paint brushes used to apply the sealant were still up there, stuck in the now-dried sealant!
For doors I recently saw an older circa 1969 boxcar in a railroad museum in Sioux City Iowa and the steel doors showed definite signs of being punctured at some point probably by the blades of a forklift. The holes, about the size of a half dollar, were crudely sealed with a gunk that looked a bit like, and may well have been, Bondo.
By the way back in the days of the old Athearn and Varney stamped metal kits those kinds of dents in the roof would have been absurdly easy to model because the metal kit parts would dent just like the prototype! And the stamped steel doors were prototype thickness too.
So for plastic the way I dent gondola sides (and the bulges out are always BETWEEN the vertical ribs) I have a holder for my low watt soldering iron so that I don't have to hold it. I bring the pastic car side near the heat and wait for tell tale signs that it is about to melt. This takes practice and experience. I use a blunt dowell end or the end of a wood paint brush to actually touch the inside of the car and push the plastic out. Too many guys use the end of the soldering iron for that and all it does is leave an unsightly gash and a nasty smell of burning plastic. The key is not to overdo it. I keep a small bucket of water nearby to immerse the entire model in in case I sense the melting is about to go too far -- cold water ends that pronto.
It should be possible to do something like that with boxcar roofs but first I would study my prototype photos first to note exactly where in the design pattern of that particular kind of roof the dent seems to be the most evident. It is easier to dent a central part of a panel than it is the stiffeners built into the pattern.
Dave Nelson
PC101 Anybody remember the wording/signage ''Do not open or close doors with forklift'' on boxcars?
Anybody remember the wording/signage ''Do not open or close doors with forklift'' on boxcars?
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Or the inevitable fork hole patches on the ends and sides? Like distressing a scrap metal gon.
Pete.
Would putting a soldering iron near the roof work to make different spots warp?
Those would be the dents in question. Mast and load contacts against the roof
Are you talking about the dents that pop up when the mast or load contacts the roof?
If so, I have never done it, but I would just add these with spots of milliput putty.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Anybody ever do. Or attempt to model the damage to boxcar roofs done by forklifts?
shane