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Battery car for the Coquina Falls RR

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  • Member since
    February 2015
  • From: Ormond Beach, FL
  • 389 posts
Battery car for the Coquina Falls RR
Posted by chocho willy on Sunday, May 8, 2022 4:23 PM

   Being in the hospital for quite a while I developed a bad case of neuropathy in my fingertips and a little tremor, hence my being able to do some modeling has been a struggle to say the least. Still on the table is my mini heisler which is about 90% done and not wanting to mess up what I had done. I have stayed away from it and other projects till I am able to control hand functions better. So the other day I decided that it was time to venture into something new and simple where I could test my skills and build myself a battery car that I could pull behind my smaller RC powered engines like OLD JOE, the new to be finished MINI HEISLER, and a couple of others. I came across an aristo short 2 axle gondola which seemed to not dwarf the engines and look plausible. It is a high sided one and leaves ample room for a battery and RC electronics. I started by building a ledge around all 4 sides in which to support the panel that would hide the electronics below it making sure that the panel was snug enough to to stay in place but loose enough to be lifted out.

     I then went to my good supply of "never throw anything away drawer" and started selecting goodies to place on the top to represent scrap metal. Easy I thought and after selecting a, what I thought was a fair amount I started random placement, cutting wheels in half to create the look of depth and glueing everything down. Finally finishing my new battery carload lifterend pictureother end pictureI found I needed about 4 times as much as I had thought and upon adding that amount I still didn't have enough to create depth. So not wanting to have the wife thinking that I was cleaning up my hobby area , I added some fine HO ballast to fill in the gaps and added color to hide the open spaces, and added a lift shaft in the center to aid in lifting it out. Then I placed plastic wrap on the sides and gave the surface a spray of white glue, water and soap detergent and let it dry overnight. Yet to do is wire in the electrical components and color the dents in the outer wood rail. Will post other picture with electronics and touch up when finished, not back where I was but getting better, Bill
Tags: electrifying
  • Member since
    August 2021
  • 244 posts
Posted by Swiss-Colorado-Lines on Sunday, May 8, 2022 6:54 PM

That's an interesting load to look at, and try to identify all those pieces!

A battery car for the small engines makes sense. Useful.

Paul

  • Member since
    February 2013
  • 916 posts
Posted by PVT Kanaka on Monday, May 9, 2022 1:42 AM

Bill,

Nice to see you back in the saddle! This will look great behind Old Joe!

I am weighing making a couple of battery cars myself to avoid nights like tonight when the 'tron gremlins are out in force. First thing first is to save the pennies for the R/C system.

 

Eric

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