How difficult would it be to model wreck damage in N scale. I'm talking head on collision at speed damage.
Gary
I don't do N scale but the wreck thing would be pretty hard in ANY scale. A full head-on collision at speed would probably have the cars behind the locomotive fold into an accordian-like string. Lots of bent metal and destruction. The first 2 or 3 locomotives (provided that they weren't squished by the other cars), would probably have front end damage or at the very least, a broken coupler.
This would be costly in any scale. Having to buy all the stuff just to wreck it would be pretty wasteful.
Of course, if the trains were transporting chemicals or explosives, just make a very large meter radius crater.
Modeling a wreck in any scale will not be easy. I would recommend checking out real train wreck photos and deciding for yourself what you want your wreck to look like based on what has really happened. Check out youtube and type BNSF head on collision and see the actual collision (and hear it) then look around the other links that come up as that one plays and see the aftermath of both locomotives. Rail Images also has a section of wrecked trains. Some are even so bad as to have no body left on the chassis, just the prime mover and that is even mangled up pretty bad. Just like researching for a scratch build project you will need to study photos of actual events to get an idea of what you are going to do.
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Don't forget to model the gouged-up roadbed, smashed ties and pretzel-shaped rails!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I saw that BNSF video, and the aftermath. Someone went for one heck of a ride!
Brad
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NeO6874 wrote: As far as "prototypical" looking wreck... you might be hard pressed to do that, styrene won't crumple like metal.. although if you get it warm (hair dryer, heat gun...) maybe you can make it soft enough to crumple like metal...
What if you carved away some plastic portions of the wrecked model, and replaced them with metal foil that could be crumpled - paint w/ primer and then body color (doesn't have to be that close a match), and then add dirt/mud/oil streaks. This could work on a static model scene representing a few days after a major wreck, with (say) damaged hoppers/gondolas/etc shoved over to one side of the ROW for later scrapping, while panel track serves as replacement for the (heavily damaged) permanent track - you won't need ballast (on the prototype the panel track are temporary, remember), you do need lots of ruts and mud/puddles and heavy construction vehicle tracks disturbing the ground cover, plenty of torn/destroyed ties, rails, rolling stock parts (such as I-bars, metal sheet panels, couplers, trucks even) piled on the sides, maybe some heavy construction/recovery vehicles posed in reconstructing the track. Operationally, you'd have a major speed restriction at this point. This concept would allow you to both represent the aftermath of a major wreck (depending on how many damaged freight cars or locomotives waiting for scrapping you want to pose along the ROW), while allowing you to run trains along the line too.
I was asked if I would be interested in building a diorama of a headon collision of two SAL trains. There are some pictures of the scene, in cleanup. I am still debating, not too much into painting N scale. There is alot of scenery stuff that I have not even tried, but I imagine there will be other people to help me with it.
Use a plastic engine and a soldering iron nearby and heat it up and kinda work folding in the shell.
Weathering techniques like a gondola car with sides pounded in is done the same way, really beaten up. Such cars might be in use at a scrap yard, beaten, hardly see reporting marks, etc.
Obviously find some cheapo equipment that you don't care if it gets beat up.
I was going to simulate a wreck betwen NKP 767 and a wabash train, the 767 ended up plowing into a passenger car, I took an older walthers metal side car and bent it up. This was for a movie project still in the works. Hollywood does things like this a lot with models, so.. well...they do a lot of digital messes now also...8-D