Absolutely prototypical. These will be Reading class LOa covered hoppers, built from USRA 55 ton open hoppers by adding a roof. I'm following an article fromt eh September 1997 MR by Bill Gruber. This is my first attempt at this level of kitbashing. So far, I've only done the easy stuff. Next comes the roof parts.
Basic kit assembled, hopper bays filed down for the discharge grates
Better view to see where I filed and sanded down the hopper bays
First part of the discharge grates, using 1/8" channel Next an HO scale 2x8 will be installed in each channel. Then it's time to work on the roof.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
i like it, please post more photos as you go along. i might want to try something like that myself.
charlie
Gidday, Thanks for the posting, a subject that I find interesting. I concur with Charlie and hope you continue documenting the progress. No pressure of course,
Cheers, The Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Randy, nice start, I will also be interested in how it comes out.
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
Got the gates finised witht he 2x8 pieces, adn I made a template to cutt eh roof ends. They get glues in the vertical ends on the hoppers and slope down 10 scale inches in half the width of the hopper. They will get cut out of .020 styrene sheet, so to make them all the same I cut one from .080 to use as a pattern. Plus if I ever make mroe of these later, I'll have the pattern. Actually cutting each one - this should be interesting. Sure could use a laser cutter about now.
Made soem more progress, got the end sheets made. Wow, serious pain. I really think I need a tool like the Chopper No two are EXACTLY the same, and I made about 10 to get 6 I consider good enough.
I also superglued some pennies in each car to bring the weight up. Once the roof is on, it will be too late.
No pictures, tomorrow hopefully I'll get the end sheets glued in place and then it's picture time before I make the roofs. Then it's off tot he hobby shop because despite the fact that I wrote down a list of what I needed to pick up, I somehow missed .030 sheet to make the hatches.
Randy! Dude!
You gotta do the picture thing!! I can't hold my breath any longer!
Seriously, this is a neat project. Don't apologize for never having done anything like this before. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you are having fun and doing some good modeling.
By the way, don't feel too bad about having to make 10 pieces to get 6 that worked. I recently made four grab rails for a flat car and it only took me about 10 inches of wire to do it!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Don't hold your breath. I work slowly, a little bit at a time. It took me all night to make 6 end pieces. Now they're installed, here are some pictures:
Top view, pennies inside, and end pieces. Easy to tellt he extra parts - white styrene vs the black undec kit body. I guess I got lucky - Accurail says these come in either black or grey, all three of mine are black.
End view, you can see the end pieces better. Hopefully I did them right, next step is to cut the roof pieces and glue them on.
I had never even thought to weigh down hoppers with pennies if you were putting a load in.
Makes perfect cents now!
The timbers beneath the rails are not the only ties that bind on the railroad. --Robert S. McGonigal
I use pennies for all closed cars - cheapest way to add weight per pound. 2 ounces of pennies is cheaper than 2 ounces of lead, 2 ouncesof bb's, or anything else you cna easily use. Besides, I have a huge container full of them. Avoid the post-1982 ones though, they are 10 grains lighter due to the zinc core instead of pure copper composition of the older ones.
Gidday Randy, No need to apologize about the lack of speed after all "Rome wasn't built in a day".
I'm working on a freelance covered hopper kitbash, posted in last two weeks WPF, (1) to make use of a non prototypical "shake the box" hopper kit that my kids bought me several years ago out of their paper round money and therefore wouldn't dare not using, (2) to practice my styrene working skills, or to be more precise, lack thereof !! so know where you're coming from regarding duplicating parts. "Measure twice, cut once" and still get it wrong !! can be either be regarded as frustrating, or alternatively, character building, though I suspect that in my case its far to late to improve my character!!
I know one thing, for sure, that if I undertake a project such as yours,( which I most likely will now that you've bought my attention to the MR article) or kitbash a couple of covered hoppers from drawings in the August 1964 issue of the Model Railroader as I was originally thinking, I'll certainly be purchasing the proper dimensioned required styrene instead of trying to cut it out of sheet.
Keep up the good work, keep having FUN, and remember that if it was meant to be easy then every fool would be having a go.
The only part I really dread coming up is the roof walk supports - and getting them sanded to shape to fit on the roof. The rest is mostly cutting squares and rectangles. The roof itself, per the article, was cut to size AFTER it was glued on, the sides anyway. Getting them allt he same size though - I really think I will order a Chopper or a Duplicutter to make it easier to get them to match.
Gidday Randy, Would not wish to imply that you would even consider doing such a thing but when it came to the roof walk supports, I cheated. What I did was cut a .020" strip off a .020" sheet of styrene, decided where the supports should go, being freelanced, then put a small dob of cement on the styrene strip then placed approximately .020" of strip on the "correct" position on the out side edge on the underside of the roof walk then when it had dried trimmed the strip at the edge of the roof walk then did the next one. Actually had a couple of .020" strips to speed up the process. With the roof walk cemented to the roof I have to really peer to see the cheat.
Got the roof on, oen of them anyway. Was a bit tricky and nearly a disaster as it came unglued even after allowing overnight for it to set up (styrene and Tenax - really doesn't take that long, but I wanted to play it safe). Trimming was not easy, but I finally got it done, and some sanding made it reasonably even. Some of the mistakes will be covered by the roof walks and side platforms. Overall I think it's coming out OK for my first itme doing something like this, but I'm not 100% satisfied. Well, I have 2 more to do to improve with. Some pics here, more on my web site.
Roof glued on, to be trimmed later.
Roof after trimming. You can also see the 2x8 pieces that protrude from the channel to make the discharge gates.
Randy:
It looks like things are coming along great!
There is always "a first time" and the great thing about this hobby is that there can be countless "first times", each as rewarding as the last, and each a great learning experience. I really enjoy discovering projects that I have never undertaken before. Yours is one of them! I have not ventured into covered hoppers yet but when I do I will definitely follow your example.
If the ones you need are available as a kit - buy it! I wouldn;t do this if I could get these cars as kits of some sort, but no one makes kits of early Reading covered hoppers. All of the early Reading covered hoppers, up until one class purchased in 1956 or so, and then again not until modern cylindrical style cars, were ALL homemade by converting old open hoppers in various ways. Some just had a roof added, some were completely tirn apart and the pieces reused like a giant kit, with some modifications made.
Other roads did some of the same stuff, and the Reading shops made a few for other roads, notably CNJ.
I briefly toyed witht he idea of makign the roof for one and then casting it, but there's too much undersetting with the hatches to make a mold of it. I could probably build a hatch or two (there are 2 sizes of hatches on this car) and cast those, and also cast the roof maybe with the end supports as another piece, but I've no experience with casting and mold making so I'm not sure. Ideally I'd like to have maybe a dozen of these cars. The other issue is obtainign decals, none are currently available, however it's one of the future project for the Reading Modeler site, they already have made some other 'missing' Reading decals and they put the covered hoppers up as an option for a future release.
Randy, roofwalk supports are easy to do, although I can't seem to find a picture that shows them "in progress".
If the roof has raised features, such as ribs or battens, their height needs to be taken into consideration. First, determine the over-all width of the roof walk - I use three HO scale 2"x6"s, with a slight gap left between them. Next, note the highest point of the roof - on a plain roof, that would be the peak, while a ribbed roof's highest point would be the top of the rib at the peak. Use strip styrene thick enough so that its outer ends will be at least as high, when cemented to the roof, as that highest point. I usually cut the support material longer that the required length, so for a 20" wide running board (three boards@6" plus two 1" spaces) I cut the supports at least 2' long. Cut the total number required, then cut each piece into two roughly equal pieces. Cement them to the roof, a half-piece on each side of the peak, using solvent cement, then set aside for 24 hours until the joints are fully hardened. Place a sheet of sandpaper, rough side up, on your work surface, taping it in place if necessary. Place the upside-down car on the sandpaper and slide it over the sandpaper a couple of times, keeping the car's sides perpendicular to the work surface. Check your progress frequently - it also helps to turn the car end-about once in while to even out the amount of material being removed. Once you're satisfied with the height of the supports (they should be level right across the width - you can stop once you've got 20" of level area across the top, or continue sanding if you wish the roofwalk to sit somewhat lower. Don't sand beyond the point where the peak of the roof or, if they're used, the peak of the ribs is exposed.I find that the support material should be about .030" wide to provide a good gluing surface, while the height can vary between .030"-.060" depending on the slope of the roof and whether or not ribs are present. I use 150 grit sandpaper, but you may want something finer - 180 or 200.If you're using styrene "boards", place the centre strip first, then add the outboard ones. When the cement has fully hardened, trim away any support ends which stick out beyond the edges of the roofwalk.
This photo is of a metal car, with styrene strips affixed to the top of the metal roofwalk supports using contact cement. Since the metal supports were already level, no sanding was required, but the photo at least illustrates the general placement of the roofwalk supports.
It's easier to do than it is to describe the procedure.
Wayne
These cars have an angles roof, the original article mentions sanding each support to shape (think putting a walkway along the ridgeline of a gable roof house). I'm not too worried about that, most if it will be hidden by the actual walkway strips so as long as they are level it shoudl be ok. I might give your method a try, seems like it could be easier to get them level that way. If there is a slight gap in the center, it shouldn;t matter as the center strip of the walkway will cover that up. On this car,t he walkways extend past the ends, and the braces (even on the prototype) are solid pieces - really makes that part easy.
I plan to get a Duplicutter or similar before attempting the hatches though. Across 3 cars there are 48 pieces to cut out of .030 sheet, in 4 different sizes - there are 4 small and 4 large hatcheson each car, plus each hatch is made of two pieces, one cut slightly undersize. I need a way to easily make them all the sme size. I suppsoe I could make up a fixture, but the Duplicutter is more or less an adjustable fixture so I could use it for other things.
An easy way to make multiple square or rectangular shapes is to first cut a strip of material the same width as one of the dimensions, then use a pair of dividers, set to the other dimension, to mark the points where cuts should be made. Use a machinist's square as a straightedge when making the cuts, of course.
Detail Associates offers a nice looking styrene hatch for covered hoppers, eight to a package, I think. The wire handles are included. They may or may not match the style you want, though.
I used them on these free-lanced Dominion-style boxcars:
Gidday.
Randy, did my roof in a similar method to you and had the same trouble gluing my roof. To trim my roof put the car on its roof,placed my 12" steel rule on the car side using it as a guide to cut the styrene without the worry of my slipping and damaging the cars side. Then used my 12" x 1 1/2" machinists *** file to gently remove the excess.
Keep up the good work and thanks again for your posts.
Wayne thanks for your tutorial on roof walk supports, far better than my cheat
Cheers,The Bear.
Curses, didn't think about the sites censoring tool regarding the proper name for the type of file I used.
No worries, I know what that sort of file is called
Wayne, those DA hatches are probably the right ones for the 4 smaller ones, but then there are 4 larger ones on each car so it's probably best to make them all. I have wire to form the grabs - think I have that figured out, cut something to the inside width of the grabs and use that to formt he wire over. A couple of piece of 1x2 stock are used to make the hinges, not as detailed as those DA ones which is why I think 4 of those plus 4 scratch ones would look odd.