Hello Everyone,
Yet again its time for another installment if Model Railroad Misadventures. This time I'm talking about a project I'm still wrapping up. I am in the process of wrapping up a rebuild of an Athearn 50 foot Heavy Duty Flat Car and man has it been a pain in the butt.
This particular flat car is another car that again was a car that I did not do a good assembly job the first time around. This car needed completely rebuilt and was not satisfactorily operable from the first time I built the car. As it turns out there were a lot of fundamental problems with this car which resulted in almost a complete remanufacture of the car. The first job to accomplish was to completely disassemble the car and assess the items to be done.
The first problem on this car was stripped out screw holes that needed to be plugged and drilled out as per my description of the Technique in my topic on rebuilding an Athearn tank car. The holes that needed filled on this car however were the main body bolster for the Span Bolster, and the coupler pocket mounts as both of these items The screws would not unscrew and thus had to be removed by pulling them out of the holes. The second problem that needed to be addressed was the weights. Athearn has designed for this car a clever series of eights that fit into the recesses on the cars frame. However on this particular car these weights had a lot of casting flash and thus held the deck up off the car. This casting flash would have to be filed off. And painted flat black. The third problem was that because the deck was held up off the frame by the casting flash, the deck had become slightly warped over the years.
It is in this condition that I set off to redo this car. The first thing I did was fill the coupler box holes and the bolster in the main car under-frame. I filled these holes using the styrene sprue technique described in my thread on rebuilding an Athearn tank car. After I had the sprue fit and glued in I set them aside to dry and then began filing the casting flash off the car weights. Unlike most Ateharn cars where the weight is a simple flat steel weight, the weights for this car are cast metal and fit into "pockets" in the under-frame of the car. This design gives the car a beneficial weight advantage over its regular flat car cousins as it does not suffer from lack of weight like a regular 50 or 70 ton flat car. This makes it easy to run the car "empty" in a train's consist as your not worried about the derailment.
After I had the car weights filed down I painted the sides that would show through the bottom of the car with Testors Flat Black paint. I think this step improves the overall appearance of the car as it eliminates the unrealistic "Shiny Bottom" that these cars have while passing by on the layout. While Athearn cars are better about not having this problem as their weight is separate and is sandwiched between other parts, Older Model Die Casting car Kits are greatly improved by this step as in many of their kids, The under-frame, floor, coupler boxes, and bolster are all cast into one metal part. and is readily obvious that it is not painted in a passing train. While I had the flat black paint out, I also painted the break wheels and the staffs to at this time.
After I had the weights painted I set them aside to dry. By now the plugs had dried and I started to drill them out. I started with the coupler boxes at the end of the span bolsters. Drilling out the first hole went smoothly and I installed the coupler and the coupler box lid and moved on to the next. The other span bolster though, partway through drilling out the screw hole, My drill bit slipped and it ended up pushing the plug out of the hole and thus had to re-plug it and drill it out again. After this process was completed I installed the coupler and the coupler box lid.
While the second plug for the span bolster coupler box was drying, I drilled out the holes in the bolsters on the under-frame. There seemed to be an annoying pattern set up here as drilling out the first hole went smoothly. However while drilling out the second hole I must have not centered up my drill probably as not only did the resulting hole end up off center, It was also angled as well. I initially tried to make a few adjustments with a hobby knife with a #11 blade but that just made things worse. To make things interesting now instead of having a round hole to fill I now has more of a gouged out hole to fill and thus had to modify my filling technique. With my file and sprue I shaped the end of the sprue to a close approximation of the shape that needed filled. I then took Testors Liquid Plastic cement and placed a drop on the end my shaped sprue. I then pushed this into the hole. Testors Liquid Plastic Cement melts plastic before it fuses it together, so by this process I was able to strong tight fitting bond because the two parts literally melted together and created a solid joint when any other method would have been left at a disadvantage bonding power wise. Needless to say, this left a blob of plastic that needed filed to shape and that was quickly accomplished with an emery board. After the glue dried I drilled out the hole successfully.
Now I could actually begin some actual car assembly. By now two days had gone by since I had painted the weights so I began inserting them into the holes. I discovered though that the thickness of the paint was enough to give a slight bond on the insertion process and several weights had to be persuaded into place. Scratching the paint in the process. When I went to put the deck back on, I found I could not get it to sit flat because the casting flash from the previous assembly had pushed the deck up. I discovered however that the deck could be clamped into being flat against the under-frame so I laid down a bead of Testors Plastic Cement at some critical points, and pressed the deck into place. I clamped the deck in place with a series of cloths pins. After the deck dried I attached the span bolsters and the trucks. I then checked the car for coupler height and found it to be low. At the time of this writing this is as far as I got. I still need to shim the 4 trucks and apply the brake wheels and staffs. During this rebuild I broke a grab iron and a Stirup step so those Items need replaced and the parts have been ordered.
I hope you all enjoyed this tale, and have similar stories to share with the rest of us.
Sincerely,
James
Master of Big Sky Blue wrote: Hello Everyone,Yet again its time for another installment if Model Railroad Misadventures. This time I'm talking about a project I'm still wrapping up. I am in the process of wrapping up a rebuild of an Athearn 50 foot Heavy Duty Flat Car and man has it been a pain in the butt. This particular flat car is another car that again was a car that I did not do a good assembly job the first time around. This car needed completely rebuilt and was not satisfactorily operable from the first time I built the car. As it turns out there were a lot of fundamental problems with this car which resulted in almost a complete remanufacture of the car. The first job to accomplish was to completely disassemble the car and assess the items to be done.The first problem on this car was stripped out screw holes that needed to be plugged and drilled out as per my description of the Technique in my topic on rebuilding an Athearn tank car. The holes that needed filled on this car however were the main body bolster for the Span Bolster, and the coupler pocket mounts as both of these items The screws would not unscrew and thus had to be removed by pulling them out of the holes. The second problem that needed to be addressed was the weights. Athearn has designed for this car a clever series of eights that fit into the recesses on the cars frame. However on this particular car these weights had a lot of casting flash and thus held the deck up off the car. This casting flash would have to be filed off. And painted flat black. The third problem was that because the deck was held up off the frame by the casting flash, the deck had become slightly warped over the years.It is in this condition that I set off to redo this car. The first thing I did was fill the coupler box holes and the bolster in the main car under-frame. I filled these holes using the styrene sprue technique described in my thread on rebuilding an Athearn tank car. After I had the sprue fit and glued in I set them aside to dry and then began filing the casting flash off the car weights. Unlike most Ateharn cars where the weight is a simple flat steel weight, the weights for this car are cast metal and fit into "pockets" in the under-frame of the car. This design gives the car a beneficial weight advantage over its regular flat car cousins as it does not suffer from lack of weight like a regular 50 or 70 ton flat car. This makes it easy to run the car "empty" in a train's consist as your not worried about the derailment.After I had the car weights filed down I painted the sides that would show through the bottom of the car with Testors Flat Black paint. I think this step improves the overall appearance of the car as it eliminates the unrealistic "Shiny Bottom" that these cars have while passing by on the layout. While Athearn cars are better about not having this problem as their weight is separate and is sandwiched between other parts, Older Model Die Casting car Kits are greatly improved by this step as in many of their kids, The under-frame, floor, coupler boxes, and bolster are all cast into one metal part. and is readily obvious that it is not painted in a passing train. While I had the flat black paint out, I also painted the break wheels and the staffs to at this time.After I had the weights painted I set them aside to dry. By now the plugs had dried and I started to drill them out. I started with the coupler boxes at the end of the span bolsters. Drilling out the first hole went smoothly and I installed the coupler and the coupler box lid and moved on to the next. The other span bolster though, partway through drilling out the screw hole, My drill bit slipped and it ended up pushing the plug out of the hole and thus had to re-plug it and drill it out again. After this process was completed I installed the coupler and the coupler box lid.While the second plug for the span bolster coupler box was drying, I drilled out the holes in the bolsters on the under-frame. There seemed to be an annoying pattern set up here as drilling out the first hole went smoothly. However while drilling out the second hole I must have not centered up my drill probably as not only did the resulting hole end up off center, It was also angled as well. I initially tried to make a few adjustments with a hobby knife with a #11 blade but that just made things worse. To make things interesting now instead of having a round hole to fill I now has more of a gouged out hole to fill and thus had to modify my filling technique. With my file and sprue I shaped the end of the sprue to a close approximation of the shape that needed filled. I then took Testors Liquid Plastic cement and placed a drop on the end my shaped sprue. I then pushed this into the hole. Testors Liquid Plastic Cement melts plastic before it fuses it together, so by this process I was able to strong tight fitting bond because the two parts literally melted together and created a solid joint when any other method would have been left at a disadvantage bonding power wise. Needless to say, this left a blob of plastic that needed filed to shape and that was quickly accomplished with an emery board. After the glue dried I drilled out the hole successfully.Now I could actually begin some actual car assembly. By now two days had gone by since I had painted the weights so I began inserting them into the holes. I discovered though that the thickness of the paint was enough to give a slight bond on the insertion process and several weights had to be persuaded into place. Scratching the paint in the process. When I went to put the deck back on, I found I could not get it to sit flat because the casting flash from the previous assembly had pushed the deck up. I discovered however that the deck could be clamped into being flat against the under-frame so I laid down a bead of Testors Plastic Cement at some critical points, and pressed the deck into place. I clamped the deck in place with a series of cloths pins. After the deck dried I attached the span bolsters and the trucks. I then checked the car for coupler height and found it to be low. At the time of this writing this is as far as I got. I still need to shim the 4 trucks and apply the brake wheels and staffs. During this rebuild I broke a grab iron and a Stirup step so those Items need replaced and the parts have been ordered.I hope you all enjoyed this tale, and have similar stories to share with the rest of us.Sincerely,James
I would do this work several times on several different flats. None of them came out satisfactorly for me.
I went out and bought a Erie RTR HD Flat with a turbine (Or what's it) load.
Then found that the flat does not behave properly in a train and it requires white glove treatment.
Half tempted to get a walthers HD flat instead. LOL.
Let us know how you finished yours when you can.
Safety Valve wrote:I would do this work several times on several different flats. None of them came out satisfactorly for me.I went out and bought a Erie RTR HD Flat with a turbine (Or what's it) load.Then found that the flat does not behave properly in a train and it requires white glove treatment.Half tempted to get a walthers HD flat instead. LOL.Let us know how you finished yours when you can.
The biggest problem I had when assembling this car the first time around was with the screws stripping out, This put alot of slop into the whole works and I couldnt keep the car on the track at all. When I get everything done, I will be more than happy to give a performance review.