GTW Caboose Part 2

  I finally finished painting and weathering GTW 77964.  The first of at least 6 or more Cabooses I will need, for operations on the new layout.

  I used True Colour Paint. CN Morency Orange for the body and CN Freight Car Brown for the underframe, roof and end platforms.

 Weathering was done with AK washes and Pan Pastels.  Then everything was sealed with Testors Dull Coat.

 The decals are Microscale from the GTW Caboose Set.

The windows are microscope cover slides, cut with a diamond scribe and glued in place with Kristal Klear.

I added a Woodland Scenics figure who is waving to some one......

A visit with the Model Railroad Enabler

  Last Evening I visited with the "Model Railroad Enabler" for his assistance in developing my new Grand Trunk Layout Plan.  I kept my guard up as I wanted to make sure I didn't come away convinced to model a different prototype.  A visit with the Enabler is sort of like meeting the Great Gazoo. 

Hey Dum Dum you really should be modelling "The prototype you never thought of"

Now don't get me wrong, the Enabler has other Worldly powers in layout design, but others have been known to come out of the experience selling all their stuff and changing prototypes.

I had to my advantage that he was the one to suggest the South Paris switcher in the first place. I guess that means he enabled me almost two years ago and I didn't even know it then. 

We went over may details of the benchwork and the operation of the trains and he brought up many things I hadn't even considered.  So now I wait, while he sharpens his pencil and puts it to graph paper. 

Stay Tuned...

Center Cupola Cabooses

The Grand Trunk (NEL) rostered three centre cupola cabooses, all wood sheathed.

Numbers:

77964
77965
77971

Jim Parker Photo, Portland Maine1968

They were leased from the Grand Trunk Western(GTW) in 1934.  Built by GTW's Port Huron shops in 1927, as part of the 77958-77977 series.

In 1953 they were officially transferred to the Grand Trunk (NEL).  They all wore GTW white lettering on Morency Orange bodies until the late fifties, when they received Grand Trunk within a horizontal green leaf.  In the sixties they were repainted into the GT version of the CN noodle scheme.

I decided to model 77964 for my Caboose fleet.  This will be primarily used on the South Paris Switcher.  Being a centre cupola design, it lent itself for better branch line use, as it would not need to be turned.

A Walthers Grand Trunk Western wood sheathed, offset cupola caboose was used as the starting point for a kit bash.

First, I corrected the well known issue of the trucks hitting the end steps while swivelling even the slightest amount.  This was accomplished by cutting the bolsters from the under frame slightly inward of the bolster.  Then turning them 180 degrees before reattaching them.

I cut the roof in three parts and moved the cupola opening to the centre.  The pieces were glued back together in a jig to keep the new roof square.  The cupola had the windows muttons removed all around. New muttons were constructed from strip styrene for the front and rear.  The cupola side window muttons were created using Tichy muttons from one of their work car window sets.

I removed the sides using my milling machine and made new ones from V-groove styrene sheet.

Tichy work car windows were spot on replacements for the side and end windows.  Openings were cut in the ends and the new sides to accommodate them, by first drilling holes and using my nibbler tool to finish up.

The sides were attached and the roof fitted.  The roof was sheathed in 0.005" styrene to cover up the grooves of the kit roof.  The prototype was covered in some sort of roofing material.

The end ladders also looked bulky so I fashioned replacements from strip styrene and phosphor bronze wire. The wire grabs from the Walthers kit were reused and mounting holes drilled where needed.  A Stove stack from Custom Finishing was fitted.

RPO Part 5

Well here it is CN RPO #7810.

I used ScaleCoat CN Olive Green Paint for the body. Tamiya Flat Black for the roof and under frame bits.  The decals are from Microscale, the CNSIG set in particular.

The rivets are a combination of MicroMark and Archer.  There's at least 2500 of them on it!

It sounds like a lot, but it was only three evenings work to put them all on. One evening for the ends and then one for each of the sides, spending about two hours or so per.

The Mail room windows are Tichy Work Car frames, with the sill removed.  Using 0.010" x 0.030" styrene, a frame was added to the top of the outer portion to make these into single hung windows.  The Tichy muttons were not used. Clear styrene representing glass, was slid between the new upper framing and the rabbet in the Tichy window frame.  It would normally receive the muttons.

The Bars are brass wire held in some styrene blocks that I milled grooves into. The grooves space them correctly. The assemblies are then simply glued to the inside of the car.  The mail room windows, got a coat Testors Dullcoat to frost them.

The roof is held on with magnets, a method I will be using again.

I am very happy with how this car came out. It's the first passenger car I have modelled and I can't wait to get started on some more.  It really pushed my modelling skills up a notch. Here is my lessons learned.

Being a more complex build, it forced me to slow down and put more into the planning before each step was taken. 

At a minimum I have new found skills in working with styrene and decal rivets.  I also have a better understanding of passenger car details, and figured out a method to reproduce roof panel lines.  

All of these new skills will make tackling other projects easier while resetting the bar for what I can achieve.  

I even spent some time figuring out the white balance settings on my camera, so I can take better pictures.  Hopefully this has removed a road block, in me submitting a magazine article in the future.

RPO Part 4

Trucks

The Branchline under frame is designed to work with the kit supplied 3 axle trucks.  ACF built these RPO cars with short wheel base, 2 axle trucks.  The Walters 8'6" passenger car truck was selected as the closest to the prototype.  In order to mount these trucks, the under frame was modified in the following manner.

1. Mill off the bolster even with the surounding material.

2. Install a block of styrene for the truck to rest on, that provides for the correct coupler height.

3. Drill the truck mounting screw on center and the correct distance from the car end.  To ensure the screw is centered, I coloured the block with some pencil graphite and then used my dividers to scribe two arcs using the moulded holes near the end of the car, on either side of the coupler.

4. The smaller piece of styrene helps to keep the Branchline swinging coupler box wiskers,  flat against the under frame, improving the coupler mounting box angle.

5. The openings were filled with sheet styrene from the inside.

The trucks were modified by adding a small washer to fill in the large hole to size it for a 2-56 screw.  These were glued using ACC.

 
The underframe was detailed the best I could figure from my reference photos and a photo supplied by one of the blogs readers, of his Bethlehem Car Works kit of this car.

 
The Sill steps were formed from Details Associates flat stock in a simple wood jig and soldered together.

 
The roof was sanded of all detail including the panel lines, as they were in the wrong location for this car.  The panel lines were recreated, by first priming the roof, then masking off the half of the panels, followed by adding 4 more coats of primer.  The masking tape was removed shortly after the last coat, while the paint was still soft, so that it would not chip.

The roof was detailed with Custom Finishing Vents, brass bar stock for the drip rails above the doors and a brass wire with mounts for the Gas Lighting Pipe.

In the next installment I will show the final car so Stay tuned.....

RPO Part 3

These CN RPO's feature an Arch Style roof with rounded ends.  An Athearn 70' Round Roof Coach was sacrificed to provide the roof.

First the roof was separated just below the upper rivet strip using a large razor Saw.

Next I scraped and sanded the roof even with the rivet strip.

It was determined that this point the roof was too wide to mate with the RPO body.  I calculated the point at which the roof narrows along the arch profile where it would be the correct width.  I used my height gage and scribed a line around the roof at this point.

Then I used a small modelling plane and my plexiglass mounted sandpaper to remove this material.

I now had an Arch roof of the correct profile and width to match the car.

The forth step was to shorten the roof to the correct length.  A razor saw and miter box were used to cut out a section from the middle of the roof.  I then used my milling machine to end mill the roof sections to the correct length to match the RPO body.   These were glued together using Testor's model cement, as it has a slow cure time compared to MEK.  I used my machined gluing jig to keep things lined up.

The final step was to reinforce the joint from the inside with some sheet styrene.

Next steps will be to detail the roof correct for the 7810-7812 series RPOs.

RPO Part 2

Over the weekend I made substantial progress on the RPO.

I scratch built new sides from Evergreen styrene sheet and strip.  Commercial sized strip was used to keep things simple.

In the first photo you will see some finger clamps I constructed to assist in the process of making the sides. I saw these over on Joe Smith's Blog and thought they were just great.  Mine are made of mild steel with a piece of Tig welding wire pressed into a drilled hole.  They are basically a mini finger to hold things while your gluing etc.  What great idea and now that I have them, I can't live without them!!  Construction is done on plate glass set against a metal scale.

The first layer is made of a piece of 0.010" thick material with 0.060" quarter round on either end. The second layer is all made from 0.010" strip of varying widths.  A piece of 0.100" and 0.080" strip is attached along the top and bottom of the sides respectively.  The top and bottom of the three doors are made with 0.080" strip centered on the pencil lines.  These are made longer than actually needed.

Here is a close up of the side as described above.  The strips are set 0.010" off of the top and bottom strips to leave room for upper and lower door sills.  The top of the side is against the scale in this photo.

Next I applied the mutton's to the upper half of the door to frame door window openings.  The mutton's are 0.040" styrene and the outer edge is 0.080" which will be covered with a 0.040" quarter round door jamb that will leave a 0.040" door boarder to match the mutton size.

Here is both sides with the doors and windows all framed up.

Next the remaining areas were filled with 0.010" sheet to complete this layer.

The third layer starts by adding 0.040" sheet on top of the second layer using individual pieces followed up with 0.010" x 0.040" strip set vertically at the top and bottom of the door openings.
Unfortunately I didn't take a close up photo. Finally I added the 0.040" quarter round on either side of the door to form the door jamb.

Next up is to cut out the window and door window openings, followed by adding the belt rail and letter board using 0.010" strip.  I will fill any seams with putty and sand if needed before mounting on the car floor.