A tale of two gondolas

[John McGuyer]

I put a couple shots of this project a while back and said I would give it it's own thread and then update progress. The first few shots are ones I posted before but they will set a baseline for what I'm doing which is weathering and detailing an AMS plastic high side gondola and then building a board for board actual wood and metal version of it.

First is the inside of the plastic version using Marty's oil paint technique.

[John McGuyer]

Now the underside of the plastic model.

[John McGuyer]

Next is a closer shot of the underside of the plastic model.

[John McGuyer]

now the underside of the wood version.

[John McGuyer]

A close up of the inside of the wood model.

[John McGuyer]

Here is the last of the previous shots showing the inside of the wood model.

[John McGuyer]

Here is a close-up of the inside of the wood model. Here you can better see the knot holes that are made from twigs.

[John McGuyer]

The underside now has truss rods. The queenposts are fabricated from brass tube and strip with brass square screws soldered in. The turnbuckles are machined from bar stock. Note the truss rods do run the full length of the car with square nuts on the end.

[John McGuyer]

A closer shot of the center section. You can also see all the bolt castings on the side.

[John McGuyer]

Here is the bottom end. The truck mounting bolster is fabricated from brass. It it a tapered T-section with a turned center that notches in. Then long 2-56 shoulder bolts were made that fasten it to the bottom.

[John McGuyer]

Here is the start of the end. Here you can better see the square nuts and special washers that were machined from brass stock.

[John McGuyer]

The air valve, piston assembly was machined from brass, then went to Bob Uniack where he made resin castings. You only want to make that thing once. The pipe fittings are machined from hex stock. The elbows are notched and bent and the tee is one notched and soldered onto the other. The valves just have their silver base coat. They will eventually be sprayed a dirty brown then areas rubbed through to the silver in wear areas.

[John McGuyer]

More shots of the air lines.

[John McGuyer]

The unpainted side near the end. This better shows all the nut and bolt castings. A drill jig was made that clipped onto the posts to get all those holes even. The stirrups are brass strip.

[John McGuyer]

The center section better shows the queenposts. The saddles have pins that run into the tubing so everything can be soldered together. The tubing goes into holes in the wood beams to make everything solid.