A tale of two gondolas

[John McGuyer]

Here is the cross beam with the brakes hung from it. Note the step in the coupler side, while the inner one is straight. The brake arms are made from 'I' beam with thick wall tubing for their ends. Also note the angle of the bellcranks. No I did not screw up. They really are on an angle. They are made from brass sheet while the clevises are fabricated.

[John McGuyer]

This is an overall of the bottom of the truck so you can see all of that linkage.

[John McGuyer]

This is a close-up of the rear portion of the linkage. You can see how it runs through a bellcrank on the bolster and over to one on the brake beam. I have a slip joint on the linkage to the brake cylinder to allow more movement since this truck turns farther than the prototype. Keep in mind, this is not a shelf model. It gets run on some pretty rough track.

[John McGuyer]

The front brake goes through a bell crank and then runs over and ties to the bolster. So you pull on the rear brake, it presses against the wheel and then that pulls on the front brake. Since the top of the bell crank is tied to the bolster, that forces the front brake to the front wheels.

[John McGuyer]

This is an overall shot of the entire bottom of the gondola so you can see all of the brake linkage.

[John McGuyer]

An overall side view with the decals on it. These were fun to put on over the rough wood. Particularly since I did not want to put any gloss coat over the wood that I worked so hard to distress.

[John McGuyer]

I've started fading the decals by airbrushing a light coat of the body color over them.

[John McGuyer]

This was my first attempt at chipping the decals with the air eraser. Interesting effect but much too aggressive, So I have now put several coats of dull coat over them and will try again. Also with them, I had the air pressure down to maybe twenty lbs. and it was still too much.

[John McGuyer]

The Rio part

[John McGuyer]

Here are the two gondolas together. Neither has had any weathering at this point.

[finescalerr]

Your modeling has moved up another notch, John. -- Russ

[John McGuyer]

Thank you Unc! I think we are all learning from one another here.

[John McGuyer]

My last postings were apparently so fantastic, I left everyone speechless. So now I've 'trashed' the wood version a bit so it is starting to look more like what you would see working on a narrow gauge railroad up in the mountains and maybe everyone has regained their breath.

This first shot is of the overall side view.

[John McGuyer]

Here is a closer view of the brake side.

[John McGuyer]

Here is the side in the center. As I've mentioned, all the stirrups, grab irons, queenposts, turnbuckles and so on were scratch built. The bolts on the side are Ozark, but I used separate real washers which give a much better definition than a simple NBW casting.