Bovine transportation vehicle

[John McGuyer]

Since many of you saw our ATSF 1/32 stock car in the current Modelers Annual, I thought you might enjoy a few construction shots of the next in line. The slightly shorter and taller Southern Pacific version. The first picture is of the bottom of the truck showing the brake detail. Note on the side the unusual horizontal tiedown brackets. No idea why horizontal, they just mounted them different. The second shot is just a closer picture. The truck side frames are resin. We found that works, but the bolsters themselves are brass. Otherwise they tend to warp in time. It was a great surprise in a show I went to when I tried to couple my cars together and found none of the couplers would line up. The bolsters had all warped. The brake shoes are spin cast. Extras leftover from a different project. The brass also adds weight in an ideal location. These stock cars have a tendency to be quite light. A real problem, particularly when run in trains with very heavy scratch built resin models.

[John McGuyer]

Next comes the brake actuating components. These cars had a long life span starting in the 1920's and running well into the 1950's. At one point they were extensively rebuilt and the older K brake system was replaced with the newer AB system. They also received newer trucks. This is the newer version though strangely enough still retains the older vertical brake wheel rod.

The second shot is the bottom of the coupler box. Marc, you will want to note that these are to scale (1/32), metal, and do work. It can be done though they are very hard to cast and assemble.

[John McGuyer]

The brake platform was made with real wood boards, a resin ratchet and pawl, then brass framework around it. The square head bolts are Scale Hardware. As mentioned before, note the vertical shaft left over from the older K brake system.

The bottom stirrup was made up of two pieces of brass, cut out and soldered together. Getting everything to fit right with all the curves and angles was fun. This thing is maybe 1/4" x 3/8". The drum was turned from brass bar stock.

[John McGuyer]

The side view of that bottom stirrup gives you more of an idea of the curves. Lots of filing, plus throwing away and trying again. It also has to line up with the brake platform and the brake wheel brace at the top. I make the brake rod itself from brass tubing with piano wire down the center. Two reasons. First the brass solders easier and second, I leave a tiny hole at the top for a simulated bolt to hold the brake wheel on. The piano wire is there as these are not shelf queens. They do get hauled around to shows and get handled a lot. This one was at the SWLSTS and everyone was carrying it around.

The second shot is the feed door. It is a sandwich with the brass rods in between. Just drop them in and glue it together. Rods are .022" brass

[finescalerr]

Way to go, McGuyer! Perhaps you and Marty can compete for "jeweler of the year". -- Russ

[marc_reusser]

Wow, an incredible amount of fiddely detail work!.....Looking forward to seeing what you do with the paint on this.

Do you have an ovrall pgoto of the car?


MR

[John McGuyer]

Thank you Russ and Marc for your comments. To me the challenge of making those fiddely bits and making them work is a major part of the fun of model building. Thinking about how to keeps 'Old chuckers' disease away.

This next picture is an overall side view in construction. These construction shots quite often show the details better.

The second picture is the feeding door end. Many of these cars were later sold to Union Pacific who made them two level and removed this door. 'Tis a shame as that is one of the things that makes this little car so interesting.

[John McGuyer]

Next is the brake wheel end. When Union Pacific bought many of these cars, they also put the Acme type wheel in place of the vertical rod. Does make it easier on the model as you don't have that fragile shaft sticking up.

The second photo is one of the door latches. Yes they work. Cutting those notches on a mill is fun.

[scrappy1]

WOW looks great

[John McGuyer]

Down at the bottom of the door, on the other side, is a more complex latch. The chain controls the limits for the door and you'll see a tiny rod that guides it.

This second shot might be of interest to a number of you. They are 00-90 square head machine screws. It is a different way of making them. Instead of making a bigger head and trying to file it square I do the following. First I buy all my 00-90 screws as 1/2" long. I then cut them to the length I want and save the excess. Now I found I could cut a tiny length of 1/16" square tubing and run a tap through it. I then screw it on one of my excess lengths and fill the gaps around the screw with solder. A little clean up with a file and you have it. Easy! Sorry about the focus. I didn't get enough light to get the depth of field as deep as I needed. These things are pretty tiny and I was in limited light.

[John McGuyer]

Back underneath, the truck now has all the linkage hooked up to the cylinders. One of the hard parts of making linkage like this work is the trucks on our models turn so much further than our 1-1 counterparts. That means you need to make a slip joint of some sort. If you let all the levers move, they become too fragile and will break after prolonged running.

The actuating levers here are made of brass strip. The fittings are bent brass strip and brass tubing. What I do is slip everything on the shaft and pin it down on a piece of ceramic foam to hold it while I solder it. I use tweezers with a resistance iron and paste type acid flux applied with a toothpick. Generally you will eventually want to solder everything together once assembled because, as I previously said, these things do get handled.

[Chuck Doan]

Love all that detail!

[Ray Dunakin]

Wow, great detail! Good tip about the square head bolts too.

[John McGuyer]

Here is a shot of the overall bottom so you can see where all the linkages go. One of the tough things was that we had info on where all the various tanks and cylinders were located, but not where the lines went. So from other cars, this is our best guess.

The second shot is the start of a bad day. Apparently the side of the truck frame cracked when I was drilling a hole for the bushing the axle rides in, but didn't separate until it was assembled. It was a surprise. To repair it, gluing was not good enough as remember this thing gets run and banged around. So what I did was to glue and clamp it. Then when dry, I drilled vertically through it and tapped it all the way. I then ran a threaded rod through it, cut off the head and filled in the top of the hole. That gives it the strength it needs.

[John McGuyer]

Here is a shot with the paint. The interior was all done with oils with streaking to simulate wood. Very hard to see though through the slats.

This should give you a better idea of the bottom portion of the side. I'm afraid the passengers in this vehicle were not potty trained so the bottom of these cars looked like the lower deck of Noah's Ark. They would hose them out which means those lower boards would get stained and chipped. This car represents after the rebuild in the late 40's or early 50's.