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I've been busy the past couple of weekends working on a few rolling stock projects.
The first are two pipe gondolas made from LGB 4073 gondolas. The ends were cut off and then styrene was installed on the interior to simulate wood planking which the original LGB model did not have. I also added removable cribbing to support the pipes.
Cutting the ends off of the gondolas was a little tedious, especially where the bottom of the ends met the frame of the car. A Zona saw worked well for this though.
Here's one of the two pipe gons with most of the fabricating work completed. Still have to add a brake wheel and other details, and paint/lettering of course.
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Since my three Hartland flats are now going to be used as idler flats for the pipe train, I wanted to add a general service flat to the roster. I like the looks of the D&RGW 6500 series fishbelly flats. So initially the though of using an Aristo flat made sense since it has a fishbelly. But the more I looked at it the more it seemed to be too much work.
And then I remember there were two USA flats I had that were long unused. One was an old auto flat (1720), and the other was a piggy back flat (purchased solely for the Rio Grande trailer).
With some styrene for the fishbelly, the two USA flats make a fairly good representation of a 6500 flat. I also wanted a wood deck, so I ended up cutting out individual styrene strips for each plank. With a total of 140 planks (70 per car) I nearly went nuts cutting them all. And they were cut by hand too! The rivets were real fun as well, having to drill a #76 hole for each one. You might notice the white rivets running above the fishbelly. These were cast on USA rivets that I filed off. The paint should cove them up nicely. Lots of work, but it's fun and I didn't have to buy any new cars.
Here is one of the two 6500 flats (the old USA piggyback flat) with a fishbelly, rivets, and planking. The planks are not glued down yet and it was a trick not dropping any to take the photos. Still have other details to add and paint/lettering.
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The first are two pipe gondolas made from LGB 4073 gondolas. The ends were cut off and then styrene was installed on the interior to simulate wood planking which the original LGB model did not have. I also added removable cribbing to support the pipes.
Cutting the ends off of the gondolas was a little tedious, especially where the bottom of the ends met the frame of the car. A Zona saw worked well for this though.
Here's one of the two pipe gons with most of the fabricating work completed. Still have to add a brake wheel and other details, and paint/lettering of course.
Since my three Hartland flats are now going to be used as idler flats for the pipe train, I wanted to add a general service flat to the roster. I like the looks of the D&RGW 6500 series fishbelly flats. So initially the though of using an Aristo flat made sense since it has a fishbelly. But the more I looked at it the more it seemed to be too much work.
And then I remember there were two USA flats I had that were long unused. One was an old auto flat (1720), and the other was a piggy back flat (purchased solely for the Rio Grande trailer).
With some styrene for the fishbelly, the two USA flats make a fairly good representation of a 6500 flat. I also wanted a wood deck, so I ended up cutting out individual styrene strips for each plank. With a total of 140 planks (70 per car) I nearly went nuts cutting them all. And they were cut by hand too! The rivets were real fun as well, having to drill a #76 hole for each one. You might notice the white rivets running above the fishbelly. These were cast on USA rivets that I filed off. The paint should cove them up nicely. Lots of work, but it's fun and I didn't have to buy any new cars.
Here is one of the two 6500 flats (the old USA piggyback flat) with a fishbelly, rivets, and planking. The planks are not glued down yet and it was a trick not dropping any to take the photos. Still have other details to add and paint/lettering.
