[smcgill]

I've seen some older looking cars that look really tired!
The  middle sags!
Any thoughts on how to do this? 

 

[D-n-H - Kirkville Branch]

wood cars - add weight to middle of car and soak in water?

plastic - add weight and heat gun from underneath?

would that work??

 

[vsmith]

Every drooping car I've seen was scratch built. I remember John Allen had droopy cars on his HO layout, and that he did an article for MR on building it.

 

[paintjockey]

I am in the process of making one. I had a 2' x 3' piece of 3/16 ply board i weighted in the middle to warp it. Using that as the base, i'm gonna build everything around the warp.
Terry

 

[altterrain]

David Maynard over on another forum scratchbuilt a set of sagged box cars that he had up at York last year. He built the frames and floors and then soaked them in a wash tub with block support on the end and a weight in the middle. The rest of the car was built around the sagged frame and floor. Lots of clamps were needed to build the sagged roof.

-Brian

 

[IllinoisCentral]

I seem to recall an article a few years ago in Garden Railways (I think) that briefly mentioned this. If I remember correctly, it was an indoor layout and the author sagged an old Bachmann passenger car to use a station or a maintenance shed. I think he said he did it by putting it on bricks in an oven on a low setting for a few minutes to get the desired droop. I don't remember though if he weighed it down in the middle or not. I would think that this would be a quick and easy way to get the desired result so long as the proper precautions are taken. Maybe someone else remembers seeing this, or knows more about it since I haven't tried myself.

 

[Josef Rieder]

Two things: A little weight and a blow torch.