[placitassteam]

Well, that was fun! I had a whole page written and it all disappeared.
This will be a baggage and postal car. Here are a couple of photos from Best's 'Mexican Narrow Gauge'.

This car will be built on an Accucraft flat car like the second class coach. It will be easier since there are no end platforms. I have no information on the interior therefore there will be none modeled and the roof will be fixed. The flat car was modified by removing the stake pockets, stirrup steps and the brake wheel and then it was then painted.

The floor was made from 1/8 plywood with wood strips around the edges for attaching the walls.

I PhotoShopped one of the photos to square it up so I could use it to make a sketch of the walls.

The walls are .040 plastic sheet scored for coach siding laminated to 1/8 plywood. The were fastened back to back with double sticky tape and the doors and windows sawed out with a scroll saw.

The walls were then glued to the floor.

A partition was added for rigidity a couple of roof beams will help support the roof.

This will continue when I get more done.

 

[Tomahawk & Western RR]

Nice!

IMHO i think a bachmann spectrum connie would look well pulling those. i think the prototype was a mexican narrow gauge if i remember correctly

 

[Tomahawk & Western RR]

 

[placitassteam]

You are right Nate. I have one that will be bashed to look more like the one shown at the top of this thread. Actually the one I will be trying to model is shown at the top of part 1. It is number 291 and I have ALCO builder's photos of it. The Mexicans modified it quite a bit but the ALCO photos give a good reference for dimensions. That will be the last build of this series.

 

[Tomahawk & Western RR]

but we could always build a live steamer to pull the train!


great work!

nate

 

[Dwight Ennis]

Well, that was fun! I had a whole page written and it all disappeared.

I found these...

mexican-train-part-1-pullman

mexican-train-part-2-a

 

[placitassteam]

I finally got around to doing some more on this build. All the walls are installed and windows and doors in place.

I thought I had the roof figured out after going through several attempts on the second class car but it didn't quite work out that way. My first try was to lay the roof blank over the PVC drain pipe I had used previously and then heat it. Unfortunately the blank did not have enough excess and shank up too small and the edges curled. The PVC pipe also deformed due to the heat. I ran out of material the right size so had to splice 2 pieces together. For the second try I used a roll of aluminum flashing, put the roof blank in between the layers and tied it with wire to hold the right diameter. The whole thing was put in the oven and heated. That worked pretty well but there was some waviness that I hope can be pulled out when I glue it to the car body. Unfortunately I did not take any photos as I was going through this process.

I have now glued the roof to the body and tomorrow I will take off the clamps and hold my breath to see if it stays together! Here are photos of the clamping set up.

I am now working on grab bars, steps and a ladder, should have photos tomorrow.

 

[placitassteam]

Well, that didn't work at all. As soon as I took off the clamps the roof just popped loose. The GO2 glue that I used does not stick to styrene even though it seems very sticky. I thought it would be good for sticking styrene to wood. I think I will try some .030 material for the roof and just try to bend it cold and glue with super glue gel. I have a trial piece going now to see if that will work. I thought a fixed roof would be easy!

 

[Dwight Ennis]

Recommend thick CA. You might also consider roughening up the styrene on the gluing side.

 

[R.W. Marty]

Winn,
I have had good luck nailing Styrene to wood using the two part epoxy for plastics that is marketed by a couple of manufacturers.
Rick

 

[docwatsonva]

Wynn,

You might want to use much thinner styrene sheets and laminate them. I've had good luck creating curved surfaces using that technique.

Doc

 

[placitassteam]

Thank you to all 3 of you for your suggestions. I pretty much did what you suggested. First I gave up on the 1/16 material in favor of 1/32. That bends to the curve I needed quite easily. I glued it to the center of the end walls, partition and beams while leaving the sides loose. I used Gorilla CA gel which is so thick it is hard to get it to come out of the bottle!

After that glue was well dried I applied glue to the top of one wall and as much of cross supports as I could reach. Then pulled the edge down with masking tape.

I placed my holding jig on top and clamped it down. When that was dry I did the other edge in the same manner.

Once the roof was secured I found that it is plenty strong with just one thickness. I added molding around the edges and then trimmed it flush.

A fuzzy photo of the molding.

It would have been so much easier if I had done it the right way the first time but the experiments with heat forming were informative. The most important lesson was that the plastic needs to be held tightly between 2 ridged molds of the right shape. The final method I used for the second class car http://forums.mylargescale.com/27-masterclass-articles/72826-mexican-train-part-2-a.html
would have been very good if the pipe had been something that didn't deform with the heat. The PVC pipe actually seemed to soften at a lower temperature that the styrene!

That is it for now. I will be working on the detail parts next.

 

[placitassteam]

Sorry, I neglected to take photos of the details as I did the final finishing steps. The hand rails were bent from 1/16 brass rod. I cut some 1/8 wide brass strips from .030 sheet and uses that to form the stirrup steps. Those pieces were painted black. The windows and doors were masked and the final coat of paint applied followed by clear matte. I had trouble with that as it crinkled the finish if not applied very thinly. I must have used a different combination since I haven't had that trouble before. Next the roof was done with the masking tape treatment and painted. All the hardware was installed and the vinyl lettering applied. Finally the car body was glued to the modified flat car. Here is the result.

Front view.

Back view.

Here is a couple of photos of the whole train with the as yet unbashed locomotive.

Next will be the rebuilding of the Bachmann Connie to resemble as closely as possible the Mexican locomotive. That will be some time coming as I have some concrete and brick work to do on the house and a remodeling job on our RV to do before the end of Summer. I will try to fit in some train work.

 

[Tomahawk & Western RR]

winn, it truly loooks great! Could you please take a picture of all 3 cars together?


nate

 

[placitassteam]

Thank you, Nate. You caught me in the middle of posting. If you look back you will see the whole train including the engine which has not yet been remodeled.

 

[tim.miles.uk]

Mexican Train

Hi Winn

I have just caught up with your three articles on constructing your Oaxaca train. They look really great. How are you getting on with modifying your Connie to represent No. 291?

Having read Gerry Best's book I am hooked on the Puebla-Oaxaca line. What a ride it must have been up the Tomellin Canyon - mostly at 4% and double or triple headed! Do you have any more photos of the line from those days when it was narrow gauge that you could share.

I am also planning to modify a Connie to represent one of the NdeM consolidations, it will probably be one of the 28x series, but it will be 1:22.5 scale as I have so much in this scale already.

I then have to build the garden railway, but I don't think it will have any 4% gradients!

I attach a couple of images that I have found on the web that show how impressive this line must have been to travel on. The photo of the train on the bridge is held by SMU.

I look forward to your next instalment.

Tim

 

[placitassteam]

Tim. Thanks for the complements. Those are great photos you posted. I only have the 2 photos that my Dad took but I have a bunch of other photos from various sources that I can email to you if you send me an address. It will take a while as I will be traveling for the next 3 weeks. I plan to start on the loco this winter. My buddy Wesley and I will be working to convert 2 Connies to RC Battery and sound. I will also be bashing mine to look more like the 291. I do have 3-1/2% grades on my RR but I think the Connie can handle the 3 cars.