2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

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Harlock
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Re: 2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

Post by Harlock »

Decking is stained, glued and nailed on.

It looks a bit like furniture at the moment, but give it a few meets and it will start to weather.

The end pieces will be painted grey like the car.
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SilverSanJuan
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Re: 2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

Post by SilverSanJuan »

Dang, you do beautiful work!

Todd
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Harlock
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Re: 2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

Post by Harlock »

I guess I haven't updated this thread in a while. I finished off the body and started on the bench seat. The seat is designed to look like a stack of lumber but it's actually hollow inside. It is based off of a bench that Jim Sabin made in the same fashion.

The strips are ultra-cheap furring strips from home depot, maybe a couple of bucks for an eight foot piece. I got a bunch and made 3" long versions for the end fillers, and longer ones for the sides.

All the wood was screwed to each other vertically four layers at a time in vertical blocks with the longest high quality wood screws I could get. All the holes had to be pilot drilled because the pine/fir whatever it is is so low quality and small that it loves to split and crack. then the vertical bricks were screwed together horizontally. It felt like I was clamping and drilling forever, it took many weeks of an hour here and an hour there to finish it.
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Harlock
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Re: 2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

Post by Harlock »

To make the bench seat I make a foam - wood - vinyl sandwich and wrap it like a present at the ends. I don't have stitching or beading capability here so this always seems like a good alternate method. Seat foam for some reason is excessively expensive, on the order of $64 a square yard for 4" foam. I have no idea why. But a two yard strip is enough to do two bench cars plus some smaller seats.

The best way to cut foam is with an electric carving knife - so I bought one for $18 at K-Mart. We now have something to cut the roast up with next thanksgiving as well thanks to the hobby.

I use an electric staple gun which makes quick work out of stapling the vinyl.

Last photo is the finished bench seat. I made it a bit taller than Jim's to make it more comfortable for adults. you sink into the foam a good amount so you're not actually sitting up that high. Maybe on one inch of compressed foam. I can't seem to find the denser / stiffer seat foam otherwise I'd just do two inches. Maybe will re-do later. Another friend used mattress foam topper, that is something to look into.

The final thin vertical strips on the side are hobby oak strips from Home Depot trimmed to length and pilot drilled for little copper weather stripping nails. The nails are serrated a bit and have a good bite in the soft wood beneath. The strips are just for looks to break things up and give it a 'strapped' sort of look but don't actually do anything as the furring strips are now one solid mass screwed together. The outer two strips hide screws that hold the long side sections to the end blocks.
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Harlock
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Re: 2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

Post by Harlock »

Made up some fake trussrod washers by loc-titing square bolts to pieces of all thread along with some RP washers, then tapping the poplar hardwood directly and putting a dab of glue in the threads and screwing them in. Although they will likely never need to come out in my lifetime, the wood glue on the threads should break away before the red loc-tite in the nut.

And if you ask "why not real trussrods?" There's no clearance for them on this car and it has the steel center frame so they are functionally pointless. There is room however to put a fake dropped section in the middle with queen posts to "complete the look."

More on the air and electrical through-plumbing next...
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Harlock
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Re: 2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

Post by Harlock »

Not much time for reading and posting lately but the next big step was to install brakes on the trucks.

These are Steve Easlon Pacific Coast Railroad arch bar freight trucks. Barry Hague of SuperScale came up with this overall setup, only originally it used double actuating cylinders for automatic brakes. You can do do this simply by swapping out the cylinder. The SuperScale parts are no longer in the catalog but there is some inventory left. They are designed for this specific truck and include the shoes, hangars, equalizing beams, base end cylinder adaptor and threaded inserts for the equalizing beams. You could also machine these parts yourself to suit your application. I post this here as an example of a reliable, leak free brake seutup.

The current cylinder is what Clippard calls a 'reverse acting' cylinder, in that it is internally sprung outward. So for straight air and outside brake shoes, it takes them off the wheels when air is not applied. It is an improvement over a previous mod I had encountered where a spring on the outside was fitted to a non-sprung cylinder. This is much simpler and Clippard has the correct cylinder configuration in 7/8" bore, which is what is typically used on these trucks and provides excellent braking without locking up on a typical 2 1/2" or 3" scale car.

The clippard hardware does not leak. You can pressurize the short line going to the truck, shut off the supply and disconnect the hose and it will just sit there and hold pressure. The cylinders are leak free as well as all the fittings down the line.

I run the resovoir and pump at 45 - 65 PSI, and a typical brake application uses about 8 to 15 PSI, except for emergency stops downhill, when I can open it all the way if I desire for a 'stop on a dime' effect.

These brakes took a surprising amount of time to collect and make all the parts. But once on hand they go together quickly.

Now that the trucks are done, the rest of the underside will be plumbed up with brakes and electricity pass through then it can all go together and get up on its wheels for the first time.

Here also is a little video I made about this setup, view in HD 1080P for more detail.

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DJSteamer3017
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Re: 2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

Post by DJSteamer3017 »

Mike,
Well explained setup on your braking. Would love to see every car you have in an album on your website. Are you going to attend the LALS Spring Meet this weekend? Thanks and Keep on Steamin' My Friend!!

David
The 1" Scale Junkie ... But steam of all sizes is cool with me!!
"If you can dream it, you can do it" - Walt Disney
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Harlock
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Re: 2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

Post by Harlock »

Hi all. After a week and a half delay because I did not order enough clippard shutoff disconnects (they are really slow to deal with) I got the parts and finished off the bottom of the car. This pretty much typifies the standard setup on one of my cars. An air supply pass through runs through the center beam of the car and allows air to come from the resovoir and pump in the boxcar up to the valve in the locomotive, and then from the valve in the loco it connects to the application line in the car, which tees off to the trucks and continues to the other end. All ends have shutoff disconnects so if it is the last braking car I do not have to cap off the other end, just leave it open and the internal valve in the fitting closes off.
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Harlock
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Re: 2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

Post by Harlock »

In photo 1 I've pressurized the brakes and then disconnected the supply, and everything is holding steady. No leaks in the system.

Same with the supply line.

You may also be wondering about the BNC connector. That is what I finally settled on for between car electrical. They are very strong, locking connectors and durable coaxial cables that I normally use in my day job for HD-SDI video, but these have been demoted to humbly carrying 12V DC power, a task which they are quite overbuilt for. The shortie pigtail connectors to go between cars can be straight or can also be had as right angle cables. They take a right turn undernearth the car to dodge the truck brake equalizing beam before diving into the center beam to cross the car.

And as you can see all of this is pretty invisible when the car is right side up, so the non-prototypical / practical nature of all this is hidden away.
Attachments
15-06-01_flatcar-bottom-9414.jpg
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senorgilamonster
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Re: 2 1/2" / 3" scale flatcar

Post by senorgilamonster »

This is really a great design. I started building a flat this way and have the body done in less than a day.
http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... 5&t=106313
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