Some 3" scale log cars

[Harlock]

Catching up on a couple of weeks of postings and email after some very busy times.

These cars were started by Jeff Badger and finished by myself. They're basic wood frame cars with three 2X3's running the length, U-channel on top of the log bunks, angle iron keepers and more angle iron to hold the bunks to the main frame. One car came with the basic frame wood and bunks assembled, and the other with just two log bunks.

In a round about tale these cars were originally started to go with the MEG locomotive, which Jeff originally finished about 12 years ago when the original owner passed. The cars sat, the MEG passed through several owners and then came to me and I totally rebuilt it. I went to Jeff because he said he had the original coal grates and tools for the MEG, and lo and behold these unfinished cars were there and thrown in for good measure.

A lot of time was spent making custom coupler pockets that would work with the RMI couplers that have a piece of all thread coming out the rear with a spring on either side of the back pocket to serve as draft gear. They were also set up to recess into the wood about .75" to achieve a reasonable height. The mill was used to do this work and as you can see for the existing car I just mounted the whole thing on the mill and moved my dryer out of the way for clearance. Rear tabs were added to the couplers to really hold them in place for sheer and pull, with bolts passing all the way through the wood. the small lags on either side of the pockets would not be able to do much other than lightly hold it in place by themselves as they would tear the wood out without further support.

In the future I would not build the cars this way. Rather they are better off with a continuous rectangle tube and a wood fascia around it. That will be much less trouble. The same style couplers can be used by cutting two squares out of the bottom of the tube and welding in tabs with a hole in each to accept the couplers.

I also added steel bolster bearing plates and set them up to go on Steve Easlon West Side Freight Trucks.

The cars are not modeled after anything in particular and could still use some brake rigging / brake wheel details down the road.

Matt Hall cut me some fresh lumber from his property to use on the cars. I always feel like there are so many skeleton log cars out there and so few logs, so I put logs on my train. It gives the locomotive something to do and the bark from all that 'bark' really sounds great on the 3%! The cars went out with the MEG this past weekend and had no derailments. After over a decade they are finally reunited and running with the engine.

People have pointed out that two doesn't seem like quite enough, and that an odd number such as three would look better, so I will probably build one more but using the new technique outlined above for the center beam.

By the way, 3" scale for 7.5" gauge is 30" gauge prototype exactly. So my new term for this scale is 7.5n30, borrowing a nomenclature from the tabletop guys.

[Harlock]

And the rest of the pictures.

[FLSTEAM]

I guess that makes me 7.5n3


Oh yes, BTW those log cars would really look good behind the Shay. Very nice.

John B

[ccvstmr]

...hope there's a spring between the back of the coupler and the draft gear box. Else, there's going to be some "hard" coupling going on. Carl B.

[Harlock]

I guess that makes me 7.5n3


Oh yes, BTW those log cars would really look good behind the Shay. Very nice.

John B

John I think they would actually look very good behind it, I plan to lower the height of the cars in the future via some adjustments to the bunks and coupler setup, and that would make them work just fine for 2.5" gauge. they are only 19.5" wide.

[Harlock]

...hope there's a spring between the back of the coupler and the draft gear box. Else, there's going to be some "hard" coupling going on. Carl B.

Yep, there's two springs, one on the outside of the box and one on the inside. So they draft normally. The whole thing just takes up more room since they're not in the shank like most couplers.

-M

[srrl5]

...hope there's a spring between the back of the coupler and the draft gear box. Else, there's going to be some "hard" coupling going on. Carl B.

Yep, there's two springs, one on the outside of the box and one on the inside. So they draft normally. The whole thing just takes up more room since they're not in the shank like most couplers.

-M

Looks good Mike, interesting to here the history of the cars.

Also you don't get as much coupler swing because the pivot point is further back in the pocket.

David

[Harlock]

Bringing this thread alive again for a new car build. Someone at bitter creek mentioned that sets of cars tend to look better in threes rather than twos. I decided he was right and am building a third log car.

I decided to make it with my traditional method of a single 1 1/2 X 3 rectangle tube running the length of the car, rather than the very involved method above of complicated end pockets, which was done only to accommodate a half finished car body I had already received that became the first log car. This car will be much stronger and will go in front of the others in the train.

Here are some quickie pictures from the pocket camera of the progress.

As you can see, the rectangle tube is recessed half of its height into the wood body. on the other cars, I used the bridgeport milling machine to mill a recess in the ends of the wood car bodies, but doing the entire 5-ft length of the car body is another matter. For this I turned to my nice new table saw and made two partial cuts on each side frame piece to make a recessed shoulder. The middle piece was milled to the height of the shoulder only. All of these were planed with my planer and then cut off with the hitachi cutoff saw.

They are test-clamped together at the moment and will be permanently attached to each other in the coming weeks, and then the ends will be cleaned up to be flush.

To accommodate the RMI couplers which have springs in the rear end and not in a slot in the shank, a hole will be milled out near each end of the rectangle tube with a tab welded inside to receive the coupler. More on this later.

The log bunk pieces were skimmed and planed from left over 4X4 pieces from a palette skid. You'd never know how ratty they looked after I removed an inch all around. Some nice wood hiding inside. They are 2 1/2 X 2 1/2 square.

The main body pieces are milled down from standard home depot 2X4s, and they are now closer to 2X3 (1 1/2 X 2 1/2)

--Mike

[Harlock]

Over this memorial day weekend, I skipped the LALS meet in favor of having three continuous days in the shop, something I've never had before. I used it to progress the log car to the point where it is now ready for some light welding on the metal bits and then final assembly and paint in the coming weeks. Most of the weekend was spent drilling, cutting and facing off metal in the mill and horizontal saw.

In the first picture I am opening up a hole in the rectangle tube frame to accommodate the RMI coupler and it's rear mounted draft gear. A tab with a hole will be welded in at the front of the opening, more on this later.

The rest of the photos show the car laid out in assembly and in pieces. Jeff Badger's original plan uses stuff that can be obtained from the hardware store in the cheapo metal racks. Despite the simplicity, it is still a lot of work to make and shape all these pieces accurately. Here it is media blasted and ready for weld and paint. The previous cars came partially assembled and painted so I never got to do a 'bare furniture' picture with them. This one is done up from scratch so I can get some 'before' pictures finally.

The only thing I didn't have in stock was bolster bearing plates that ride above the truck. That will come from McMaster this week and get welded to the rectangle tube. the rest of the metal I pretty much had as leftovers and it was nice to make a scrounge car that I didn't have to spend a lot of money on.

--Mike

[ccvstmr]

Mike, have any idea what those cars weigh? ...'cause those full length steel tubes add a lot of weight to the car. For my cars, I take a bathroom scale and throw some short pieces of 2x4 on to block up the center sill. Trucks remain intact because of the R-clips (hair pin clips) used to keep the trucks attached to the car. This way, I get a total car weight. Just curious about your rolling stock. Carl B.

[Harlock]

Mike, have any idea what those cars weigh? ...'cause those full length steel tubes add a lot of weight to the car. For my cars, I take a bathroom scale and throw some short pieces of 2x4 on to block up the center sill. Trucks remain intact because of the R-clips (hair pin clips) used to keep the trucks attached to the car. This way, I get a total car weight. Just curious about your rolling stock. Carl B.

The center beam by itself weighs 16 pounds. The entire rest of the car (wood bits, bunk hardware) sans trucks is similar or a little less, and each truck is about 35lbs.

So I'd say 100lbs for the entire car including trucks, without logs. Logs are another 35-40lbs probably. They get lighter as they dry out and age.

The car weighs almost nothing without the steel tube, the trucks are by far the heaviest component. The whole thing is really too light without a load on it, but fortunately I have a third set of logs going on it just like the other two cars. If the empties were put in the middle of a train there could be stringlining problems. As it stands however these go at the end with only the caboose behind them.

for a 3" scale car it's very light. There's no shortage of power with the MEG so sufficient weight to keep the car on the track is good...

[Love4Steam]

I am interested in your method of attaching the RMI couplers to the steel tube. As i'm already sure you will, please post some photos of this. I wish I had gone with a steel tube on the flat I just finished. I plan to retrofit a tube. Live and learn...