2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

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senorgilamonster
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Joined: Sun Apr 23, 2017 1:37 am
Location: Puget Sound, WA

2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by senorgilamonster »

I am moving this thread from the Riding Scale Railroad area where I mistakenly kicked it off - Sorry.

This year I am going to cross something off of my bucket list: The Train Mountain Triennial.

I already have a mostly finished bobber caboose. Next up: A flat car and the S.P. Narrow Gauge Diesel.

The flat car is based on Harlock's flatcar in a day. http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... it=harlock

The biggest difference between this build and Harlok's is that I scored some Engineered Wood T&G flooring pre stained in Golden Oak at the thrift store that I will use as the decking. It is thinner than I would have preferred, and the individual boards are wider than I would have liked...but the ease and cost can't be beat.

I started cutting the flooring down to 20" widths 8 boards at a time.
Attachments
cutting decking.jpg
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senorgilamonster
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by senorgilamonster »

I am really surprised at how fast this build is going - even with my poor skill set.

I spent an hour planning and a couple hours gathering materials.

Yesterday I started cutting wood, but had to stop due to rain. (Seattle) I started again today. Within 2 hours elapsed time I had all of the wood cut.

The T&G decking went in even more quickly. Everything is glued with TiteBond 3. I put 23 ga pin nails is with a Harbor Freight pin nailer that I bought for $20. I put 2 pins in the sides at the location of each of the future stake pockets, a bunch of pins in the inner end beam, and 2 in all but 4 of the T&G deck board along the outside edge where is would be covered up if I put Gondola sides on it. More about the ones I didn't pin in the next post.

I had to take another break because I ran out of glue.
Attachments
notch.jpg
sides.jpg
ends.jpg
decking1.jpg
Pontiacguy1
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

Very nicely done. Wood-working can be a lot of fun, too.
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senorgilamonster
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by senorgilamonster »

Why I didn't nail down the 4 decking boards:
When I was at the thrift store, I snagged an old secretary chair for $3.75. It is way more comfortable than the typical folding fishing seat that is so often used. I decided to give it a try for an engineer's chair. Here I am test fitting the chair into a 1" dia hole in the plywood base. I drilled a matching hole in the corresponding deck board, and a second hole farther back for a similar brakeman's chair (my wife pointed out that I won't find a matching chair).

and yes, the chair will have be lower than shown for center of gravity reasons.

It occurred to me that if I didn't glue or nail the board the chair went in and an adjoining board, I had a chance of being able to remove the boards and replace them with ones without the holes if the car was re-purposed and I wanted a nice matching deck. So far they slide out OK and I should probably put some paraffin on the tongues. We'll see if it works out after a year of service.

In the photo of the finished deck, you can see 1 deck board with the hole drilled while the other hole has been covered by a complete board that is interchangeable with a different board with the hole in it.
Attachments
chair.jpg
decking2.jpg
finished decking.jpg
Pontiacguy1
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

Might need to reinforce that hole by adding some thickness underneath that. It probably needs to be several inches thick where that seat goes through. What will get it is when people lean back in the chairs. Otherwise, great idea for less than 4 bucks! I like re-purposing things like that. Might not want to get it wet, though. That was the best thing about the boat seats is that they are very much weather resistant and also UV resistant.
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senorgilamonster
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by senorgilamonster »

Thanks. I am hoping to go all the way through the 1.5" x 3" steel tube underneath. I hadn't thought about the moisture.
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senorgilamonster
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by senorgilamonster »

I am going to use a pair of trucks that I already have on hand. They are 1.6 inch scale trucks and of an arch type, BUT I already own them and they are rock solid runners. I will eventually replace them with the correct trucks, but probably not before the Triennial (I need to stay focused).

No progress on Friday owing to dental work. I was told not to use the band saw while on Percoset. :shock:

So today I measured the couple height using the existing trucks and their associated hardware - and came up 3/4" too low. I'm stewing on a solution, but I may (at least temporarily) cut a wood beam to straddle the steel center beam. We'll see.

Next up was solving my biggest problem - I don't know how to weld. I will still have to solve this for the engine, but I realized that I can bolt all of the undercarriage hardware to the center beam. Once I get ready to weld, I can come back and practice weld on the already bolted up frame on this guy.

Finally a non-bolted test fit. It doesn't look half bad if I say so myself. Monday I'll cut up the supports, etc. and get them bolted in place.
Attachments
coupler height test.jpg
frame test.jpg
looking good.jpg
rkcarguy
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by rkcarguy »

What are you modeling for the SP diesel, one of those 50 ton switchers that looks like a shortened S12?
Nice work on the flat car!
One thing I've discovered is that some flooring doesn't like water, probably neither will your seat. I would look into testing a scrap of the flooring outside and see how it fares. The seat can be sealed with liberal application of a "303", a boat canvas top sealing spray, and it will bead water like a duck. I did my kart racing suit, wanting to keep weight down instead of wearing rain gear over my suit, and it works wonderful.
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senorgilamonster
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by senorgilamonster »

Rkcarguy,

Thanks for the heads up on the flooring. Although not a laminate, it is a fine plywood core and it probably won't like a lot of moisture (not good for a guy in Seattle). I'll probably need to put some sealer on it.

Great tip on the 303 - thanks

The Diesel - yes, you are correct. the GE 50 T switcher. I kicked off the build log thread for it ans posted a pic of the prototype here:
http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... 5&t=106328
rkcarguy
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by rkcarguy »

I'm up here in the "ham", not far away from you. I know all about moisture!
The 303 is amazing stuff, a 12oz spray bottle should be plenty and I think it's around $12.
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senorgilamonster
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by senorgilamonster »

After a day of testing different options for getting the right coupler height with the under scale trucks...this is what I decided. I will raise the body bolster to the correct height - 1/8" with dimensional lumber. the body bolster half closest to the car body has been glued to the plywood with 4 pin nails through the side as well as a few pins diagonally through the bolster side to the car plywood under decking. The second body bolster half will be connected to the upper body bolster half with 4 lag screws which also will penetrate the plywood, but not the finish decking.

The wooden body bolster assembly is topped by a 1/8" x 2" steel strip which the lag bolts also go through. the remaining brass bearings will be bolted on through the steel strip and or the second half of the body bolster wood. Finally I am going to replace the truck mounting screw with a clevis pin. The old mount had a screw in from the bottom. This way I will mount the clevis pin above the steel strip and the retaining pin below the truck...if the retaining pin comes out, the truck should not separate from the bolster under load. the pic is probably a better explanation.

Finally, I cut the coupler pocket mounting hole. With some careful work I was able to drill and bend a tab down for the coupler mounting shank - no welding required (yet). :D Eventually I will want to get is welded, but it should be sufficient to hold itself behind a locomotive for now.

Now the sad part...I was so happy with my weld-less pocket but when I cut out the second pocket access, I cut the wrong end of the hole first. When I heard the tab fall into the frame, I said "oops". :roll: so that side will have to get welded up anyway.
Attachments
truck mounting.jpg
no weld coupler pocket.jpg
rkcarguy
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Re: 2 1/2" Scale Flat Car - Triennial or Bust

Post by rkcarguy »

You could always drop a short chunk of angle in there, screw it into the inside of the tube, and drill a hole in it to pick up your couplers threaded rod there. The vertical leg of the angle won't let it be pulled into the tube and won't hurt anything sticking out under the flat car, and no welding needed.
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