NEW 5' Ride Astride Kits

[SPSteam2491]

Pacific Design Shops is finally introducing the 5' ride astride car kit. Same great quality as our 6' kit but shorter to fit in the back of a short pickup bed. The price of the 5' version is $250 and that includes shipping to anywhere in the continental US! You can also pick up the kits locally and save an additional $75! Don't live around Milwaukee, WI? We will be out in Cedar Springs, MI from July 11-13.

What's included in the kits?
-18 CNC cut pieces of ¾" Baltic Birch Plywood + ½" Baltic Birch Plywood piece for the seat base.
-Mortise and tenon construction for great strength and super easy assembly.
-Full exploded view instructions including no weld solutions for truck bolsters.

And you need to supply is the trucks, couplers, hardware and tubing for the frame. No need for a table saw, bandsaw or fancy tools. Spend less time in the shop and more time on the track riding the rails.

We will have (8) of the 5' kits in stock by July 8th so we are just taking pre-orders but we don't collect money until the kits are ready to ship. Interested in a 6' version? We have (2) left in stock priced at $275 (that includes shipping to anywhere in the continental US).

The pictures below reflect the 6' car. We will post pictures of the 5' car this weekend.

[SPSteam2491]

Here is a comparison between the 5' car and 6' car. The 5' car is on top; 6' car on bottom.

I will have both completed cars with me next weekend at White Creek as well as kits for sale. Feel free to stop by, ask questions, and give the cars a test ride.

[SPSteam2491]

PSA, Found out through a customer that when using Tom Bee trucks, an additional shim will be require to prevent the wheels from rubbing on the bottom of the car. No additional modification will be required to the car to make Tom Bee trucks work. The cutout for the frame is 2" wide by 1½" tall and allows the frame to be spaced off the mounting surfaces ½" to avoid any rubbing of the wheels with Tom Bee trucks.

The 5' kits are now in stock and ready to ship. Please send me a PM if you are interested in purchasing a kit. We will be at White Creek Railroad this weekend with kits for sale and to give them a test ride.

[Benjamin Maggi]

PSA, Found out through a customer that when using Tom Bee trucks, an additional shim will be require to prevent the wheels from rubbing on the bottom of the car. No additional modification will be required to the car to make Tom Bee trucks work. The cutout for the frame is 2" wide by 1½" tall and allows the frame to be spaced off the mounting surfaces ½" to avoid any rubbing of the wheels with Tom Bee trucks.

I am the customer who discovered the clearance issue. Note that my comments and solutions below are only applicable to the Tom Bee "Modern" roller bearing truck. I believe the same issue might exist to a lesser extent with Tom Bee's regular Bettendorf trucks, but I don't have a pair handy to confirm.

The Tom Bee website (https://tombeeonline.com/pages/car-fram ... -the-track) shows a diagram for constructing basic car frames. His plans call for 2+1/8" total (3/8" + 1" + 3/8" + 3/8") between the top of the truck bolster and the bottom of the car. The riding car only has a 3/8" piece of steel and the 1" tall tube, for a combined 1+3/8". That 3/4" difference seemed important and it got me to wondering if I would have issues building the bolster as called for in the bulkhead car instructions.

Using a spare set of modern trucks a friend had, we mocked it up and it became clear that there was very little clearance between the wheel flange and the bottom of the car if built to plans. Worse, that was with the truck springs uncompressed, which isn't realistic for a riding car. I planned to install the optional 1,000 pound springs but even those will compress if the riding car is loaded. So, I did two things:

First, I shimmed the tube away from the body by gluing a piece of 1/2" thick poplar wood (2.5" wide) to the floor. John believes that the tube should still be able to slide through the middle bulkhead brace without modification but mine hung up a little. Perhaps some whacking with a hammer might have coaxed it better, but I used a keyhole saw to open it up. The opening on the ends of the car where the tube passes through also required slight modification. I also had to shim up the steel bolster plate support blocks.

Tube with shim.jpg (18.5 KiB) Viewed 3709 times

Second, I increased the steel truck bolster plate from 3/8" to 1/2" which, per our calculations, will put the coupler closer to the correct height based on the IBLS recommended practices with the springs partially compressed. It also effectively added another 1/8" of clearance to the wheels.

With those two modifications, there is now 2" total (1/2" + 1" + 1/2") between the top of the truck bolster and the underside of the car. That is only an 1/8" difference from what Tom Bee calls for online. Will it work? I hope so, but the real test will be to load the car up with people and see how it tracks. If I need even more clearance, I can slide out the tube and glue in another shim (and open up the hole in the middle of the car more).

Increased clearance.jpg (21.23 KiB) Viewed 3709 times