Grab Iron Posts

Click here to read the October 2020 issue of The Flimsy Board from the Bremerton Northern Model Railroad club.

By Ed Ives

I’ve always had an interest in trains, cherished my trains as a child and at the age of 30-something time came to graduate to ‘Model Trains’, or so I thought. My interests lay with UK trains, the ones I grew up with and not those here. Sorry about that.

The options were to either scratch build with the use of machine tools like a lathe etc. which I do not have or kit build in O gauge or OO gauge. O gauge kits and bits were few and far between whereas OO parts were readily available and affordable, so OO kit build as a starter it was. 

OO gauge is a bit of a compromise, 4 mm/ft for the structure running on HO track which is 3.5 mm/ft, so OO gauge trains are kind of narrow gauge. Perfection is needed, so I thought, true 4 mm/ft, hand built track and of course re-gauged stock. At that time in the UK there were three standards for true scale models; P4 and S4 competing standards using a track gauge of 18.83 mm and an older standard of EM gauge of 18 mm/ft. Hum, what to choose? Well 50 years ago both the P4 and S4 societies were in their formative years and maketed their own parts none of which matched what I wanted to build, LMS stock. I settled on EM gauge for the time being.

I chose to start with building some simple kits, passenger cars and choose the track standard later. I started with something really simple, or so I thought (are you getting the drift here?), a Graham Farrish kit of a LMS commuter passenger car, three of them. The kits could not have been simpler, a plastic molded body, four sides and a base as one piece, a metal channel as an frame to take the trucks and the framework between and lastly a metal curved roof, a shake the box and they are all assembled. I purchased separately sprung buffers to replace the molded ones, ventilators for the roof and lastly a book of drawings of LMS passenger cars.

A start was made on assembling the kits and using the reference drawing from the book as a guide. 

• Oops, the trucks lack the foot boards that came in two different versions. No problem I can make foot boards out of thin plywood and attach to the trucks with epoxy cement. Job done. 
• Oh dear the truss rod under frame was too short and made as a one piece white metal casting. Hum, do I throw them away and make new out of brass? I decided to save that for later. 
• Oh, again the drawing shows all the other stuff that hangs below the floor; dynamo, battery pack, vacuum cylinders and so forth not included in the kit. I go off and make these parts as best I can. 
• Door handles; grab handles and handrails were not included in the shell molding. I make these out of piano wire. The door handles were a real pain as there are so many of them about sixteen per car.
• Ah, the roof does not fit correctly with gaps at the ends of each car and resists being reformed. I get this bright idea to mold the replacement roofs out of styrene sheet. A plaster mold was made and the first production drape formed roof made. Disaster! The styrene sheet shrinks when gently heated in the oven as well as curls up something like an oversize fortune cookie. My wife is concerned that I’ll ruin the kitchen oven and calls a stop to this effort. Go back to basics and fashion roofs from thin sheet metal which become quite effective. It shows that I developed skills repairing the bodywork on my first car while at college. Rain strips made out of piano wire again, is used and soldered to the roof. Holes drilled and the ventilators added. Now we’re getting somewhere I feel. 
• Oh, I wish for high frequency passenger car lighting. I build a high frequency power generator out of an old TV set and experiment with Plexiglas strips, grain of wheat bulbs and diodes to find a workable solution that fit nicely within the car. Someone suggested that I needed a license for the generator, license, what license, hum?
• The molded buffers are cut off the car bodies and the replacement sprung buffers are added. I re-gauge the wheels for EM and mount in the trucks as a test. All complete less painting and interior, I put the assembled cars on a piece of track and they look great. The nagging issue is they each weigh a ton, feel like they are made out of solid material, way too heavy for the appropriate locomotive to pull. And it only took me THREE years to do and I still have that bum under frame to deal with. 

Conclusion – Life is too short to build me a scale Model Railway.

Ed Ives
The Confessions of a Hi-Railer

Article & Photos By David Yadock

Dry Gulch & Western, A Photo Series Part 7

I’m sure many of you have been wondering about my freight car fleet. In the early years I had just about every siding and all the yards full of cars, but I learned!  Now I keep around 100 or so cars on the layout.  Since I have become involved with operations I try keep the yards about 1/3 full of cars.  This helps or sometimes hinders car sorting for yard operators.  I do have around 250-300 cars in total with most being stored on specially constructed shelves.  All my cars have had metal Walthers Proto wheelsets installed on them along with standard Kadee #5 couplers.  I did test Kadee “scale” couplers on some of my cars but found they did not couple well with the standard #5 couplers in certain situations, they have since been removed from those cars.  My fleet of cars come from many various manufacturers and most are older non-superdetailed cars.  I still can’t believe that some of my early cars that I have on the layout were purchased for 50 cents each!  On my layout you can find a mix of AHM, Roco, Atlas, Athearn, MDC, Tichy, Varney, Ertl, Life-Like Proto, Ulrich, Tangent, and Accurail models all working on the layout.  I still have the three original AHM freight cars from my very first train set, yes are on the layout!  Regarding freight cars, I have found the key is to have them all run and perform well.  If they do not, then they get pulled from the layout, tagged to identify the problem, and replaced with another car.  There are plenty of replacement cars waiting in the wings to go onto the layout.  Also, if you have been noticing, there are a lot of east coast railroads represented in my freight car fleet.  Originally, I was thinking of creating a layout that would be based on the prototype Pennsylvania RR.  That didn’t happen.  I still kept the cars for the Dry Gulch & Western and used whatever road name that I liked.  I admit, if the car has eye-catching graphics that is a plus.  Another issue, the cars do not fit any specific era.  Yes, I have billboard reefers that ride on arch bar trucks.  I even have some ancient wooden passenger cars.  I do try to have freight cars that are generally from the steam era.  One thing I still do not have are some home road freight cars.  I have a few but there are still a lot of freight cars in boxes that need to be built and lettered specifically for my railroad.  Like with all model railroads there is always something that needs to be done.

Photo 31 shows a closer view of the tunnels and the right abutment of my version of the Canyon Diablo Bridge.  This view shows how I attach some rock plaster castings.  I use expanding spray foam.  The surrounding areas behind the casing will be filled with joint compound.  The joint compound will be carved and then painted.  Ground cover will be added later.

Photo 32 shows a full view of the bridge.  In the bottom corner of the photo you will see a silver SP gondola, one of my original “trainset” cars!  Note how the mirror in the corner allows the room to expand.  The mountain to the left is completely hollow along the backside.  That gives me plenty of access to the track in that area.

Photo 33 shows a closer view of the bridge.  The bottom steel work does not support the bridge.  There is a one-inch aluminum channel that runs the length of the bridge, it carries all of the weight.  The channel is supported in both ends by solid wood abutments attached to the benchwork.

Photo 34 shows the central mountain.  The mainline curves around to a second large bridge.  Just like John Allen’s Gorre & Daphetid layout I have a spiral at the base of this mountain.

Photo 35 shows the second arch bridge.  This is a close replica of the Vance Creek bridge located just out of Shelton WA.  It is made from styrene with brass inserts for structural support.  This bridge was constructed on a saddle shaped jig.  Construction of this bridge was several months long.  My model bridge towers over the town of Hayes River.  To the extreme left you can see some of the snow-covered mountains and even more bridges.  My freight trains are constantly gliding over bridges, blasting through tunnels or snow sheds, and battling tough grades with tight curves to move freight over the mainline through the mountains.  Next time we will check out more of the bridges on the layout and give you a peek at the valley that is on the left.

That is it for this week. 

David