No roadrailers to be had? Make them!

[LarryN]

Hi Folks,
With some styrene and sweat, one can fashion a container into a Roadrailer. The hardest part for me were the rubber tires. I fabbed them with square profile O rings (Macmaster Carr # 4061T111), onto 1/8" strene tube hubs. Axles are cut brads. mounts are styrene square tubes, cut & drilled. The pins and mounting tongues were not hard. Some freight car trucks finish the job. They roll nice-no slack action just like DeLuxes'. They also shere the annoying property of all falling over, if one does (Like swimmers in a Busby Berkeley spectacular). I have about 15 made up. Only a few have the complete tire assemblies so far.
Larry N

[CRL]

I had thought of using regular O-rings for model tires, but Square Profile O-rings? 🤯 Who knew such a thing existed?

Great idea.

[Missaberoad]

I had thought of using regular O-rings for model tires, but Square Profile O-rings? 🤯 Who knew such a thing existed?
Great idea.

Every maker should have a McMaster Carr Catalog  I paid way too much for my slightly out of date copy but it is invaluable when looking for parts...

Great job on the trailer @LarryN very convincing in a train...

[Wolf N Works]

Nice Job. Looks pretty good to me.

[Maletrain]

Not sure why anybody needs a McMaster-Carr catalog when they have a website.  Here's the page for square O-rings: https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/127/3804 .

Note that the # 4061T111 scale out to ~40" truck tires in N scale.

But, if you scroll down to the 1mm wide O-rings, the # 1171N109 scale out to 25" OD in N scale.

Those are the smallest, and there are plenty of bigger sizes for larger tires and larger scales.

[Missaberoad]

Not sure why anybody needs a McMaster-Carr catalog when they have a website.  Here's the page for square O-rings: https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/127/3804 .

Note that the # 4061T111 scale out to ~40" truck tires in N scale.

But, if you scroll down to the 1mm wide O-rings, the # 1171N109 scale out to 25" OD in N scale.

Those are the smallest, and there are plenty of bigger sizes for larger tires and larger scales.

The catalog is much more then just a listing of products... It has detailed descriptions of items and their uses and often is a source of ideas and inspiration that you wouldn't otherwise think of. Being able to page through it and finding items that I wouldn't even know the search terms for is very helpful... I have the App and it isn't quite the same Obviously YMMV....

At the risk of appealing to authority this explains my thoughts much better then I could... 

[Maletrain]

OK, I compared the "wire rope sling" write-up in the website to what was shown at 4:20 in the video for the page in the printed catalog for the same subject.  The format is different, but the material seems to be pretty much the same.  Note that you may need to click on "more" under an abbreviated introductory paragraph on the web page to see much of the educational material that is printed on the pages of the catalog. See https://www.mcmaster.com/slings/ .  Also note the "view catalog page" button  that is located just below the "Log In" button on the screen image. Since that shows the actual catalog pages, I would expect that makes all the info that is in the catalog also available on the computer.

So, for those of us who are not ordering enough stuff from McMaster-Carr to get a free catalog, I don't think all is lost.

It is true that it is easier to flip through pages of stuff you never knew existed in the catalog.  If you have the time to turn 4,000+ pages, you might learn a lot.

But, for us time-strapped folks, it is really helpful to have some in-the-know TRW members post about things like square O-rings that are actually useful to our hobby.

[peteski]

I also like to thumb through printed catalogs, rather than the online stuff.  I know, online searches are a wonderful tool.  But printed catalogs are going the way of a DoDo bird.