The First 2010 Railwire Prototype Scratchbashing Challenge - shop flats

[Dave Schneider]

Now I gotta try and dig out some info on the routing of those cars.  I know that the Washington Navy Yard built most of the gun barrels for years and I wonder if they ever got to D.C.  Have seen photos of other flats carrying gun barrels out of the yard (mostly PRR and B&O flats).
 

Bob,

The sum total of my "knowledge" of these cars comes from the photo caption in the Milwaukee Road Color Guide (v.2).  It made it seem like the Milw cars were used in local service. I was really surprised to see that slide on Ebay of a car doing some interchange work. It would be great to hear what you find out about gun barrel shipments.

Best wishes, Dave

[Bob Bufkin]

I'll start looking but it ain't gonna be easy.  This kind of stuff is really probably stored away in a library or old archives somewhere.  I can't even find the photos I saw of the PRR & B&O flats interchanging with the PRR near the Navy Yard.  The building I worked in had a track right into the building at one time.  The NAVSEA headquarters building across the street still has the large overhead crane installed inside the building.  Most of the trackage is now gone.  When I first started working there you could still see street trackage and a small yard.  All tore up over the last couple years due to new office buildings, the baseball stadium and urban renewal around the area. 

[wm3798]

Started working on my shop flat over the weekend.  I've got the body of the old Aurora car cut down and spliced.  Need to putty the sides at the joint, sand down the deck to replace with some finer v-groove styrene, and work out the trucks/couplers.

Until I get a camera, I'll have to just give you an exhaustive narrative on it, and hope you have an active imagination! ;D

Lee

[wm3798]

Worked on my little car again last night.  I finished cleaning up the joint where the two halves come together, then kiped a brake stand from a spent hopper car shell to make a side mounted brake wheel.  Redecked the floor with Evergreen, and modified the bolsters to lower the ride height.  Selected the trucks from the junk box, and it's now ready for the paint booth.  Trust me, it looks really good!

If I can ever get out to the garage again...

Lee

[Philip H]

Now if I can just get my airbrush to draw some paint from the jar . . .

Thanks for Archer Fine Transfers for the rivets and BLMA for the stirrups and 18 inch bent grab irons.  Trucks are recycled something or another; couplers ater MT  body mounts, and the break wheel is from the scrap bin.

[Chris333]

Not too shabby!

[wm3798]

I've got mine painted, it's in the decal shop now...  Next I have to put on the 1025 body mounts, then I just have to weather the trucks and the deck, and she's ready for service.

Mine's a bit longer.  I'll have to pull some dimensions.
Lee

[wm3798]

Sort of like those blurry pictures of Sasquatch...



Just enough to raise your curiosity, but not enough to be conclusive evidence...

Mine ended up 34'6"...  It could probably work as an idler car to go with an overhanging pipe load such as might be loaded in a new 65' Laurel Valley gondola...

Lee

[Philip H]

Well, here it is.  I pushed past my airbrush problems, and painted the thing by hand.  It's got two diluted coats of Polly S Undercoat, followed by two coats of Badger Modelflex Gloss black (which I sort of thought matched the original photo).  Brake wheel, stirrups and grab irons are in Polly S Railbox Yellow.  Deck is a single layer of the diluted undercoat on the raw styrene, followed by a VERY dilute wash of india ink.

She scales out at 20 ft on deck and 27 ft over the knuckles.  The slight hump in the deck was unintentional - its been a while since I've built anything this small in styrene, so I imagine that contributed to the look (how do you flatten styrene).  But she looks shop built, and she seems pretty happy next to her Critter cousin.

[wm3798]

I did manage to squeeze off a shot of my flat... I deleted the blurry one...



It doesn't have that burly short wheelbase like the prototype, but it will look right with a bulky load on it.
I like the way the side mounted brake wheel worked out.  I cut that detail out of the end of a hopper, and used an MT brake wheel.

The joint at the cut is a little rougher than I'd like, but under normal viewing (which is under the covers in the dark with a flashlight) it looks decent enough.

Okay...  I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle the truck cab on the flatcar... but I'm getting ready to start working on a wood chip unloader based on this...

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=26367

Lee

[Mark5]

Did shop flats get ACI labels?

(impressed to see ACI labels!)

[Philip H]

Nice work sir.  So, will you use three micromotors to animate the thing?

[wm3798]

I've set mine up to run more like an idler car.  I've got all these damn 65' mill gons coming, and sure enough, someone's going to order some 80' lengths of pipe!

Lee

[Mark5]

ahh cool.

As fate has it I'm in the thick of ACI era as well ... still pondering if I will add them to my locos ...

[up1950s]

Great work folks . If I wern't so busy truckin' like a doo dah man I would be into doing mine now also .