Superior Panel Doors

[sirenwerks]

Maybe this is a good place for our 3D printing friends to step in - car ends. Maybe even smaller parts like door tracks, door stops, brake wheels housings. An assortment of clean ladderless box car ends with parts would be a boon to scratchbashing. Useful for stock cars, reefers, and gons too. I realize there's not a massive market for these things, that's why an as needed supply chain would work great, of course the time spent designing may not be recouped immediately, which makes it a labor of love.


Not that I have time or resources to do this right now, but I really need to learn Sketch-up and get a Photon, I guess.

[nkalanaga]

I'd think that ends, roofs, doors, etc would be good candidates for injection molding, as there were relatively few styles of each. 

3D printing would then be ideal for a "core", with detailed sides, and blank ends and roof, to which the common ends and roofs could be added as desired.

Intermountain boxcars are already made this way, but there is a limit to the number of body styles that can be economically made by injection molding.  Also, availability is a problem, where 3D printing would allow any body to be made at any time, as needed.

Basically, it would be the opposite of the passenger car core kits.  Instead of adding sides to a core, the sides, and possibly the floor, would be the main part of the core.  A separate floor is very nice for adding weight, and a 2-piece printed car could include both the sides, with blank ends and roof, and a prototypical underfame.

[narrowminded]

Maybe this is a good place for our 3D printing friends to step in - car ends. Maybe even smaller parts like door tracks, door stops, brake wheels housings. An assortment of clean ladderless box car ends with parts would be a boon to scratchbashing. Useful for stock cars, reefers, and gons too. I realize there's not a massive market for these things, that's why an as needed supply chain would work great, of course the time spent designing may not be recouped immediately, which makes it a labor of love.


Not that I have time or resources to do this right now, but I really need to learn Sketch-up and get a Photon, I guess.

Tell more of what you'd like?  And maybe a few pics?  It could probably happen.

[bbussey]

InterMountain has parts. If you see something you need, such as the 4-3-1 ends, they will sell to you if you contact them directly. As an example, I needed the ends from the Pacemaker boxcar and was able to buy them directly.

[BCR 570]

Yes they are very good about that.  Sometimes they haven't even charged me for them.  Does anyone know if their 4/3/1 end for a 10'-0" high or 10'-6" high car?

Tim

[Missaberoad]

Yes they are very good about that.  Sometimes they haven't even charged me for them.  Does anyone know if their 4/3/1 end for a 10'-0" high or 10'-6" high car?

Tim

10' I believe... I'll measure one tonight to be sure.

[BCR 570]

Tell more of what you'd like?  And maybe a few pics?  It could probably happen.

Well for modelling the CNJ cars the big problem is the absence of a 12 panel welded body.  I would basically require the equivalent of the Intermountain 12 panel body but with weld seams instead of rivet strips.

Thinking bigger picture, I have often thought that a modular series of components for 40' single door boxcars could include the following:

Bodies with separately applied door tracks for different doors, separately applied ladders so they can be cut down easily if required:
40'0" with 10 panel riveted sides, 10'-0" inside height
40'0" with 10 panel riveted sides, 10'-6" inside height
40'0" with 10 panel welded sides, 10'-6" inside height

Ends with separately applied tack boards and ladders
10'-0" and 10'-6" high 5/4 Dreadnought
10'-0" and 10'-6" high 4/3/1 Dreadnought
10'-6" high 4/4 Improved Dreadnought
10'-6" Pullman Standard end
10'-0" and 10'-6" NSC-1 and NSC-2 ends
10'-6" NSC-3 ends

Roofs with running board supports but no holes
flat panel roof
rectangular panel roof
diagonal panel roof
Pullman Standard roof
NSC roof

Doors with separately applied tack boards
6', 7' and 8' corrugated sliding doors
6' 7, and 8' panel sliding doors
inside post plug doors

I have probably missed a few other common ones which other people could add.  I am not sure how common the 12 panel cars were, so perhaps bodies for those.

Intermountain had the right idea with their AAR and AAR Modified kits, but they have the following issues:
- excessive ride height
- not easy to body mount MT couplers
- supplied door option limited to 6' sliding
- large holes in roof to fill for cars w/o running boards


Tim

[bbussey]

InterMountain cars aren’t difficult to lower and body-mount, especially with the advent of the low bolster truck frames ushered in by BLMA. They convert easily swapping in low bolster trucks and MTL 1015 couplers. Prior to that, removing the raised portion of the bolsters lowered the cars to a good ride height.

[Frank Amato]

Bryan is correct, I used BLMA trucks here with no bolster filing; perfect height for body-mount 1015s:



The variety of Intermountain ends and roofs make for easy proto modeling.

  Frank

[Missaberoad]

10' I believe... I'll measure one tonight to be sure.

The IM 12 panel boxcar and the 4/3/1 ends are 10' ih.
The deluxe car is 10'6".

[BCR 570]

Bryan is correct, I used BLMA trucks here with no bolster filing; perfect height for body-mount 1015s:

Thank you that is good to know; BLMA 70-Ton trucks not easy to find at present but hopefully will be again at some point.

The I'm 12 panel boxcar and the 4/3/1 ends are 10' ih.
The deluxe car is 10'6".

Thought so - transplanting the Deluxe ends onto an Intermountain AAR modified car with a rectangular panel roof will get me a fairly good representation of the BAR cars.

Tim

[bbussey]

The Barber S-2 trucks on the Atlas PS-1 also have the lowered bolster beam.

[nkalanaga]

"Prior to that, removing the raised portion of the bolsters lowered the cars to a good ride height. "

I made a filing jig, to hold the underframe AND keep the file level, which makes it even easier, at least for kits.  All it is is a piece of 1x3, holes drilled for the mounting pins on the underframe detail casting, and the guides on either side.  Those are made of stacked Evergreen strips, with the top "wear surface" made from pieces of 1/16 inch piano wire.  It's round, so it doesn't snag the file, and hard enough that it won't get filed down anytime soon.

Lowering assembled cars is a little more tedious, but the only hard part is making sure the car stays level.

[BCR 570]

I have received my two Atlas PS-1 undecorated cars - what beautiful models!  They match the prototype I wish to model fairly well; just have to remove the running board and change the doors, which I hope aren't glued on too heavily.

Which trucks and body mount couplers are people using for these?


I also now have two Intermountain boxcar kits and two Deluxe shells from which to build the two ex-BAR cars.  So I have some fun boxcar projects in my near future . . .

Tim

[craigolio1]

I could use some NSC-2 ends for a project.

Craig