Trainworx Rio Grande caboose

[Sokramiketes]

I think the body and cupola grabs are plastic. The end railings and ladders are etched.

Maybe, but also Trainworx has been pretty consistent in etching complicated grab irons.  And yes, Pat folds etchings in order to allow them to have grab iron ends (bolted) against the body too.  It's pretty ingenious. 

[peteski]

The Fox Valley trucks didn't have electrical pickup did they? These do, and they're available separately...

Hmm . . . FVM wheelsets have solid metal axle with one wheel insulated.  It would be interesting to find out how they pick up power without shorting out.

[chessie system fan]

The Fox Valley trucks don't have electrical pickup.

These new trucks might be useful for critters or steam engine tenders like people use the sold out Kato caboose trucks!

[DRGW5349]

Looks like HogTrainz has them in stock as of today.
https://hogtrainz.com/shop/n-scale-reservations/

[robert3985]

Those grab irons are incredible! Are they etched metal or plastic?   

I do wonder about the raised relief on those roof panels. It's too overscale and makes the roof look lumpy. Micro Trains did the same thing on their passenger cars. There's got to be a better way than that.

I don't have one of these to look at, but there are a couple of ways of making nice-looking grabs that have bolt details on where they're mounted to the car body. 

(1) One is to create these out of a robust plastic or resin with mounting pegs on the bent ends to be inserted into matching holes in the body.  Usually this results in a more oversized grab, but they're easy to paint separately and insert/glue while being manufactured. 

(2) The second way is to cast the mounting pads with the bolt-head detail on them onto the car body, with a mounting hole cast into the body where a pre-bent and painted fine wire grab will be inserted.  This has the advantage of being able to be smaller in diameter than a cast plastic/resin grab, to be much more dimensionally stable as well as much more robust...while still retaining the bolted-on mounting tab details on the car body.

From looking at the photo, it appears that the car body grabs are round, and when I look verrry closely at where they join the body and the flat mounting tabs...the angle is too acute to be a bent wire part, and I can that the round grab is separate from the flat mounting tabs on the body.  Also, the round grab cross-section rules out etching.

Sooo...I'd vote for #2, which IMO is an excellent way to get very nice looking grabs, and still include the flattened mounting tabs with their bolt-head details.

(EDIT#1) Upon going to the Trainworx site and looking at the photos, especially the undec'd version photo, the car-body and cupola grabs look pretty "wire-y" to me...so I'm sticking with #2.

Got to remember that even though these look excellent, prototype grabs are usually 5/8 of an inch to an inch in diameter...being 0.00390" to 0.00625" in N-scale, and these look to be around 0.010" to 0.012" in diameter. I'm thinking that the addition of paint to fine wire grabs can increase the diameter to as much as 0.002" (or more) depending on the type of paint and how it's applied...so, even though the wire itself may be very fine, painting makes them noticeably thicker.

Not being an expert on D&RGW standard gauge cabooses, I will comment that on UP cabooses, the end-railings and ladders are constructed of both round and rectangular cross-sectional metal shapes, with some main railings being round where you'd grab them on either side, then transitioning to a flat/rectangular shape in the top-middle, where other pieces of the platform railing are either welded or bolted to.  So, it could be very likely that the D&RGW caboose had both round and rectangular pieces of end-railings and ladders on the prototype, and, for modeling purposes, flat etched cross sections would be partially correct...which, when looked at closely appears to be what was done on this model for the platform railings and ladders.

(EDIT #2) After looking even more closely at the photos at Trainworx, I'm gonna agree 100% with @Sokramiketes that the grabs are etched, then bent into final shape, then painted with thick paint to make 'em look more round.  Nicely done!

I'm tempted to get one or two of these really nicely done cabooses since D&RGW had a small yard, engine house and turntable included in Ogden's huge OUR&D Yard during my 1947 thru 1956 era, the black scheme being just right...or maybe the distinctive "Salt Lake Switching" version would be appropriate for trains between SLC and Ogden if that fits my era.  I'll have to ask my D&RGW friends about that.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Sokramiketes]

Ah, yes Bob, but look really close at the undec photos on the Trainworx website and you can see that the bolted grab iron ends are part of the same metal part and not the gray plastic of the car body.  I'm convinced they are etchings.

Here's what may help shift the paradigm.  Have you see Pat's drob graps?  They are etched flat and folded, with the pins being set at exact location on the carbody by an etched representation of the grab iron end with rivet.  It's truely ingenious, and was first used on the gondola models?

Here's an image of the flat etching to get your mental juices flowing.



Then picture a longer version of the same thing, without the etched bend locations for a 90 degree bend, but allowing it to be formed into a curved caboose grab. 

[robert3985]

Ah, yes Bob, but look really close at the undec photos on the Trainworx website and you can see that the bolted grab iron ends are part of the same metal part and not the gray plastic of the car body.  I'm convinced they are etchings.

Here's what may help shift the paradigm.  Have you see Pat's drob graps?  They are etched flat and folded, with the pins being set at exact location on the carbody by an etched representation of the grab iron end with rivet.  It's truely ingenious, and was first used on the gondola models?

Here's an image of the flat etching to get your mental juices flowing.



Then picture a longer version of the same thing, without the etched bend locations for a 90 degree bend, but allowing it to be formed into a curved caboose grab.

That's ingenious for sure! However, when I'm looking at the undec'd photo, some of the grabs are standing off quite a ways, and look as if they should be more fully inserted to a more correct stand off distance...which is what led me to think they're round wire with the mounting tabs cast on to the car body.

I'm gonna order one of the black ones, which will solve the question!  I can't resist!

(EDIT) Okay...I looked REALLY closely at the undec'd photo, and I can see that the mounting tabs aren't aligned properly on the unfinished model and are off-kilter and not parallel to the bottom and end car-body edges...so, I'm gonna go with your solution...etched grabs with thick paint to make 'em look more round.  COOL!! 

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Sokramiketes]

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Here's this one from the original run and on the front page is definitive.  The entire white grab with body mounting lugs is the etching.  And you can see the hole behind it for where the mounting pin comes off the etching.

Imagine how much set up and labor would be involved in getting the white printed if the grab end was on the body.  Not likely. 

[Sokramiketes]

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Even clearer, and you can make out the square cross section of the etching. 

[Sokramiketes]

(EDIT) Okay...I looked REALLY closely at the undec'd photo, and I can see that the mounting tabs aren't aligned properly on the unfinished model and are off-kilter and not parallel to the bottom and end car-body edges...so, I'm gonna go with your solution...etched grabs with thick paint to make 'em look more round.  COOL!! 

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

It is so cool and so well executed and so adaptable... Yes, I just want everyone to understand how well thought out these Trainworx solutions are. 

The other cool design feature is the windows... paint is used to update to the different styles on the same clear plastic inserts.  Side windows and cupola windows both. 

Some of the most innovative product design out there. 

[peteski]

Imagine how much set up and labor would be involved in getting the white printed if the grab end was on the body.  Not likely.

MTL routinely decorates this type of fine molded-on details on their models.  For example the wood reefer door hardware and the door hardware on the end of their road trailers.  These used to be Tampo printed but nowadays more and more of this type of decoration is ink jet printed along with other parts of the car's decoration.

[Sokramiketes]

MTL routinely decorates this type of fine molded-on details on their models.  For example the wood reefer door hardware and the door hardware on the end of their road trailers.  These used to be Tampo printed but nowadays more and more of this type of decoration is ink jet printed along with other parts of the car's decoration.

In my mind the difference is that then entire part is molded to the car body. 

Again, not arguing it can't be done.  Just that the decision is less likely when looking at production costs.  You're right that ink jet printing the entire car side changes the dynamics of the financial calculation... then it's just loading another color in the printer (perhaps) and quickly accomodating in the artwork. 

But that's not in the current workflow for Trainworx or their factory that I'm aware. 

[SD452XR]

One of the black versions is showing available at Lombards.

[BobRunty]

One of the black versions is showing available at Lombards.

They had at least a dozen black when I was there yesterday. No yellow though.

[wmcbride]

They had at least a dozen black when I was there yesterday. No yellow though.

That's because they just sent the last yellow one to my house...