PRR FD2 'Queen Mary' Depressed Center Well Car Kit - on T1 tender trucks N Scale

[ArtinCA]

Did no one see this on Trainboard? With the SPF and Conrail Queens on here I figured you guys would have been commenting..

=============================================================

PRR FD2 'Queen Mary' Depressed Center Well Car Kit - on T1 tender trucks N Scale Kits
Slightly earlier than we had planned! We are tooling the trucks and body of the FD2 flat car, built by PRR for very heavy loads.

Built in April 1954, the Pennsylvania Railroad's single class FD2 flatcar was the largest freight car in the world, and although it never bore the name officially, it was known universally as the Queen Mary, after the ocean liner then crossing the Atlantic now a hotel in Long Beach CA.

Its design capacity was a load of half a million pounds (250 tons), and the car itself weighed slightly more than that, at 500,400 lbs.

The intended use of this huge freightcar was to haul heavy power generating equipment, specifically fully assembled turbo-generators for power plants. The FD2 transferred to Pen Central and then Conrail before retirement in 1997. It is now preserved at the Railroad Museum at Altoona PA.

Not modelled commercially in N Scale before, the FD2 runs on four sets of trucks from the T1 class of PRR Locos that were scrapped just before the FD2 was built.

We expect to market the T1 trucks as a separate item too. Thank you to many from the TrainBoard who have helped with this project.

Tooling has started after the drawings were completed last month, and we intend to have preproduction samples at the NMRA BR Convention in Kegworth UK in October http://www.nmrabr.org.uk/annual-convention. and I will post details here.

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

[GaryHinshaw]

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=27341.msg280561#msg280561

[Lemosteam]

Uhhh, yeah,     I think all of us are still in shock!

[up1950s]

Did no one see this on Trainboard? With the SPF and Conrail Queens on here I figured you guys would have been commenting..

=============================================================

PRR FD2 'Queen Mary' Depressed Center Well Car Kit - on T1 tender trucks N Scale Kits
Slightly earlier than we had planned! We are tooling the trucks and body of the FD2 flat car, built by PRR for very heavy loads.

Built in April 1954, the Pennsylvania Railroad's single class FD2 flatcar was the largest freight car in the world, and although it never bore the name officially, it was known universally as the Queen Mary, after the ocean liner then crossing the Atlantic now a hotel in Long Beach CA.

Its design capacity was a load of half a million pounds (250 tons), and the car itself weighed slightly more than that, at 500,400 lbs.

The intended use of this huge freightcar was to haul heavy power generating equipment, specifically fully assembled turbo-generators for power plants. The FD2 transferred to Pen Central and then Conrail before retirement in 1997. It is now preserved at the Railroad Museum at Altoona PA.

Not modelled commercially in N Scale before, the FD2 runs on four sets of trucks from the T1 class of PRR Locos that were scrapped just before the FD2 was built.

We expect to market the T1 trucks as a separate item too. Thank you to many from the TrainBoard who have helped with this project.

Tooling has started after the drawings were completed last month, and we intend to have preproduction samples at the NMRA BR Convention in Kegworth UK in October http://www.nmrabr.org.uk/annual-convention. and I will post details here.

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

Peter Peter Peter , you need to post here more often . I just ordered a couple of these long awaited auto carriers for the Clejan I haven't built yet .

[ArtinCA]

I stand corrected... 

[mmagliaro]

And by the way, Pennsy fans, I believe those 4-axle trucks were also the same as the ones used under the bigger coast-to-coast tenders behind the M1 and I1... the ones with the, well, 4-axle trucks.   

Something is going to come up about these trucks sooner or later, so I may as well broach the subject.
If folks are planning to use these for PRR tenders, that's a great idea.  But think about the tender pickups.
If these things are going to have white metal sideframes, will the wheelsets be designed with metal axles inside metal wheels on each end, with an insulating section in the middle, so that a tab or thin wire can be soldered to each sideframe,
leadning up into the tender?  (i.e. axle-point all-wheel pickup?)
I wouldn't expect that to be the case.  But maybe it's not too late to think about this.  If a thin tab/wire were made
integral with the sideframes pointing up, that would provide a big piece of the puzzle for kitbashers.  (You can usually take two wheelsets, cut them in half and piece the metal halves together with a piece of styrene tubing in the middle to
make an all-wheel wheelset.  The tabs leading up off the sideframes into the tender are harder to make, but
they can be done.

And if one is just making the FD2, or otherwise doesn't want the tabs, they could easily be cut off the sideframes, so
no big deal there.

[Lemosteam]

Max, I was waiting for that reply because I was not sure.  Hopefully the design will utilize a piece(s) of PC board to solder the sideframes to, then with a slpit down the middle a wire can be added very close to the bolster pivot to minimize wire movement and hide the wire under the tender frame.  Does anybody make/sell isolated axles (even though it would be easy to make)?  Imagine a 16 wheel electrical pickup!

I anxoiusly await these.

[sirenwerks]

Meh, I've given up on N Scale Kits.  The F39 and Flexi Van cars have been on his in-development list for years and years and up pops this car which never was on the list; but still no F39 or Flexi Van. Good for Pennsy fans but peeshaw on the vaporware manner of operations.

[towl1996]

I asked about the F39 in another thread and here is the responce...


Quote from: towl1996 on Yesterday at 04:58:00 PM

Not trying to cause too much tread drift, but is the F39 dead?


 

No the F39 car frame sits in front of me now - we had real difficulty in getting the side bars looking OK. We tried an etch but this did not work, so are now going to cast them. However, the first pattern of the side bars was not good enough either, so we have had another tool made. I am awaiting the first run of these now.

Then the wooden deck producer went under. We have the CAD for the laser etch of the deck done, but had difficulty getting wood for the decks. This has now arrived, and we are trying out another supplier - who has taken some of our other decks away and said that they can do them. If this proves positive, the F39 should finally come together.

We have had our main tooling done for many months - but we do need both the side bars and the decks to finish it off. Apologies.

Peter

Peter Harris
 N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

[GaryHinshaw]

Meh, I've given up on N Scale Kits....

I had similar concerns, but just today Peter announced on TB that the new 53' all-purpose well cars are ready.  Probably not of interest to readers of this thread, but at least NSK activity seem to be picking up again.

[mmagliaro]

Max, I was waiting for that reply because I was not sure.  Hopefully the design will utilize a piece(s) of PC board to solder the sideframes to, then with a slpit down the middle a wire can be added very close to the bolster pivot to minimize wire movement and hide the wire under the tender frame.  Does anybody make/sell isolated axles (even though it would be easy to make)?  Imagine a 16 wheel electrical pickup!

I anxoiusly await these.

Nobody makes isolated axles that I know of.  Kato used to have 33" wheelsets for sale separately, which were the ones
from their tenders and lighted caboose, and were insulated in the middle with both wheels metal.  But those are gone.  I think they still have the 36" passenger car ones, but those are too large.
They are really not that hard to make.  You can take two Atlas or Fox Valley metal wheelsets, cut the axles in half with a Dremel, and only keep the two "live" halves.  Then you shove them into a short bit of styrene tube. 

Joining the sideframes to an insulated bolsted with wire leads is the tricky part.  I've done it the way you suggested, soldering them to a piece of PC board.  It works great.  But it takes a lot of work.

[superturbine]

Hmmmm....T1 tender trucks!

Interesting timing!

[prbharris]

And by the way, Pennsy fans, I believe those 4-axle trucks were also the same as the ones used under the bigger coast-to-coast tenders behind the M1 and I1... the ones with the, well, 4-axle trucks.

I understand so - though I am not a PRR loco person!

If these things are going to have white metal sideframes, will the wheelsets be designed with metal axles inside metal wheels on each end, with an insulating section in the middle, so that a tab or thin wire can be soldered to each sideframe, leading up into the tender?  (i.e. axle-point all-wheel pickup?) I wouldn't expect that to be the case. 

No it is not as the frame is not isolated as currently designed.

But maybe it's not too late to think about this.  If a thin tab/wire were made integral with the sideframes pointing up, that would provide a big piece of the puzzle for kitbashers.  (You can usually take two wheelsets, cut them in half and piece the metal halves together with a piece of styrene tubing in the middle to make an all-wheel wheelset.  The tabs leading up off the sideframes into the tender are harder to make, but they can be done.

And if one is just making the FD2, or otherwise doesn't want the tabs, they could easily be cut off the sideframes, so no big deal there.

The side frames will be of metal, and the axles will be located into an etched brass box [and pin points into the side frames]. I am expecting most of the load to be taken by the etched brass box. It would be possible to install your own insulating bearings into both etched box and especially the side frame.

However, to use axle point pickups will require an electrical separation of the box, by replacing a section of the brass with a plastic insert. We have not designed the box yet - as we need the preproduction frames to get truly accurate measurements fro the etching process, so suggestions would be helpful.

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

[prbharris]

The F39 and Flexi Van cars have been on the in-development list for years and years ...but still no F39 or Flexi Van.

Yes - apologies for this. And we have learned from that experience not to pre announce. We have done our preproduction work on both the F39 and Flexi-Van and have the main chassis already [and showed them at a number of shows in 2010], but I regret we are in the hands of other suppliers for wooden decks and resin parts. The etches and casting we do, but laser etched decks and resin work are not done by us. We have the patterns but cannot get the parts done for a reasonable price.

I am awaiting some good news on the FlexiVan containers - which we need to have on the market before we release the FlexiVan I - and as I said in an earlier post, are now expecting a better version of the side rails for the F39, and the wooden decks fro the car too.

I do apologize for the delays in the cars, but am working to get them here before Spring 2013.

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

[Alwyn Cutmore]

Hi Peter,

What wheels are you proposing to use in the model. That will have a real bearing on how to do the bogie (truck)?

Regards

Al