Passenger car sides using Silhouette Cutter?

[tuxachanie]

I'd like to model some rebuilt modernized heavyweight cars of the L&N and Southern Ry. I was planning to cut new styrene sides to use on Micro-trains heavyweight cars, but the thought of cutting all those windows by hand doesn't sound like fun. I was wondering if anybody has used a Silhouette cutter to make new passenger car sides? Is the resolution good enough for decent results? I'd like to do some Illinois Central streamlined cars and maybe even some new window strips for P-S, Budd and ACF corrugated cars in the distant future, as well. Another option would be using one of those home photo etching kits to make brass sides, if that would be possible. May have to try to make some single-window heavyweight coaches if M-T can't come up with any, too!

Tony Howe
Hattiesburg, MS

[thomasjmdavis]

Tony,

I have a similar project in mind, in my case L&N, ACL and C&EI rebuilt coaches, and maybe a GTW down the line, but am seriously considering a different option.  Just like you, I felt that I could carve the sides, one way or another, from styrene, but have concerns about my talent when it comes to cutting windows. My plan is to do some "cut and paste" using commercially available cars, and the remains of a couple of cars built from sides where, ummmmmmm, things did not go well.  But will be very interested in what you discover about the Silhouette machine.

Just out of curiosity, are you looking at this as a potential small volume production, or are you just interested in making your own?  I ask because you seem to be avoiding what seems to me the more obvious route, which would be to approach one of the car side manufacturers about making these.  Union Station has done some IC and NC&StL rebuilds, and Laser Horizons, Brass Car Sides and M&R (although Roberto has been busy lately with his regular job) have been amenable in the past to taking on small batches if you can provide drawings and enough interested modelers to buy up a minimum production run.  A couple years ago, USP ran an L&N diner for me almost "on request" because he happened to have a drawing for the car already in his collection.  Likewise, M&R did the ATSF 3000 chair car when someone mentioned wanting one on N scale Varnish, and then a bunch of us chimed in with "me too".  I think I have 5 of the latter, but you get my point.

On the single window coach, my fond hope is that as soon as MT gets that Erie heavyweight baggage tooled up, they will realize that the Erie coach would be the perfect addition to the line.  Or an L&N single window coach.  Or just about any single window coach with between 18 and 24 windows.  Not sure when the law was written that all N scale HW coaches must have 20 paired windows, but it is time we worked to repeal that law.

[tuxachanie]

I'd be more than happy to work with one of the car side manufacturers to produce them. I just wanted a couple of each for my own use, and wasn't sure that there would be enough interest from others to make them commercially viable for anybody else to produce them. One can never have enough heavyweight cars!

[Jim Costello]

I have the drawings completed and waiting on a RP to come along in a type of resin,not FUD, of the NH single window coach  (7800-7950 series) in both the original and rebuilt cars.
Designed for Wheels of Time for both 4  & 6 wheel bogies,body mount couplers.
These were to  be  cast for my use , but there may be other demands.  Give me a few weeks ??? before photos and further discussions

Jim

[OldEastRR]

The rumors are that some production company is preparing or considering a single-window coach similar to the NH prototype.

[chessie system fan]

To answer the original question, yes, passenger car sides are very easy with a cutter.  I've done several and using a cutter makes the job much easier. Perhaps the only thing to work around is the Silhouette doesn't do curves.  It breaks them up into many short, straight lines, which means there's a small amount of filing to do in the corners.  But that's a miniscule amount of work compared to doing it by hand.

I'm currently working on a SAL sun lounge.  I can post pictures a little later.  I also have most of the CSX OCS drawn up for future use, as well as a few B&O cars.

[Sokramiketes]

In .010" styrene the blade wanders a bit, but it certainly beats hand cutting and filing. I've since hand trimmed the windows to square them up a touch. This is CGW 100.

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[mcjaco]

Nice Mike.  I've been thinking about this for a lot of the wood side Soo line head end cars needed to model the Laker. 

[Scottl]

If you are going to the trouble of drafting up the artwork for the cutter, why not etch it?  That way, you get perfect edges, corners and everything is perfectly square.  It is easier in my view to get flush windows given the thinner metal stock.  Etching will cost a bit more, to be sure.  You can use CA to work with it, no soldering needed.

[chessie system fan]

For mine, I scribe the lightest line I can in the .010" styrene, then bend and snap it like you normally would.  For the windows, I go over them with a sharp, new blade and they come out easily.  I do have the same issue Mike's windows have though.  Here's a closeup of how the Silhouette does windows:




The machine has slight issues going into a curve, but it does fine coming out of one.  But a little filing is all that's needed to correct the issue.

[Catt]

What's the problem with the .010" styrene ?Is it the thiness of the plastic?Would .020" be better? I'd like to find someone would could do me some single window sides for my Bachmann 60'? coaches for conversion into freelanced commuter coaches.

[wcfn100]

If all you're doing is cutting the side and the windows, I think I'd still go with drilling the window corners with a bit size that matched the rounding and cut and file the windows.  Gives very clean results.

Nice start on the CGW Business Car Mike.  What color is it going to be?


Jason

[chessie system fan]

Forgot to add that I do drill out the corners and file them.  If you try snapping out the corners it seems to break away too much material, which the drilling alleviates.

Thickness doesn't matter (up to .020" anyway; that's about the limit of the machine) if you scribe lightly and don't use much force. If you want to cut the material all the way through (thus using more force), then thinner is better.

Jonathan, I bet I could come up with something pretty easily for you. PM me. 

[John]

I also have most of the CSX OCS drawn up for future use, as well as a few B&O cars.

I was thinking of having them laser cut .. or brass etched .. as soon as I draw them ..

[peteski]

I was thinking of having them laser cut .. or brass etched .. as soon as I draw them ..

I agree that etching brass or laser cutting (thin acrylic, not styrene) will result on more accurate shapes. But neither of those methods can be done on your workbench (unless you own a laser cutter or etching system).

I seem to recall some car sides (don't remember which company made them).  They were laser cut from thin acrylic sheet.  The sheet still had the paper protector on it (most acrylic sheets come protected on both sides). and the window outlines were relief-engraved through the paper and into the acrylic.  When you peeled off the protective paper from the car body (leaving the window areas protected, then painted it and peeled the protector from the windows, the model ended up with flush-mounted crystal-clean windows.  You could also flow some silver or black paint into the relief-engraved window edge.  That gave a nice representation of the window frame/gasket. I thought that was an excellent solution for that type of a car.