Photos of scratch built flatcar

[Erik W]

This is my latest project.  I'm taking a short break from my N scale layout.  I used to be rather militant about just working in N scale but have strayed a bit in the last few years by building some HOn3 freight cars.  This is my first attempt at scratch building a piece of rolling stock.  The flatcar is an HOn3 D&RGW 6200 series steel sided, wood frame, truss rod flatcar.  The car is built with styrene (representing the steel sides), wood, injection molded plastic details and brass and phosphor bronze wire.  The 1" x 5" car has 247 parts, including about 35 individual bolts.  Since there was no commercially available decal set I mixed and matched 37 decals from three sets.  You'll have to forgive the cheesy photo with the penny.   I know most of you guys are N scalers, so it shows that even though this is HOn3, it's not much bigger than N scale.  Plus, you can see that those bolts easily fit into the 0 on the date on the penny.



















Erik

[tom mann]

Really nice, Erik.  Actually, that looks like the ideal size:  small enough to be cool and challenging, yet large enough for awesome detail.

The bolts are especially nice.  Are they commercially available?

[SquirrelHollow]

Phenominal work.

The details on that thing are impressive.  And the deck... beautiful!

[ednadolski]

Wow, that's terrific work, way to go Erik! 

So HOn3 uses N scale couplers?   How would the Sergent HO scale couplers work out?

[Erik W]

Thanks for the nice words guys.  Tom, the bolts are from Grandt Line:  http://grandtline.com/model_railroad/augmentables_pages.htm   They are the #63, towards the top of the page.  They come on top of a 1/4" or so plastic rod.  Just drill a hole.  Dip the end in CA and place into the hole with tweezers.    Ednadolski, I thought about Sergent couplers.  They would definitely look more realistic.  I chose Kadee's HOn3 #714 (which are just a larger version of N scale couplers) because at some point in the future I may be building an HOn3 layout and I wanted a coupler that was reliable, trouble free and easy to operate.  That said I know the Sergents are good couplers.  I'm more certain Kadee will be around in 10, 20, etc. years though.

Erik

[pfs]

Impressive work. Thanks for sharing.

[Chris333]

I wish I could do that. I'd add some truss rods and skip the rest.

Very nice.

[MrKLUKE]

.

[Erik W]

Jeff,

I didn't really keep track of the hours I worked on it but my best guess, give or take a few hours is about 35 total.  This era of freight car lends itself to fairly easy scratch building, especially a flatcar.  It's just dimensional strips of wood and styrene and then commercially available detail parts and wire for grabs and brake rigging.  I've scratch built a couple of structures before but this is my first piece of rolling stock.  The build was pretty straightforward.  You can see the plans in this photo (as well as all the other material for the car).



I just cut out the bottom view of the plans and taped it flat to a piece of wood.  I then built the frame of the car directly over the plan.  All the detail, from brake hardware to bolts were attached to the frame directly over the plan for placement.  I referenced several photos of the real thing for detail placement on the top of the car.  I think if you can build a commercial kit well without referencing the instructions you should be able to do well at scratch building a freight car.  You just have to put more thought into the order you'll build it.  For example, when installing all the brake hardware, piping and truss rods, I started closest to the frame in the middle of the car and worked my way up and out.  That way the details I added wouldn’t get in my way.

Tom, as an FYI to your earlier question about the bolts, the item in the photo above, that looks kind of like a comb (touching one of the wheels) is the bolt casting.  Just snip them off and plop them in a hole.

Erik

[SquirrelHollow]

That's more like engineering a car.  Above and beyond scratch building, good sir.

[Diesel]

Erik Great job building this car, I'm impressed with the intricate rigging.

[kiwi_al]

Well done. That has to be the best flatcar I've seen.