Canadian Pacific Wood Passenger Cars, by Realworkingsailor, Scratch Built, Kit Bashed 1:87

[Egilman]

1 hour ago, realworkingsailor said:

EG, that's some brilliant work with that diagram!

Why thank you sir....

 

I must say, that's some darned fine layer work I'm seeing.... (some of the best I've ever seen)

Gonna be downright gorgeous when the bead board sides go up....

[realworkingsailor]

58 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Why thank you sir....

 

I must say, that's some darned fine layer work I'm seeing.... (some of the best I've ever seen)

Gonna be downright gorgeous when the bead board sides go up....

And thank you too, EG!

 

I apologize for the quality of the photos, but the scribed siding (bead board) forms the outer layer, so it’s on already. It’s a bit hard to see (white on white). I’m not a professional photographer, but I know I can (and should) do better... time to lose the little point-and-shoot and haul out my SLR.

 

Andy

[Canute]

Andy,  I could send you down a very deep rabbit hole as far as detailing up the interior. Here's a tease: https://www.palacecarco.com/

[realworkingsailor]

17 minutes ago, Canute said:

Andy,  I could send you down a very deep rabbit hole as far as detailing up the interior. Here's a tease: https://www.palacecarco.com/

There are many bottomless rabbit holes in model railroading just waiting to suck in another unwitting victim! 
 

Andy

[Canute]

Yes, there are.  😁

[popeye the sailor]

some really precise work Andy    the sides look awesome!

[jwvolz]

Just catching up Andy. Very cool build, and great work so far!

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks, everyone, for the comments and likes!

 

A busy weekend in the car shops. Both car ends were installed and the side entry doors have been made and fitted.

Prior to fitting the doors, the doorways were trimmed with 0.030" styrene 1/4 round to match the prototype... almost. If you take a quick look back at my first post, you can see the 1/4 round moulding and the nicely coved corners. If this was at a larger scale I might have attempted  it, however at this scale, a simple mitre joint will suffice.

 

It was now time to turn to trucks and couplers. For some reason most "craftsman" style kits leave this step off until the end but I prefer to get this step out of the way now as this can sometimes involve some "heavy" work that may risk damaging any detail work that has been installed.

You can see clearly my king post and bolster arrangement for the trucks. The end sill is a scale 12" x 24" piece of basswood strip glued to the underside of the floor. Once the car height was set by adjusting the height of the bolster and comparing my car with other models in my collection, the couplers were installed and adjusted with a Kadee height gauge.  The couplers are Kadee #58 semi-scale knuckle couplers, which give a nicer appearance than the standard (oversized) #5. This model will ultimately be an operating model, some some compromises (like the large 2-56 screw) are necessary to ensure reliability (it really won't bee seen after the steps and end details are added).

 

Following this bit of rough work, it was time to tackle the roof (or at least the basic construction).

Shown here upside down, the roof is made up of  a couple of pre-made clerestory sections with end pieces cut from a leftover Branchline kit coach roof. The roof ends needed to be widened to better match the width of the milled clerestory sections. Some basswood strip provides for a nice friction fit in the carbody.

Some final tweaking, sanding, filling etc will be required, but otherwise the heavy work is now completed. I can now move on to the fun detail work.

Which has already begun on the underside of the car. The centre sills were made using 1/8" styrene "C" channel. The black steam pipe was also salvaged from a Branchline kit. I'm not sure if the prototype cars were also equipped with steam heating (as it is, the cars had a Baker car heater), but it adds a nice detail.

 

Next up comes the rest of the underbody detail, including the queen posts and truss rods, air tanks, brake and electrical equipment.

 

Andy

[Egilman]

39 minutes ago, realworkingsailor said:

Next up comes the rest of the underbody detail,

I can hang with that, more artistry on display......

[Canute]

Andy, nice job with the vestibule and roof. The roof ends are some of the toughest sections to get correct, if done from scratch. Well done. The Kadees are a great idea, since they are more "scale". Making up into a beauty.

 

That heavy line could also be used as the brake air line, too. Looks like they are on the correct side for the air line.  If they have Baker stoves, they wouldn't be steam heating. Check the DRG&W wood coaches; they're of a similar vintage. I know they used Baker stoves.

[yvesvidal]

In HO scale.... CONGRATULATIONS!! Your work is amazing.

 

Yves

[realworkingsailor]

1 hour ago, Canute said:

Andy, nice job with the vestibule and roof. The roof ends are some of the toughest sections to get correct, if done from scratch. Well done. The Kadees are a great idea, since they are more "scale". Making up into a beauty.

 

That heavy line could also be used as the brake air line, too. Looks like they are on the correct side for the air line.  If they have Baker stoves, they wouldn't be steam heating. Check the DRG&W wood coaches; they're of a similar vintage. I know they used Baker stoves.

Thanks Canute!

 

Based on photographs I've seen (looking closely at the hose connections at the ends), it's possible some cars would have been equipped with both steam heat and a Baker heater (given our colder climate up here). Either way, there could have been a pass-through steam line to allow heating other cars in a consist. If I had known 11 years ago that I would be neck deep in this project, I'm sure I would have taken many more photos of the preserved car at the museum in Delson!

 

Andy

[Canute]

Andy, I'd imagine you'd need a "belt and suspenders" approach to heating those cars up your way, so dual systems makes lots of sense. I found better info on air conditioning systems on a couple of sites on Pullman operated cars.

 

Anyway, very nice work.

[popeye the sailor]

if we had premonitions Andy,  we'd all have perfect lives       you seem to be doing quite well on what you have and memory.   it's refreshing to see a train piece made from scratch.......like what was done before scale classification came to be used.   very nicely done!  

[realworkingsailor]

As always, thanks everyone for the comments and likes!

 

Work on the main underbody details has largely been finished. I have decided to omit some of the "plumbing", mostly because it would serve only to add clutter to an already tight space, which is also the other reason as it has become increasingly difficult to do things neatly, without mucking up some of the already completed items (I've had to dust off a spiderweb of fine strands of CA glue).  The main queenposts are a white metal casting from Bethlehem Car Works I had laying about. The truss rods are made from monofilament fishing line. I prefer using fishing line as it is fairly easy to get tight and somewhat resilient to incidental contact. Wire is much harder to get to the proper tension (without destroying the car in the process), and would tend to show every impact.

For those who are interested, here's an annotated version showing the various major components:

The vast majority of the detail parts came from leftover Branchline kits and other bits and pieces in my parts bins. It should be mentioned that although the locations of the major components is somewhat reflective of prototype practice (and supported by partial photographic evidence), it is still only my general interpretation, and is not necessarily a 100% accurate. 

 

The corner steps have also been added. I've left off some of the final details such as the coupler cut levers and the connections for the steam, air and signal lines. These will be added later when I'm adding the grabirons and other final details.

The time has now come to return my attention to finishing the roof. Some sanding and filling is necessary to smooth our the joints, and an insert will have to be made for the clerestory.

 

Andy

Edited April 16, 2020 by realworkingsailor

[yvesvidal]

Fantastic work and great details.

 

Yves

[Egilman]

Artistry in action....

 

It looks the part my friend, I cant wait to see it in it's house colors.....

 

Beautiful detail work....

[Canute]

Nice job with your underframe, Andy. And a great diagram of all the various parts. They were busy, even without the airconditioning parts.

 

Will you have screens along with vents?

[realworkingsailor]

51 minutes ago, Canute said:

Will you have screens along with vents?

That largely depends on a couple of factors. I know I have some fine mesh screening I purchased a few years ago, if I can find wherever it was I put it (a very safe place I can only assume). Otherwise it will come down to material thicknesses. The scribed siding is only available in 0.030” thickness (at this scale), so if, in conjunction with the mesh, the thickness of the insert is too much for the clerestory, the mesh might have to be omitted. Bethlehem Car Works does supply PE screens for clerestory vents, but ordering from them is a bit iffy (not unreliable, as far as I know, but they don’t have an actual online storefront).

 

Andy

[Old Collingwood]

Really tidy work   looking  really nice.

 

OC.

[Canute]

Yeah, that's not John's thing. He's more of the CAD/CAM side.

 

How about the fine mesh in the plastic tea strainers. It's pretty thin, although the mesh is real fine.

[Roger Pellett]

Andy,

 

Beautiful work!

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks, again, everyone for the kind comments and likes!

 

Work has been progressing smoothly over the last few days. The major joints in the roof have been filled and sanded smooth, as and where required. I use Squadron putty, as it bonds well with styrene. It's not quite as good with wood, but if you're careful it will do the job there too. A few extra strips of 0.020" square stock were required to widen out the edges of the roof ends to match the wooden centre section. 

I've successfully managed to make the two clerestory inserts. The include all the vent openings, however I was unable to locate the aluminium mesh (that I know I have somewhere, hidden), so they will remain as just openings. This is probably for the good, as the material thickness wouldn't allow for another layer anyway. The lavatory vents were also added (again, spare parts from a Branchline kit)

The I've also completed the visible components of the Baker car heater; the smoke jack and the covered header tank. The smoke jack was simply made using various thicknesses of styrene tubing. The  header tank was made from a strip of scale 12" x 24" basswood. The ends were treated with Squadron putty to fill in the end grain of the wood. All that needs to be added is the fill cap. Finally the roof top conduit cover was added using a strip of 0.020" x 0.080" styrene.

You can clearly see the conduit running down the centre of the car roof in the photo above.  Originally these cars would have been lit with Pintsch gas, and would have had a series of round vents running the length of the car (you can actually see them on the rood of the baggage car in the extreme left of the photo. When the cars were converted to electric light, the wiring followed the same path as the gas lines (I would imagine, mainly, to avoid having to tear out sections of the interior to install the wiring and to avoid having unsightly wires dangling around).

You can also notice some odd pieces sticking out from the clerestory (towards the bottom left of the photo). I'm not entirely sure of their function, or construction, so for the time being, I will omit them (I may circle around to them later if I manage to find more information).

Diverting my attention to the interior, I've added a steel weight to the bottom of the floor. And I've mapped out the interior partitions for the smoking room and the lavatories, lockers etc.

The outline is just the basic floor plan, when built, all the corners will be rounded off or coved. I will likely keep this section removable to allow ease of painting. 

Next up in the construction sequence will be to finish the interior construction, and then my "favourite" task(s); grab irons and end details. I haven't forgotten the transom window mullions either, but I've determined that I need some thinner stock styrene than I have on hand, so I'll have to put in an order with the hobby shop. I just need to work out a list of other items that I may "need" (one package of styrene seems a tad frivolous!).

 

Andy

 

[Canute]

Andy, possibly a wind-scoop of some kind?

 

A different style, the Garland:

[realworkingsailor]

I would say it’s very likely a wind scoop of some kind, but definitely much simpler than the Garland type. From what I can see it’s a piece of metal, simply flanged to the clerestory.

 

Andy

[Egilman]

1 hour ago, Canute said:

Andy, possibly a wind-scoop of some kind?

 

A different style, the Garland:

The Garland ventilator is an example of the Coanda Effect in action, which produces a greater velocity in an airflow when the flow is moving along a smooth surface. When coupled with a large intake plenum (ducted fan principle) it actually increases the amount of air moved and the resulting flow increase causes the vented air to circulate farther than an otherwise simple duct would thereby increasing the ventilation effect.... At the time Garland designed his ventilator, the Coanda effect couldn't be explained by the engineers but it worked. It was used on a great many devices like the big oval ship ventilators. In 1909 Henri Coanda wrote the definitive paper on this effect in fluids, (air is considered a fluid in aerodynamics) and used what he learned to build an airplane which many describe as the first jet in 1910. (I don't know about that, but it was the first ducted fan) The Coanda Effect is similar to the Venturi Effect of increased volume flow through a tapered tube with a great many varied applications a lot of our mechanical devices require it to operate.....

 

An example of practical engineering from observed phenomena without completely understanding the science behind it...

 

It was patented in 1905, but didn't come into widespread use until the 1910-1920's

Edited April 20, 2020 by Egilman

[popeye the sailor]

really look'in good Andy.......very detailed and  a scratch build marvel   

[amateur]

Ithough ships and maple syrup were your lines of business, but yourrailroad is also ofhigh quality!

 

Jan 

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks everyone for the comments and the likes! 

 

I have been slowly working away on my coach build. I've now made up the interior bulkheads and partitions. Most of these areas will really not be seen after the model is complete so I've kept the details rather basic. I still intend to add seating and the requisite features in the lavatories.

The smoking room end of the car. Getting the 0.030" styrene to curve that tight and stay without springing back was fun. I simply used the handle of one of my files as a mandrel and gently and repeatedly worked the styrene until it held its shape. After glueing the panels to the floor, I then added some gussets to help hold everything in one place, and give it some structural strength. The interior is still removable at this point (and I'll probably keep it that way).

The opposite end of the car was much simpler to construct, with only the women's lavatory and the heater room to contend with.

 

After the interior, it was time to get after the grabs and gutter details. I find grab irons to be one of the more tedious parts of any railway rolling stock model build. Very easy to mess up, very hard to undo is there is an error, but absolutely essential for any finished car.

Each end of the car has two drop grabs, plus the entry handles on each side. Up on the roof there are eight more, four located on top of the clerestory and the wavy looking grab, just above the eave, is the ladder rest. Also on each end is a peaked gutter above the end door, and a sloped gutter above the entry door. This were formed using brass wire. The grab irons where salvaged from my parts bin (leftovers from old Walthers passenger cars) and are made of stainless steel wire. 

I've also almost completed the other end details. You can see the coupler cut-lever attached to the entry step as well as the hose ends for the steam, air and signal lines (the one is slightly obscured by the coupler head).

Finally, I've added the fill cap to the Baker heater header tank. I made this from a Precision Scale Co. (PSC) 0.030" pipe union brass casting. 

 

At this point I'm getting closer to finishing the model, all that really remains now are seats and a few final details such as the window mullions and the air deflectors for the clerestory. I'm going to have to put in an order  this week for the styrene strip that I need. I also need to order seats, but the problem lies in getting the right kind. The few suppliers there are make seats for later streamlined cars. I have yet to find anyone who makes the old fashioned "walk-over" seats (seats that could be made to face either end of the car by "walking over" the seat back from one side of the seat bench to the other) appropriate for cars of this era.

 

Andy

[Canute]

Andy, must have needed multiple jigs for all those grabs. Forming them must have been fun, too.  But they look good.

 

The only walkover type seat sellers I seem to remember was Grandt Line and Red Cap Line. Grandt is still around, under new ownership and their new parts lineup is skimpy. Red Cap Line is closed; they did have those type seats or at least the 1930s versions.