Hey Y'all, At it again this morning. This time, I'm doing a 36' Flat Car for the Frisco's Orange & Northwestern R.R. which is owned for several years before it was aggressively taken over by the Colorado Southern and then eventually ended up in the Missouri Pacific system. The line which serviced lumber operations in Jasper County, TX, was a 30 mile road which gave access to the Gulf of Mexico. Although it interchanged with other lines, and was considered very small, the line brought in consistently revenues in excess of $31,000.00. Not a bad haul for 1903-1905. 1905 is when B.F. Yoakum purchased the line and absorbed it into the Frisco/Rock Island super-system. Although it wouldn't take long before the Colorado Southern, New Orleans, and Pacific took hostile control by purchasing the majority of stock in 1906. This is because the railroad by 1906 was pulling in a revenue of over twice what it was producing when Yoakum bought it. It wasn't until 1925, that the Missouri Pacific acquired the line and by 1953, the little 30 mile shortline was bringing in revenues exceeding $600,000.00. Officially, the O&NW disappeared from the rails under that name, in 1956, when it was corporately merged into the MP. The 36' flat I am modeling is from the Yoakum era. Simple markings. Simple construction. As basic as a flat car can get. Framed in decking, six (6) stake pockets on either side, four (4) truss rods. Although the original was with Janney Couplers, and outside mechanical brakes on one truck, I have adapted the car to post 1911 Safety Act standards. The car now has the stirrups on the right corners of each side and hand brake wheel. Manny Progress pics...
Movin' right along. The brake rigging, underframe, and truss-rods are all done! Man it feels so strange to be working on a 36' car when all you have built for the past month has been 30' cars! This one went together so easy! So much room to work with underneath. Drilled, tubing, taped, filed, and secured the bolsters just like with the S.A.A.P.. Same with the brake rigging, albeit longer rods, and the truss rods and turn buckles. This is a great car. I'm enjoying it very much. Now all I have left to do is put the stake pockets on the car, and then she'll be ready for paint. But now, I need to find out what the railroad's color was. God, I hope it's not Boxcar Red again. I'm getting tired of shooting cars BCR. Variety is the spice of life! Manny
Actually, you'd be surprised at the number of colors available back then. I'm going with a Mineral or D&RGW Lt. Freight Car Red. A subtle switch. I can't verify the colors on the O&NW. So I just called 1-800-DEAD-GUY, and he referred me to Rule No. 1.
Any form of boxcar red, oxide red, tuscan, etc. Lots of shade variation among the rolling stock will help reduce the sameness of all one Floquil color. Lookin' good. Andre
I just got back and picked up D&RGW Freight Car Red, and Lt. Freight Car Red. The former a little redder than the latter. I'm going to do the former. Thanks, Manny
Sorry for the hijack - I had a little time and did some snooping around and ran across this - http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=81894 Look at the delapidated Frisco gondola (keeping my hijack Frisco related).
Why are you sorry Oldguy? That helps me a ton. Okay, so it's not O&NW related. But none, the less, it shows how far railroads let their wooden cars go before repairs! Good snag!
Stained the deck DebenLLC's Natural Driftwood and added the NBW's. What is unique about this flat car is that outside tab supports for the bolster is evident on the sides of the car. I've modeled them accordingly. Now to just mask the deck and I can shoot it Mineral Red. More to come. Manny
She's painted and drying right now. Tomorrow morning, I will be able to gloss cote the sides and then decal. I used Polly S Mineral Red. Came out very nice! No pics until tomorrow.
You've got this down to a science. You shouldn't have any trouble building your fleet of rolling stock.
