So I've been working on turning an old project into something that I don't mind taking to the track. Most all of this caboose was made on a table saw and without "plans". I wanted a crummy with most all of the Frisco flavor but isn't really based on a particular caboose. The real 1129 had a different window layout and cupola, 1129 just sounded like a good number as it's my birthdate also... The "decals" are outdoor vinyl graphics that I had printed and cut. I'm going to drop a copy of these pictures into the "other scales" forum. That forum doesn't see a lot of love. Cheers everyone.
No matter that it might not be totally prototypical, it certainly has that "Frisco look". Very nice work! K
Great looking caboose, Darren!!! Please tell us more about your caboose. For example: How much does it weigh, what are the dimensions, how did you accomplish the build process? Joe
Well, it's 4 feet long so it works out to prototypically 32 feet, 15 inches wide (10 feet wide), and a rough guestimate at 60 pounds. It's my first "all wood" car as the sides are made from appearance grade 5/8" plywood and the frame is a piece of oak I had from a furniture project. I have a radial arm saw set up with a very fine kerf blade for the slat detail as I'm not to the point of actually doing real slats... Window frames are just mitered wood detail built up and glued together. Handrails are from Precision Steel Car. http://www.precisionsteelcar.com and the graphics are from Miracle Graphics, http://miraclerailroadproducts.com who specialize in this size equipment. I bought the truck castings years ago along with the couplers and finally got around to machining them. Walkways, steps, roof and doors are all thinner 1/4" plywood I had laying around.
Darren, that is one very nice looking car. It looks like it is set to run on 7 1/2" gauge track with 1 1/2": 1' scale equipment? I'm sure my friend Harold "Kay" Vollrath would have been proud to pull that behind his locomotive and other cars.
Joe, it's 1/8th scale (1,5" to the foot), gauged to 7.5 inches. Keith, I met Mr. Vollrath years ago in Texas. A fine gentleman that was a pleasure to discuss his pictures and history of the Frisco with. We had an in depth discussion about the life timeframe of Pacific 1060, my steamer. I got some great information and pictures from him.
Darren, very impressive. Will look forward to more photos of it, especially in use, in the "Other Scales" forum. Best Regards,
Update from Mid-Missouri: working on a variety of things in the workshop - primarily, cleaning and rearranging in the hopes of moving the actual workbench and starting a small module for expanding my handlaid track efforts. Any photos would just show lumber and various rubbish waiting to go to the curb. No existing layout pieces have been harmed in the process. My hopes are that the module will be the first stage of a different layout direction - more to come on that for another day and another thread. It is great fun to have a tablet handy to be able to keep an eye on the SEC Tournament while working. Looking forward to other reports,
All MKT wrecker here still. I got some more paint work done. Air chambers built for the brakes and started painting some of the photoetched detail pieces for the service bed and interior of the cab. I took some in progress photos I will add in the how to's for the for some chipping and oil painting. Here is a quick before and after of just the original white and the white with an oil wash over it.
I made some progress on my Bowser Connie this week. It was slipping and stalling, and the more I ran it, it seemed to run worse. It got to the point where I had to tap on the tender to get it to run, so I thought my tender pickup was bad. I tried cleaning the trucks and the bosses, still poor. Finally I tried a different tender--one of my friends had given me a MDC Roundhouse Vanderbilt tender that was missing trucks, and I had bought some Cal-Scale trucks at a flea market, so I screwed them on and hooked it up. It ran great! No stalling, no slipping, ran slow, ran fast. It could pull every car I tried. I changed out the Bowser tender sprung trucks for the Cal-Scale trucks, and it ran fine with that, too: I tried some trucks off an old New One/Aristocraft 2-8-2 tender on the Vandy, and after cleaning, they ran well, too: So after some break in running, I decided to install a DCC decoder. This is an older kit, so I had to replace the motor brush brass cover plate with a fiber brush plate and solder decoder leads to the brushes: I soldered the red lead to a brass screw I put in the frame and the black lead to a connector and attached to the tender. It ran well for testing purposes, so I need to install a connector, neaten up the wiring, and get the decoder in the tender: I like the Vandy tender, though. The only Frisco locomotives using Vandy tenders I can find pictures of are 4-6-0s 780 and 1406. Were they ever used on 2-8-0s?
I took this last night. I figure most of you are HO modelers so you might not realize how big the MKT wrecker is. Here is an HO semi beside it. Steve
Good Lord--that thing is HUGE. I love all those details--they even have the air freshener! Nah, not that much. These were considered "screwdriver" kits back in the day. Some filing, adjusting, tinkering, tweaking, but not tons. I have to admit I enjoy it. It would be easier and more accurate to buy Bachmann or BLI steamers, and they would probably run better, but where's the fun in that?
Now that’s funny Gary! I agree too, anyone can build a PRR gp9 proto 2000 right? Signals look great Bill.
Man Steve. A daylight single driver cab over. The one thing you can count on, is that cabover driver is gonna be the first one at the scene of the accident.
Funny Tom, why I bought that little truck is because I took my CDL test in a Frieghtshaker daycab cabover years ago, The entire cab was the length of the doors. Then the guy doing the test let me look out the back window backing up. HA Wouldn't be like that these days.