HI again, This is a model of the SL-SF 4184 on the bottom of page 87 in Nicholas Molos book. There was a bit of work to do this as I spliced 2 MDC 60' models, cut off about a scale 1' of the cast on deck and bulkheads, the bulkheads are not exactly like the one pictured, but they are just gonna have to do, it is also a couple inches shorter that the prototype but again rule #1. Cut off all the hand grabs and bent my own out of .015 steel wire. Put some very basic brake lines underneath, built up the coupler box, and installed some Plano coupler cut bars as well as a DW brake detail kt for the hand brake and underframe goodies. Used modified #504 Modelers Choice wood deck kits the fit the model. Still need to weather it, but I think I might wait on that for a few days. Thanks for looking.
You're on fire, man. You're turning out some well executed bashing projects. To me, that's near the essence of model railroading.
Lookin' good Tom! Put a load of wrapped plywood/lumber on it and you'll have exactly what is in Nick's book. Would be neat to put the little short side stakes on it to secure the load. Ken ps - It's on page 87.
Thank Fellas This was a great little project that anyone can do, and it didn't cost that much using the old MDC kits. Now to see how to make that load for it. Thanks Ken I got the page# fixed.
Tom - FYI, years ago (~1980 maybe) I put a wrapped plywood/lumber load on an old Tyco flat car we had from Kurt's original Christmas train set. See the attached pic. I don't know if this load kit is still available (nor do I know the manufacturer), but it worked out very well back then. The kit is a set of HO sized wood blocks, the correct size for each package of wood, plus a series of paper wrappers to wrap each wood block with. They offered several different wrappers - i.e., different lumber companies. The load really looked good for a long time - made for a unique load, one seen often on the prototype. Unfortunately, today some of the wrap is coming a bit loose on some of the blocks. Please forgive the flat car. The Tyco is not a very good model, still has truck mounted couplers, and back then (pre-FMIG for me!), I had no idea what the correct numbering, body color or correct markings would be for a Frisco flat in lumber/plywood service. At least it says SLSF! With no end bulkheads, I'm sure the load might not even stay on the car in the real world with rough handling. Does anyone know who made/makes the load kit? Ken
Looks like a Jaeger kit to me, see http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?manu=347&split=300 for a listing. Apparently in business since 1975 according to http://www.walthers.com/exec/manuinfo/347/Jaeger_HO_Products.html
Looks like that's it - Jaeger it is. Mine was apparently #347-600, Weyerhaeuser "Shed-Pak". There are many alternative wraps from Jaeger listed in the Walthers catalog - Pope & Talbot, which is what is on the car in the Molo book, is one of them. See #347-4900. Ken
Got the Jeager, Pope And Talbot lumber load a few days ago. Now I see why there are always these kind of kits cheap at swap meets. It is definitely not all that user friendly. After I emptied the Jaeger box on the bench, and started trimming, folding the paper and wrapping all those blocks, well lets just say 3 days later I was still wrapping those miserable blocks. I used very thin Scotch tape under all the paper wrapped loads to help hold the paper wrapping and banding in place. A word of advise, use glue of some type to coat the blocks for the paper wrapping, ( I used carpenters glue) otherwise you will have trouble gluing the load together, on final assembly. I glued the first layer of blocks to a thin piece of brass flat strap cut 3/8 of an inch shorter than the load, painted flat Black. I then glued the supplied 4x4" vertical supports in, and layered the load from there. Got some scale 2x4 to put between the layers. After all the layers were added I put the final bands around the whole load. There is a lot of banding, and I still have enough left over for several more projects. The banding is Drafting tape, you can still buy it in different colors and widths. The kit came with Nylon thread which I didn't want to use. Anyway still need to finish weathering and loading the car, there are a few supports to trim and glue in the stake pockets a strip of wood down the sides to hold the load in place, it is interesting to note that there are no straps over the load to the stake pockets, which is good for this project, as I am going to make it so the car can be unloaded and ran MT. Anyways a bit of progress. |-| Thanks for checking in, click on images to see in larger format. P.S. Ken I think your flat car and load is a fine looking car, looks like you did a great job on it to me.
That sure seems tedious but the results are fantastic. I love the looks of the flat banding you used. Much more realistic than nylon thread. I say your efforts are paying off in a big way. Great modeling!
Lookin' good Tom! SLSF 4184 will be a fine looking model when you are finished. I remember what a "pita" wrapping those little blocks was, and you have many more to do than I did as my car was only a 40-footer. Should have warned you about that! Ken
Thanks Guys, I managed to weather this thing a bit and finish the car tonight with the load stabilization along the sides of the car. Had a lot of fun doing this and learned a great deal as well. Thanks for looking
like this one? Maybe I can wrap enough of those miserable blocks to fill this one up. Made it with the ends left from the former project minus a couple scale ft, think this might be a Hindsight Industrial RR car.
