This is gonna be a fun little project, and I remain confident, I will be able to turn it into more work than necessary. It is based on a picture by Mike Condren, here is a link to his website and photo of the car. http://condrenrails.com/Frisco Catalog/MOW-water-cars.htm Now, at first glace as suggested I needed a Tichy #4025 tank car kit, but if you look at the Tichy car it has an extra row of horizontal rivets towards the top of the car, so that car was out plus it looked a bit big, ended up robbing a large dome from a Tichy kit, and settled on a Proto 8000 gal tank car for the project it had the right pin lifters and a few other details as well. Bad thing is, the insides of the tank were flat and not rounded which is where the "more work than necessary" part started. I was lucky enough to chuck the whole car in my Sherline mill, and just milled the part of the tank off that needed removed, that was fairly easy, but when I was done with that the walls of the tank where it was milled were about 9 scale inches thick, well that wasn't gonna work. So I went to work on that with a round sanding tool chucked up in a dremem tool, about 5 seconds later, the drum plugged up with melted plastic. Glad I have 3-4 of them, but figured I would try the Tamiya drill, that Keith Robinson turned me onto some time ago. It turns slow enough not to melt the plastic, and after a fashion, had the part of the tank I needed round, basically round, or as good as it is gonna get. Then the rivets were ground off the top where the bigger dome would be, attached the larger dome, then used .005 X .060 Styrene strip bent anround the dome for the new rivets, and Archer rivet decals used. Not having any idea just how the inside of the cut away looks, I noticed the 55 gallon drums leaning onto the sides in the photo, so that gives me an idea of where the floor needs to be, I am gonna use a strip of Tichy grating for the floor that should be OK. Turns out the inside diameter of the car is just a bit smaller than a dremel cut off wheel. Ihad a slight used on handy so traced a piece of .040 Styrene for the plug in the tank, and will place a bung towards the bottom with some sort of gate valve in it. Still need to come up with that. Anyway here is a start on this project, will add pictures and text as we go along. Thanks for looking.
Just looking at the Blue Barrel, probably no 1 Diesel for the stove. The bridge Foreman wanted all the supplies close to the car. I think someone else said their was a Steel Bridge Gang down in that area (of the photo) We will look foreward to the end, finished car. real neat.
Good info William, I seen the blue barrel but didnt connect it with fuel. Your such a great source for Frisco fanatics like myself.
Tom, this is one of the unique Frisco items that I've always thought begs for kitbashing/modeling. I've simply lacked the time and intestinal fortitude to try it - well done, and thanks for the photos. I'll look forward to following it's progress. Best Regards,
Great guess on the steps, looks good. That thing is a real different car. Can't help wonder, how it ended up in duel service. The bridge foreman must have been a little on the creative side.
Here are a few more progress photos for this project, now to let it dry for a while then weather outfit it and try to get it a little closer to being finished. Need to fix the handrails too.
Thanks Guys for the kind words. Here are the last few pictures on this little project. Made the hand pump with a shovel handle and wheeel slip recorder and the insulation from a burnt out light bulb for the hose. Various barrels and cans were used as well. Thanks for looking.
Tom, That’s a very nice job of a very unusual car. A car matching the description of the water car does not match the car in the roster, although the Pullman, which is depicted in Mike’s photograph, was assigned to the Central Division District Gang. Perhaps that’s where the water car was assigned. As I looked through this thread, I didn’t see any other reference material, and I wonder if you used other sources to build your car and if you discovered why the car was configured in this manner? Lacking any further information, I wonder if the car wasn’t a “poor man’s” Vanderbilt tender. The opened area could have served as a coal bunker, thus making the car into a tender for use with a steam pile driver, steam Brownhoist, or steam wrecker; it’s just a wild guess. -keb-
That is interesting Karl, hadn't thought of the poor mans tender. I had wondered if it were a damaged car, that had been cut up. Seems like a lot off effort, for not all that much water. Was it potable water I wonder, I bet not, don't think I would be drinking any water out of it.
Nice, thought Karl. Tom, the water cars, was used for the showers, some of the guys used it to wash dishes maybe some cooking that boiled. It was not used in the work drinking coolers or drinking in the camp. Other beverages, was drank in the camp cars. All of the back tracks (that camp cars was placed) had a place to hook up to city water.
Mystery solved! Seriously, that is a very unique car and you obviously had fun building it. Another successful project. What's next?
Bill, Reminds me of my "salad days" when I did some well-site geology work. On the drill pad, the drill crew usually had a couple of bunk trailers, the company man had a trailer for an office and for sleeping, and the was another one for the well-site geologist. The water supplied to the trailers which we used only for showering and for the toilets was "rig water". It was turbid, brown-looking stuff, but it sufficed for a hot shower after a long day in the oil patch
