S.A. & A.P. 30' Flat Cars

Order directly from Tichy. They are having a sale right now. $25.00 free shipping. $50.00 and get free shipping w/25% off. Get yourself several of the brake wheel sets, and some Phosphor Bronze wire. You'll get to $25.00 and have a good stock of supply. Better than Walthers! I order direct from Don all the time. Good service. Fast service.

Manny

 

All the brake rigging is complete. On to truss rods and then stake pockets.

 

Truss rods are so fun to do. Two down, one, half done, and another to go. Phew....

 

The underframe is all done. K Brake hardware is done by Tichy. So are the turnbuckles on the truss rods. The truss rods are the most tedious of jobs on this flat car. Each rod must be custom bent. I am thinking of having a custom design CRC'd into a piece of aluminum to make this easier.

Here are picks of the finished underframe. All I need to add at this point are the stirrups, stake pockets, NBW's, and let everything settle down that I may paint in the morning. I can probably paint the decking tonight, which is Polly S DRG&W Depot Buff.

I have the Kadee 148 couplers, but I need to get another set of 501 Arch Bar trucks.

More updates coming!

Manny

 

Truss rods look great. I looked at the Plano link, those are real nice. I have not found Tichy's site. I am going to take your advice and order direct. Does someone have a link for Tishy? I found one, but it did not work.
Bill Jackson

 

Thank you Bill. Here is the link for Tichy: Tichy Train Group

 

Manny, that link worked, it appears similar to the one I found. Mine didn't work. The photo's are really good. Jim's right MR is the place for it. I've seen not even as close, articles in MR. This is really good value to me.
Bill Jackson

 

Hey Bill,

No problem. I appreciate the compliments. I don't know everything, but if you have any questions, I am always available. I'm square up. If I know, I'll say. If I don't, I say I don't, and I'll try to find out. I'll never tell you how to do something. I just explain how I did it. How I learned, answer questions, and give you enough information for you to make an educated decision as to what is best for you!

I'm humbled that you and Jim think this is MR material. Thank you for those accolades.

I finished all the construction work on the model. The NBW's are on, stake pockets, and the foot stirrups are all installed. I'll let all the glue and stuff dry overnight and paint in the morning. I have to go to Hobbytown USA and get some Kadee 501 Arch Bars. $7.45, I know, but I need them!

Here are the last of the construction pics. Once the model is painted, I can add the brake wheel assembly, trucks, and couplers.

Thanks for looking y'all.

Manny

 

I'm thinking this one will have stakes....Medium Rare, lightly seasoned, A1 Steak Sauce....Er, uh, oh, I got carried away. No, the stake that hold the load on the car. Dang it, now I'm hungry.

 

Here I sit broken hearted and hungry and am 10,000 miles from Texas and you talk about steak sauce? I want to grab the next big bird to D/FW and tie on to a giant steak at the Ft. Worth stockyards! Right now though the trip would partly bomb since I can't visit the two Frisco steam locomotives at the Age of Rust (Museum of the American Railroad just don't sound right to me) since they are preparing to make the move from Fair Park out to Frisco. Item: Some dirty low life degenerate son of a buck at Fair Park had Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 #638 scrapped in the mid-50s because it had had some vandalized treatment performed on it. I got to climb on her when my grandfather took me to see her shortly after she had been donated to them by the T&P). Don't misunderstand me, I was raised on the Frisco but all Dallas area railroads hold a dear place in my heart.

Sorry Manny. that same spring when my "Papa" let me climb on the 638 I also got to see the T&NO Sunbeam run behind streamlined 4-6-2s that had been all dolled up in their Houston shops. T&NO in those days, despite your dislike for SP, was a Texas "Down Home" railroad and a long long, long long, ways from San Francisco Espee HQs.

If I had been born with your skills and not Ten Thumbs I would consider doing an artical for Railroad Model Craftsman instead of MR. I find that MR has become too "White Collar" and pushes way too much imported Ready-to-Run equipment. RMC still maintains that "Old School" way of thinking in regards to scratch building. Better yet, the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette perhaps? Outside of Frisco territory I maintain an interest in the Yosemite Valley. Jack Burgess has constructed a beautiful HO layout that he models in the mid-1930s and has been featured in RMC quite often in recent years.

Think you might consider a bullet nose McKeen car for your people mover? 152 were constructed between 1905 and 1917. OK, OK, I admit, I am a Stinker and like some non-steam too!

Joe Toth

 

The SAP actually had a motor car that ran passenger service to Kerrville. I'd like to model it just for giggles because it is unlike any other motor car that any other railroad had. I'll see if I can find some pics of it to post.

 

Manny,

Did the railcar operate before 1917? Sometimes you to have to stretch the calendar to include a model that you just gotta have on the layout! Will you have a commerical model to start with or will it be scratch built with a Swiss Army knife and a Q-Tip?

Joe Toth

 

I have to check with the SAP registry, but I do believe it was running still through 1917. Not a Swiss Army Knife and a Q-tip. Paperclip, rubber band, and duct tape, like McGyver.

 

Athearn's Rubber Band drives were cool! They couldn't run at a prototypical speed but they sure delivered the time freights ahead of time! I don't guess your motorcar will contain one of these old drives? You would sure have a bunch of dizzy passengers.

Joe Toth

 

Here is Flat 522 all painted, couplers and trucks installed. She'll get decals a little later today. I will then do the decking and make a video of how I weather them so you can see how I do it. The weather decking will probably be tomorrow, since I let the decals dry overnight after several coats of Solvaset.

Manny

 

Neat flat!

I checked the SAP book and there are two pix of the railcar that you may be talking about. Page 45 is shown on a girder bridge and Page 83 at a station and that looks just like you at the rear of the car all decked out in your uniform! The car was built by the Four Wheel Drive Company and was in service beginning in 1923. This is the info in the book unless I read it wrong?

You ever think about modeling up to mabie 1929 just before the great crash?

I Googled in Four Wheel Car Company but didn't find anything on their railcars in the US. I have just started to do this research so mabie you can help when time permits? Neat little car that the late Bobbye Hall who ran Hall's Hobby House in Dallas would call "Cute!" It could probably pull your flatcar loaded with baggage...in fair weather of course!

Joe Toth

 

Car looks great, the weathering the deck is just in time. I just got a couple of the SLSF flats from the Texas what ever the name. I need to do the decks. There very nice models.
Bill Jackson

 

S.A. & A.P. 552 is alive. Tomorrow I will weather the decking and the car.