S.A.& A.P. Maintenance of Way builds

[SAFN SAAP]

Hey Y'all,

Next project coming up is S.A. & A.P. MOW Pile Driver No. 1. This will be a combination of LaBelle and Rio Grande Western parts. I have gotten the RGW Pile Driver, which is very similar to the S.A. & A.P.'s. I'll putting it on the base of a LaBelle flat car.

Project will start in a few weeks as I gather more parts, and complete the S.A. & A.P. 550 for the hoist.

Stay tuned.

Manny

[Joseph Toth]

OK, I can take a hint. I promise to stay on track with all my comments from now on. I don't want to get in the way of a wild pile drivin' man! Might make a neat railroad song too...

Can't wait to see it abuildin!

Joe Toth

[SAFN SAAP]

Great news. I have secured an eleven (11) car MOW train consisting of a bunk, commissary, dispensary, engineering, latrine, recreation, supply, foreman, equipment, kitchen, and mess cars. More details to come! Can you say circa 1900 work train? Oh yeah, Baby!

[Ozarktraveler]

:-) I find myself getting my fix vicariously through the modeling activities of you and Jim James.

[Joseph Toth]

Are the MOW cars commercial or scratchbuilt? I assume the railroads operating before WWI used older equipment that had been pulled out of interchange service. Wonder if any Civil War vets made it into the beginning of the 20th century in MOW service?

Joe Toth

[SAFN SAAP]

These MOW cars are not commercial. I'm in the process of making up the artwork for the decals to be made for the S.A. & A.P. I will also be doing a wrecker. I have some pics of S.A. & A.P. MOW Equipment. I'll post them in a few.

[SAFN SAAP]

Here are pics of the upcoming cars that I will have for the MOW train...

[murphy millican]

Sweet! Too bad MOW stuff don't look that good nowdays. Union Pacific has had their mechinized monsters parked about a mile from my house on some unused industrial tracks. If the MOW train looked like this I wouldn't be disapointed see the line closed while they went to work.

[Jim James]

I really enjoy seeing the seldom modeled stuff. Obscure equipment from the early era especially. We're lucky to have a modeler like this on our forum. Keep up a head of steam, Manny!

[SAFN SAAP]

Jim,

Thank you for the high regard. Same to you Ozark and all. I enjoy sharing. These cars should be arriving mid-August. It gives me enough time to do decals and get the necessary detail parts for them. Since the train will be in the moving state, they will be closed up. I wish I had a section of track that I could set them up in an operating position. That would work great for detailing. Hmmm, gives me an idea! But I'll hold it for later.

Manny

[Jim James]

Diorama! Get busy!

[SAFN SAAP]

Diorama!

Mmmmmmmm.....could be, rabbit!

[Joseph Toth]

Who built these beauties? Another example of professional scratchbuilding! I thought this kind of work was becoming a lost art. Truly a trip down Memory Lane and the Model Railroader "Dollar Car" projects of the 50s.

Will the latrine car have a roof vent? I guess I will get stuck with the clean out job? Does "The Comp'ny" furnish rubber boots?

Joe Toth

[SAFN SAAP]

These cars are all laser cut.

I am already amassing a list of required vents, stacks, car-side tools, lanterns, etc., for these cars. Not only will the Car have venting on the roof, but I will either have "crap" doors for manual removal of, well, you know; or I will have 6" or 8" pipes out from under the car for drainage. I want to try and determine what would be proper for the times. I have a feeling it will be what is behind Door #1, or should I say, Door #2.

[SAFN SAAP]

The pile driver kit is scheduled to arrive today. Yeah! Just in case no one has ever seen one of these before, here is a short video of the world's first tossed fruit salad maker!

Tossed Salad Maker. Really cool!

[klrwhizkid]

Reminds me more of Sledge-O-Matic.

[SAFN SAAP]

The kit arrived today. Very interesting and neat to say the least. The kit allows you to be in the trailing position or in use. Since this is a HOn3 kit, I have to convert it to HO. Not difficult to do, just time consuming. Good thing is that the flat car the rig sits on is a 30' car. Now to just compare it to the S.A. & A.P.'s PD and off I go. Progress will start tomorrow.

[SAFN SAAP]

Reminds me more of Sledge-O-Matic.

Yeah, but isn't it the neatest thing you've ever seen? OB was built in 1891. She's 121 years old, and doesn't look a day over 20. Totally awesome.

[SAFN SAAP]

Construction of S.A. & A.P. Driver 01 has begun...

[SAFN SAAP]

It's the era of "Wooden Trains and Iron Men!"

S.A. & A.P. Pile Driver 01 is now under way. Late last night and a little this morning, I've been working on the flat car that serves as the chassis for the pile driver.

The Rio Grande Models creates the pile driver in its rebuilt state when steel was able to be made to create its chassis. The S.A. & A.P. was not as thrifty when it came to its equipment. The big hooks were made from wrecked cabooses, as were the pile drivers from flat cars. These flat cars were reinforced with steel plates, which I will be modeling.

The decking on the flat car is unique in that it has an eight (8) foot wide steel plate. This steel plate secures the rotation ring of the pile driver, allowing it to swing outwards and service at almost 165*, side to side.

At this stage, I have made the flat car, added the bolsters, needle-beams with queen-posts, buffer blocks, and the decking with the steel plate. I will now turn my attention to the underside and do the brake rigging. The rotation ring is simply loose in place. I still have to cut the steel tension rods out of Phosphor Bronze wire and install them into the ring.

The wood decking will get cleats to help reinforce the framing. The steel plate will have NBW's. Since PD01 is a specific service car, her decking will be weathered but won't be as beat up as a general revenue car.

So far, everything is going well. I hope to finish up the flat car by the end of Monday/Tuesday. The real challenge will be in making the drivers top sub-frame and assembly.

More to come...

Manny

[SAFN SAAP]

S.A. & A.P. PD01 is coming along very nicely. The flat car is pretty much finished. I need to get some grab irons for the ends of the car. The decking is almost complete. You can see the cleats cut from 1x4 styrene. Of course, NBW's will be added after painting.

The car varies a little from standard flat cars as it has only one set of stake pockets up front. These are centering stakes that keep the boom centered on the car in transit.

The underside is standard in compliance of the era the car was made. Four queen-posts on two needle-beams, four truss rods. There will be some steel reinforcements added to the sides.

The rollers are not yet added to the decking. They will be added once the painting and weathering is completed. Same with the handbrake wheel assembly.

Markings are very limited and unique. I will be using Clover House Dry Transfers onto decal paper, then applied like standard decals.

Once I get this finished, I will move onto the sub-frame for the hoist rigging. This is a lot of cutting and bracing. I have the winch kit to go along with this so construction on that will begin shortly also.

Here are some updated pictures...

[SAFN SAAP]

Starting work on the operator's deck. Lots of precise cutting, individual boards, angles and details. I don't know how far I'll get tonight, but I will certainly post up some pics. Stay tuned.

[Jim James]

Lookin good so far. Do you ever use a magnifier for small work. I don't but I'm thinking about it.

[SAFN SAAP]

Lookin good so far. Do you ever use a magnifier for small work. I don't but I'm thinking about it.

Thanks Jim. Everything is done by my own eyes. I don't own an Optivisor yet, but I'm going to get one because my eyes are starting to feel the strain to see the lines, little bits, etc. I'm not going to continue to strain my eyes. This operators' deck is working my eye's overtime. Measurements, keeping everything square; ugh! It drives my eyes' batty.

[SAFN SAAP]

Here is the operator's deck with the underside framing completed. Everything came out in scale, to the dimension and fits beautifully on the flat car. It was a job to keep this square. I think my eyes are playing tricks on me because it looks a little off, but not by much. Everything measures out and it matches the HO Scale template used to position everything.

Now I have to add the decking on the top. Once that is done, it is painting time. This is such a fun kit. Kudos to Rio Grande Western HO Scale products. This is a blast to build.

Here are the pics...