C&Sn3 Kitbash of the UP built 27 foot boxcar + Outfit Car Info
Posted by Jim Courtney on
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/C-Sn3-Kitbash-of-the-UP-built-27-foot-boxcar-Outfit-Car-Info-tp8100.html
http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/38704/rec/367
One of my favorite classes of early C&S freight cars are the inherited 27 foot boxcars. In 1882-1883 the UP's Omaha shops built several batches of near identical cars for the DSP&P and over 100 for the narrow gauge Kansas Central in 1883. The Kansas Central cars migrated to Colorado in the early 1890s, some assigned UPD&G numbers, some DL&G numbers. Eventually the cars were all inherited by the new C&S. The cars built for the South Park seem to have be renumbered to the 74xx series, while the cars built for the KC ended up in the 75xx series.
About 10 years ago I acquired several cast resin kits as one of the Cimarron Works first Sn3 kit offerings. I had in mind modifying them into MOW bunk cars, as my C&S interest then was the mid-1920s. As my interest shifted to the first decade of the C&S, I thought I might build them as they appeared in revenue service, c1909. I occasionally piddled with the kits, cleaning up flash, filling casting imperfections with putty, experimenting with different truck and coupler mountings.
I rationalized this decade of dawdling by telling myself that I didn't yet have enough solid information to complete an accurate model of that era. And when I acquired a couple of Leadville Shops 27 foot Tiffany reefer kits about a year ago, I almost abandoned the project altogether. The beautiful laser cut sides and roof of the Tiffany, made the cast resin boxcar body look crude.
Anyways, information on this forum and excellent photos of the boxcars have been posted:
Doug Heitkamp posted a photo of boxcars in Idaho Springs with a good end view of the 27 foot car:http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Case-of-the-Missing-Truss-Rods-Revisited-td6387.html
Todd Hacket posted amazing hi-res photos of a 27 foot Tiffany at the Washington Spur wreck, which made the under frame details less mysterious:http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Caboose-numbers-quickly-diverged-to-Tiffany-Reefers-td6376.html
Chris Walker posted a great DPL photo of one of the KC cars that was re-assigned to the UPD&G, providing a lot of car body detail: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Freight-Car-Chalk-Markings-td928.html
And a thread that I started, and the helpful comments of others here, helped me imagine how to model the backwards brake arrangement (cylinder relative to brake staff): http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Brake-staff-cylinder-confusion-and-mismatched-trucks-td3464i20.html#a7738
So, about a month ago, I decided to see if I could upgrade one of the CW cast resin bodies into a model that would compare reasonably well with the TLS laser cut Tiffanys, now under construction. This is what I came up with (pardon the depth of field problems with my iphone camera):
I began by scraping off all the cast resin details for the corner irons and and lower door guides. To better represent the 5 1/2" milled sheathing with center groove, I used a scribing tool to deepen every-other groove on the cast resin body.
I opened up an end door on the "A" end of the car and constructed a new end door from Evergreen styrene, including the little awning found on the ex-KC cars.
The cast side doors were beautifully rendered, but seemed too thick, so I replaced them with new V-groove Evergreen siding doors.
This if the first resin kit I've built, the material hard for me to square, thin and fit. I had trouble with the roof casting, so I figured this particular car had been shopped about 1904 and the original double board roof replaced with a simple single board roof, as on some bunk cars from this car series. The new roof was again formed from Evergreen V-groove siding, with Simpson roof walk supports and 1x12 scale roof walk boards. The cut out by the brake staff shows up in a number of photos.
The hardware applied to the car are TLS brass etchings. Doug Junda sold me a number of extra frets:
There was a learning curve to consistently bend the etchings at a true, square 90 degree corner. I found that Tamaya makes bending pliers, with long flat jaws that close flat along the entire distance of the jaw, which made this easier.
I now agree with Doug that the 27 foot boxcars and reefers had needle beams but not truss rods. I simmulated the long tension rods that ran nestled up against the center sills with 0.020" Plastistruct rod. Can you even see them?:
I chose to fabricate my own brake gear rather than use the etched brass levers. I used HO 1x4 styrene for the levers, PBL clevises and the Grandt NY brake cylinder, with a lot of Tichey rivets:
It took three tries to get the branch air line correct. I found the various photos confusing, until I realized that the 26 foot Litchfield cars, the 27 foot UP cars and the 30 foot Peninsular cars all had different arrangements. Todd's Tiffany photos were a great help here.
I made a drilling jig for the end grab irons that are on an angle, from Bob Stears plans for the 26 foot Tiffany car. The odd brake staff on the "A" end of the cars, retainer line placement and coupler lift bars was modeled from Doug's Idaho Springs boxcar photo.
The car body itself is complete, ready for the paint shop. It will be numbered 7566, as in the photo at the top of the post. I'll post more photos after painting and lettering.
The current trucks are place holders. The 14 ton type "C" trucks are not available in S (or any) scale. I took Ron Rudnick's On3 advice and acquired some Rio Grande Models S scale 4-foot wheel base Carter Brother's side frames and bolsters. They are no longer available on the firm's website, but an e-mail to Eric yielded 10 pair of side frames and bolsters at a very reasonable price. The wheel sets are PBL's code 88 wheel sets. The trucks aren't quite right: the transoms a bit too tall, too thin and too close together. I am experimenting with the side frames. I'll try to drill out the axle holes and add Tichey nylon bushings to improve rolling qualities and fabricate new center plates with the circular cut-out. Eventually, TLS brass outside brake beams/shoes will be installed.
Is the near finished model completely accurate? Gosh no. The resin body represents the cars as originally built for the DSP&P, with the upper side door runners notched into the fascia. Later photos from the 1890s and 1900s show the door runners lowered below the fascia. Still I think it is a reasonable facsimile there-of, and hopefully it won't look too shabby next to the laser cut models.
Will I kit bash another? Don't know . . . if Bob Stears and Bill Meredith can provide laser cut basic bodies for the 27 foot boxcars, I'll probably go that route.
The June, 1909 C&S equipment inventory indicates that only 13 of the 27 foot boxcars remained in revenue service, so I probably won't need but one. I might modify a couple of the remaining kits to bunk cars, as I originally intended:
http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/78391/rec/787
Thanks to all who contribute here, I couldn't have gotten this far with this project without you're photos and thoughts. As Jeff once pointed out, your contributions and comments never disappear into a black hole!
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/C-Sn3-Kitbash-of-the-UP-built-27-foot-boxcar-Outfit-Car-Info-tp8100.html
http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/38704/rec/367
One of my favorite classes of early C&S freight cars are the inherited 27 foot boxcars. In 1882-1883 the UP's Omaha shops built several batches of near identical cars for the DSP&P and over 100 for the narrow gauge Kansas Central in 1883. The Kansas Central cars migrated to Colorado in the early 1890s, some assigned UPD&G numbers, some DL&G numbers. Eventually the cars were all inherited by the new C&S. The cars built for the South Park seem to have be renumbered to the 74xx series, while the cars built for the KC ended up in the 75xx series.
About 10 years ago I acquired several cast resin kits as one of the Cimarron Works first Sn3 kit offerings. I had in mind modifying them into MOW bunk cars, as my C&S interest then was the mid-1920s. As my interest shifted to the first decade of the C&S, I thought I might build them as they appeared in revenue service, c1909. I occasionally piddled with the kits, cleaning up flash, filling casting imperfections with putty, experimenting with different truck and coupler mountings.
I rationalized this decade of dawdling by telling myself that I didn't yet have enough solid information to complete an accurate model of that era. And when I acquired a couple of Leadville Shops 27 foot Tiffany reefer kits about a year ago, I almost abandoned the project altogether. The beautiful laser cut sides and roof of the Tiffany, made the cast resin boxcar body look crude.
Anyways, information on this forum and excellent photos of the boxcars have been posted:
Doug Heitkamp posted a photo of boxcars in Idaho Springs with a good end view of the 27 foot car:http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Case-of-the-Missing-Truss-Rods-Revisited-td6387.html
Todd Hacket posted amazing hi-res photos of a 27 foot Tiffany at the Washington Spur wreck, which made the under frame details less mysterious:http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Caboose-numbers-quickly-diverged-to-Tiffany-Reefers-td6376.html
Chris Walker posted a great DPL photo of one of the KC cars that was re-assigned to the UPD&G, providing a lot of car body detail: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Freight-Car-Chalk-Markings-td928.html
And a thread that I started, and the helpful comments of others here, helped me imagine how to model the backwards brake arrangement (cylinder relative to brake staff): http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Brake-staff-cylinder-confusion-and-mismatched-trucks-td3464i20.html#a7738
So, about a month ago, I decided to see if I could upgrade one of the CW cast resin bodies into a model that would compare reasonably well with the TLS laser cut Tiffanys, now under construction. This is what I came up with (pardon the depth of field problems with my iphone camera):
I began by scraping off all the cast resin details for the corner irons and and lower door guides. To better represent the 5 1/2" milled sheathing with center groove, I used a scribing tool to deepen every-other groove on the cast resin body.
I opened up an end door on the "A" end of the car and constructed a new end door from Evergreen styrene, including the little awning found on the ex-KC cars.
The cast side doors were beautifully rendered, but seemed too thick, so I replaced them with new V-groove Evergreen siding doors.
This if the first resin kit I've built, the material hard for me to square, thin and fit. I had trouble with the roof casting, so I figured this particular car had been shopped about 1904 and the original double board roof replaced with a simple single board roof, as on some bunk cars from this car series. The new roof was again formed from Evergreen V-groove siding, with Simpson roof walk supports and 1x12 scale roof walk boards. The cut out by the brake staff shows up in a number of photos.
The hardware applied to the car are TLS brass etchings. Doug Junda sold me a number of extra frets:
There was a learning curve to consistently bend the etchings at a true, square 90 degree corner. I found that Tamaya makes bending pliers, with long flat jaws that close flat along the entire distance of the jaw, which made this easier.
I now agree with Doug that the 27 foot boxcars and reefers had needle beams but not truss rods. I simmulated the long tension rods that ran nestled up against the center sills with 0.020" Plastistruct rod. Can you even see them?:
I chose to fabricate my own brake gear rather than use the etched brass levers. I used HO 1x4 styrene for the levers, PBL clevises and the Grandt NY brake cylinder, with a lot of Tichey rivets:
It took three tries to get the branch air line correct. I found the various photos confusing, until I realized that the 26 foot Litchfield cars, the 27 foot UP cars and the 30 foot Peninsular cars all had different arrangements. Todd's Tiffany photos were a great help here.
I made a drilling jig for the end grab irons that are on an angle, from Bob Stears plans for the 26 foot Tiffany car. The odd brake staff on the "A" end of the cars, retainer line placement and coupler lift bars was modeled from Doug's Idaho Springs boxcar photo.
The car body itself is complete, ready for the paint shop. It will be numbered 7566, as in the photo at the top of the post. I'll post more photos after painting and lettering.
The current trucks are place holders. The 14 ton type "C" trucks are not available in S (or any) scale. I took Ron Rudnick's On3 advice and acquired some Rio Grande Models S scale 4-foot wheel base Carter Brother's side frames and bolsters. They are no longer available on the firm's website, but an e-mail to Eric yielded 10 pair of side frames and bolsters at a very reasonable price. The wheel sets are PBL's code 88 wheel sets. The trucks aren't quite right: the transoms a bit too tall, too thin and too close together. I am experimenting with the side frames. I'll try to drill out the axle holes and add Tichey nylon bushings to improve rolling qualities and fabricate new center plates with the circular cut-out. Eventually, TLS brass outside brake beams/shoes will be installed.
Is the near finished model completely accurate? Gosh no. The resin body represents the cars as originally built for the DSP&P, with the upper side door runners notched into the fascia. Later photos from the 1890s and 1900s show the door runners lowered below the fascia. Still I think it is a reasonable facsimile there-of, and hopefully it won't look too shabby next to the laser cut models.
Will I kit bash another? Don't know . . . if Bob Stears and Bill Meredith can provide laser cut basic bodies for the 27 foot boxcars, I'll probably go that route.
The June, 1909 C&S equipment inventory indicates that only 13 of the 27 foot boxcars remained in revenue service, so I probably won't need but one. I might modify a couple of the remaining kits to bunk cars, as I originally intended:
http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/78391/rec/787
Thanks to all who contribute here, I couldn't have gotten this far with this project without you're photos and thoughts. As Jeff once pointed out, your contributions and comments never disappear into a black hole!
Jim Courtney
Poulsbo, WA
Poulsbo, WA
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