Taking a break from structures to do up another critter. The parts. Cab from a Wiking Mercedes truck. Has that old time look, a 34 ft Overton plus some styrene, Kato power chassis, and its chopping time. Floor chopped out of Overton. Note I left a bit at the B end. Cab has added styrene to build up and out some. Rear of cab notched to fit over Kato chassis motor cover. Big block of styrene under hood is for coupler mounting later. I sectioned the parts of the sides removed to end up with two narrow pieces for the car body 45 degree angles behind the cab.
The styrene under the cab gets trimmed back to the sides to fit over motor hood on Kato chassis, which was trimmed some to allow a closer fit back on the chassis. Before and after cutting pieces. The white on the roof section is what was cut out just set on an uncut roof to show how much was cut. Man is this critter ugly. The Waddling Moose's ugly step sister. Maybe the pilot will help. And the side shot. Still ugly.
That might be pretty ugly, John, but it's pretty simple too. Looks like there's room for a decoder too.
Actually enough room for a decoder, mini speaker, and whatever else can be crammed in there. The 34 ft Overton bodies will pretty much fit on the Kato chassis with minimal trimming of the plastic of the chassis. And if you want to use the steps and rails portion of the underframe of the Overton maybe just a bit more trimming. This car could be done with just adding a suitable truck hood to the body and reworking the end into a cab area with suitable front windows. Next set of photos I'll try to remember to include a shot of just an Overton body with an unaltered chassis.
John, if you want to feel in better company, check this out: http://www.aemrrc.org/unusualrailtopics.main.html About the only thing I see is I wonder about the roof. Clerestory roofs were pretty uncommon on railbusses or motorcars. The rest of it isn't any uglier than most were! This is a Sykes and is really pretty close to what you are doing: http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00013747
Added a pilot to the ugly beast and may have improved it's looks some. Next comes getting a coupler on that Detail Associates steam pilot and a then a bell on the front pilot and a big old headlight up over the cab. And as promised a couple of shots showing how close the Overton body is to fitting the Kato chassis, using a stock chassis and a stock Overton body. And the photo of that Sykes unit is close to what the Moose was modeled off of. They had a larger version with a baggage section and a trailer car.
Well with the infernal combustion or diseasels counted about five now. Adding the steam power ones to the total about ten in all when I count in the small logging tank locos and the two geared locos.
Added headlights front and rear and fitted a dummy coupler to the front pilot. Had problems with adding a coupler to rear due to being too low so I raised the body heigth a tad and went with what I believe was a 2004 MT since the coupler box was a lower profile than the usual 1015 I use. Couplers on this are all body mount necessitated by the type of construction. Primed everything which also serves to bring out any little iregularities where I have a splice joint and which need a touch-up. Front light is Detail Associates tender light and the rear is from a batch I made from styrene rod and tube back when I was building my own tenders. Firemans side has one window short at the rear leaving a blank space where the restroom facilities would be and I blanked out the opposite rear side window on the engineers side where the woodstove will be and the roof is already drilled for a Kato caboose smokejack in that area. Front pilot beam area is predrilled to accept a Detail Associates steam bell and I may apply a single chime airhorn to the cab roof adjacent to the headlight. I'm also toying with adding a single 34 foot boxcar as a trailer car.
Another way to look for unwanted things: Photograph it In a graphics program make a negative of it. The issues will stand out.
Added the airhorn and paint. Signal Yellow and MEC Pine Green. Roof is SP Dark Lark Gray. Added stainless steel stirrup steps to front, and decided on a Bmann Old Time trussrod 34 foot box as a trailer. Added a bell to front pilot and the angle to the front cab area starts to show some in this shot.
Smokejack added and the brackets for the rear light platform show better here. Here with it's trailer. Still have to added glazing, already to go from the original Overton glazing now cut down to fit, touch up some paint areas, and decide on lettering scheme. Glazing will not be applied until after lettered and dull coated. Critter shot. Posed here with it's big brother the Moose which has two spliced Kato chassis and twin motors, and a boxcab built on a SW-9 chassis. The boxcab is the most powerful and has a full train of 6 cars consisting of express cars, coaches, and lounge/obs. The boxcab body is also RPO express. The Moose can handle five cars comfortably on over 2 % grades as can the boxcab. I'm gambling that the newest of the bunch can at least handle the trailer, after I added additional weight to it and put it on the test track. This is pretty much a wrap on this project except for the finishing touches. Total number of days from start to finish, eight. Actual hours about ten. Time it ran around in my head probably about three months. I'm toying with a possible three trucker but pretty much have convinced myself to wait for Concors Goose. If this unit can't handle the trailer on my brutal test track grades then a small railtruck for express and LCL is in the works next. That little Kato two axle chassis keeps calling me from the parts bin and a show up in Gaithersburg, MD next Nov 5th may yield some more building fodder in the way of vehicles.
Final photos. Well the ugly duckling now has a lens in front and rear headlights, glazing, decals, and a coat of dullcoat. Went on my brutal test track today. That track incorporates the tightest possible switches, change of elevation through the switches, and a capability to stand the track up all the way to verticle if I get ghoulish enough. Wife asked me what I was doing when I set it up. I said testing my newest creation and if it can't handle the grade with it's trailer car then its the trashbin for it. She said no you don't I think its cute. It failed on the 4% grade. It failed on the 2% grade. It failed again on 1%. It handled them all without the trailer. So I sez to meself more weight is needed and applied same using thin lead sheet. I can almost make the 2% with the trailer car. Hmm. Wheel hop and jumping off tracks. Aha! Back it up the grade. Worked like a champ. Okay reverse the mechanism so that the geared truck with traction tire is now in rear. Add a little more weight. 8% with trailer and a deep moment of Zen Satori is experienced. I have another logging critter. Water level grade is able to handle four cars in tow. Happiness. 2% and I can handle up to two cars. One the Bmann 34 footer and one MT 50 footer. This is destined for the 2% grades above Lyle ferrying loggers and supplies into the woods. And another group shot with some of the other critters not shown in the previous group posted earlier in this thread. Aveling Porter Steam Rail Tractor with cars, 2-6-2 tank loco, and the rare 4-2-0, and of course the Ugly Duckling. Additional locos in the logging roster are 2 Class A Climax, 2 two truck Shays, one 2-8-2T, a 2-6-2 woodburner, a centercab diesel, two 4-6-0s, a 4-4-0, and a 2-6-6-0 articulated logger plus the units shown in this thread.
