BN Woodchip Local

Having fun with making new cars and beating them up. I finaly have enough for a short train, so here's BN GP39E #2756 pulling a Woodchip local. MRL Gunderson Shallow Rib 35049 in tow:


Behind MRL 35049 is the old GN 174345 Gunderson Deep Rib.


Behind the old GN 174345 is BN 587003 Gunderson Shallow Rib hopper.


In back of BN 587003 is ex NP 582650, a Thrall Deep Rib woodchip hopper from 1968.

 

Behind the old NP 582650 is the old GN 174382 Gunderson Deep Rib car.


In back of GN 174382 is the old NP 582682 Gunderson Deep Rib hopper.


And pulling up the rear is an old Western Pacific 5110 Maxon built shallow rib hopper.


-Robert

 

Wow! Wow! Wow! The only commercial off the shelf item in that scene is the GP35 mech, and the MT trucks and couplers, right? All else is laser, baby!!! Wow!

 

Yes, all laser cut goodies except trucks, couplers, and the GP35 mech. Also custom etched brakewheels by Tim Beuhring.

The MRL and BN cars are made of plywood, and all the others are laser etched sign plastic. It was fun making this train, but took me all of my Christmas vacation to do. I will make more cars to make it a longer train, but at least I have something kind of unique until Joe and Loren get their woodchip cars done.

 

Robert, I love unit trains. Good job on the woodchip cars. The weathering really makes them look like they are earning their keep.

 

Didn't MILW have some deep-rib cars?
Did any make it into BNSF paint?
What about a BN/NP patch job?
Fantastic work!

 

Maybe a dark wash over the load, and call it a bark load.... :lightbulb:

 

Yeah, I did not know what would work well for loads. First I cut some packing foam to size with the laser. I cut 30 pieces, and when it was at about 27 pieces cut I looked into the laser, all was good.

The phone rang, and when I came back to the laser 30 seconds later, all the pieces were gone. I though I knew what had happened, was when the last piece was cut, nothing held the sheet together, and they all got sucked up the exhaust.

So I take the pipe off and look down with a flashlight, but all was clear? So I take the next section apart and it's clear. I disassemble 35 feet of pipe and cannot find the foam loads I cut, so I scratch my head and go check around the backyard, but all I noticed was a funky stink! I take a ladder out then look over the neighbors fence thinking they blew out the exhaust, (660CFM in 4" pipe!) out and over the fence? I can't find them anywhere?

Well I lifted the vector cutting grid and there was big wet drips of goo all over, and I had to do a complete system scrub to clean the mess out. Must have had a flash fire while I was on the phone! 660 CFM downdraft, and aluminum exhaust pipe did it's job real quick, and I did not even notice. Must have been an awesome black smoke puff in my back yard! Darn telemarketers!

So I decided to go to scissors for the next loads I cut, and I dipped them in white glue/water, then in yellow ground foam, and let dry.
The color was kind of dark and funky because of the gray foam, so I spray painted them flat white, and dipped again in yellow foam for the color they are now.