Is there or has there ever been a Laser Cut Wood Deck for MTL 60ft Flat Car? Anyone up to the challenge? I'm specifically wanting to ultimately end up with a "farm implement" arrangement whereby there are three strips of wood separated by two (simulated) metal tracks. The orientation of the center strip is perpendicular to the cross-car arrangement on the sides. I'll try to post a photo shortly to explain that. But I'd be happy with simply a cross car arrangement. I can fudge the rest of it. Thanks for any input on existing or potential products you might know about.
Here are some examples of the farm implement arrangement I'm talking about... OTTX 90976: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=763077 OTTX 91001: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1337944
Also, it occurred to me that maybe I"m asking the wrong question, as laser cut wood may not be the answer at all. One thought I had was using a decal of the planks and woodgrain. I would cut the channels into the deck and then paint/primer and apply the decals. Other thoughts?
Send me a scan of the car deck and I can make them already have them for the 50 foot 4500 series MT flat cars. And a few for the Wheels of time cars rich www.rslaserkits.com
1:220" Scale 60' Flats OTTX/HTTX 60' Flat in the back ground TTHX 60' HD Flat in front Cast in white metal with laser wood decks w/hand brakes custom paint and decals DOB:2009 Use: OTTX-Farm Equipment HTTX-Construction/General Equipment TTHX-Heavy Equipment Questions?
OTTX (Or could be a HTTX) with 3 John Deere's (Cast Resin) TTHX with 1 Caterpillar D11R w/Blade (Cast Resin)
Whoa is right! Those flats look great. I have the QTTX flat and it is a neat car and nicely done. Here is what I'm trying to model: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.623690561360958&type=1&l=b5d819dbaa So those OTTX flats are a step in the right direction from the MTL flats I'd think. I do have the M2A2 loads already, made by Z-Panzer. Here is a mockup of them with the MTL cars.
I have, I mean I had one of the MTL 60' flat cars long, long time ago, but..... It didn't fit my era, too old. and Had a brake wheel. The deck was like, seriously? So much room for improvement! In 2005 a person proposed to make the 60' OTTX/HTTX flat cars in Z scale with jeweler precision, but.... it never came to fruition. In 2008 I made styrene masters of the 60' flats, OTTX/HTTX & TTHX with the intension of white metal casting. A select few were made for and sold by Ztrack magazine. One of the OTTX exists in my collection. The TTHX version was never released and only three actual models were completed, two of which are in my possession. The decks are three piece laser cut to resemble proper wood grain flow. Good news is, although slowly, I am working to make these two car types again. The dimensions for both cars were taken from official drawing that I got inside of an old railroad magazine. Note, there are two deck configurations for the 60' OTTX/HTTX flats. The older version had a notch in the brake end for the brake wheel. This brake wheel was removable so vehicles could be driven across several flat cars then pinned back in place for when the train was in motion. Some of these notches can be seen in photos of the older flats that were later equipped with the hand brake on the side of the cars. My version of the 60' flats are post brake wheels and do not show the notch in the wood deck. Questions?
So I'm confused. How would these cars be too *old*...are you just referring to the Trailer Train scheme? While I'm not sure EXACTLY which (if any) prototype the MTL cars represent, but even the earliest farm implement style cars released in the 60's would not have reached their 40 years until mid-2000's or so. I mean I suppose if you're modelling the 2010's I guess you could find a series of 60ft flats that were retired but these certainly could be stand-ins in Z. Not like there are 14 different 60ft flat cars to choose from or easy paths to kitbashing something uber-specific. The interesting thing is, the cars I photographed in 2003 all still have brakewheels. I never imagined they would until I started studying the photos closely. Maybe they were in captive service moving DODX equipment around and never got upgraded? You're right though, there is much room for improvement on these cars. I figured I would do some lettering changes (correct TTX logo for starters..haven't decided if I want to renumber them to match my photos yet), then weather the cars--and particularly the deck--and call it a day. Then I realized that to properly model how the tanks are secured to the car meant having the inside troughs running the length of the car. I'm still thinking about just cutting those in, then weathering everything good, and it should be ok. I think having the M2A2 loads will draw attention away from the deck. BTW, I sent you a PM before knowing that you did not currently have those cars available. You can probably disregard most of it.
Something else to consider. Bolster placement. Standard MTL Coupler/Truck versus AZL's medium shank coupler/trucks. Photos of first example white metal casting before painting took place. Old photos from 2008/2009 when the intent was selling these cars through Ztrack. When the official drawings were converted to 1/220" the bolsters are supposed to be where the pencil mark is on the MTL car. Question: Can the MTL cars be modified moving the bolsters inward, Yes! Have I done this yet, No! Dremel, files, micro drill bit for bolster, Lab Metal, touch-up paint or some materials similar to accomplish the task. Questions?
Trust me, you don't have to sell me on buying your cars. I've purchased every HoboTim car I've encountered, I believe....which is two. I'm saying I'll probably live with the MTL car for now. When your cars get here, I'll do my best to buy them and swap them out. With the limited run nature of your releases, I'm imagining that getting six of them will be a challenge. Part of the reason I moved to Z-scale from N was to remove some of the pressure of mod'ing a car to death. Moving bolsters just isn't gonna happen. I've learned *most* Z-scalers don't give a flip, and anyone that knows much about freight cars generally doesn't give a flip about z-scale. I do enjoy knowing and learning about freight cars, but I was driving myself to the point of no-joy when I was in N with a pile of projects a mile high.
As prototypical as possible is the most satisfying to me. After all , the challange is miniturization, not just running a 300mm loop of Marklin pseudo F7-FP7s at FULL BLAST with a scale 20 feet of huge crab claw between each car. I'm dying, DYING I SAY, to get into my house and start building a realistic Z Scale layout to fill with realistic Z Scale trains. I have some of Tim's flatcars with ptototypical wood decs, and they look so amazing that every time I am putting them on my modules at the shows, I take extra time to look them over in admiration. I plan to put load on them someday, and when I do it will be with careful examination of prototype loads, with finescale real wood blocking using the thinnest and finest EZline tiedowns, ever so precisely and tightly harnessed. My renters are FINALLY moving out early next month and I will have a home to ship my PODS of train goodness that has been packed and stored oh so long. GAWD I want to start modeling NOW not later! And I want to detail Tim's flatcars with loads of farm equipment.
Well, I want to be proto as well, but I have to pick my battles. I work 60+ hours per week and--in my mid-40's--no retirement in sight for me at this juncture. I stare at my 10% finished layout and 50 other projects and think....wow it must really be nice to run a train on a layout instead of completely blowing up every single model and starting nearly from scratch. And even with this train I'm modeling, I will have: 1. Superdetailed, redecaled, and weathered the MTL flats 2. Painted and decaled the M2A2's. (perhaps some detail too) 3. Transformed over a dozen 3D-printed DODX flats into workable models. (details, paint, wheels, trucks, decals, weathering)… 4. ...INCLUDING getting 24+ 3D-printed buckeye trucks to (hopefully) work somewhat flawlessly. Oh, and painted and weathered. 5. Assembled, detailed, painted, decaled, and weathered 24 MTL M1A2 tank kits. 6. Affixed close to a THOUSAND chains/simulated chains/associated hardware to represent the tie-downs for all of the equipment 7. Scratchbuilt a few of the vehicles in my photos that don't seem to be commercially available...then detail/paint/decal/weather. That's a pretty far cry from your (somewhat insulting) insinuation that if I'm not going "all out" then I might as well sit around a loop of track and pick my nose. There IS a middle ground, and I feel like I'm closer to your side of middle than I am the other, but of course that is up for debate. (on second thought--as I look at that list above--I may never even finish this train so maybe it's a moot point. Maybe I *should* just grab a beer and a loop of track and give up on my hopes and dreams. ) Besides you and Tim and maybe a half-dozen to a dozen of other Z-scalers that I know of, there just doesn't seem be anyone that would even appreciate that type of precision in Z. (somewhere, there's a Vin diagram that explains it better than I am. ) My modeling and layout is never going to be "Model Railroader worthy", so spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours doing things that 20 people will care about is just not on my agenda. I wish it was, as I do enjoy the freight car research aspect of the hobby. I will likely move to HO at some point in the future and I'll get my fix then. Then some poor sap will buy my half-complete Lionel-esque Z military train to pull behind his/her Marklin FP7.
No insinuations intended, sorry about that. Point was I am desperate to do some modeling, and Tim's flatcars are awesome. I found a top view of the deck on one of Tim's cars:
Take a look at Ztrack resale. We have in stock MTL 60' flat cars that have been upgraded to wood decks. We show we have 18 available. Here is the link: http://www.ztrackresale.com/index.p...b8b9b91871577c45d&keyword=52400030_wd&x=0&y=0 Rob
