I entered a challenge on another site and started this tank car build. The tank car was built in the early 1890s by the Harrisburg Car Works. I found the plans in a book about early freight cars. I wanted to build it out of brass because I like brass and it will have some weight. I started by figuring out what size brass tubes were close to the outer tank and dome diameters. For the end caps of the tank I considered various methods and items, such as forming caps and brass envelope clasps. In the end I decided on binding nuts. I found some brass ones on Etsy and turned them down to fit in the tubes. I made a jig (white block of Delrin) to cut the tanks to length and drill a hole for the dome. The frame (chassis) will be brass plate of a thickness close to the scale thickness of the actual frame timbers. I'll be using MTL Archbar trucks with Uncle Will's metal wheels. Scott
You know what would be really cool, is if you could etch rivet detail. You would have to use 0000 size steel wool to polish the brass tube, then wearing nitrile gloves, use a PCB Resist pen to draw the rivet dot bands around the tank, and etch in FeCL for about 10 minutes. Rinse with water, and your tank would have rivets.
Rob, Nice idea. Maybe a bit tedious. I know some where in an album in this site some one was building a Z scale loco with etched in rivets. Although they were not raised, they looked very good! I will be using Archer Transfers N scale rivets. I used them on the camel back smoke box(just to the left of the stack). Scott
Since I have already been working on this, the updates will be quicker. I was procrastinating on the soldering. But finally got up the nerve. I decided I needed an inner spacer to keep the end caps in place when I soldered them to the tank tube. So I made another Delrin jig and after they were cut and drilled I soldered them in. I pre-tinned the inner sleeve, inserted it using the dome hole to align inner and outer, then heated the outer tube. Success! I then soldered on the caps, then the dome tube. I am using 50/50 solder and Nokorode flux. Scott
I'm using a brass round head slotted screw for the dome top. I picked this out because it fit into the tube and had enough material on the head to turn down. I chucked it up in the drill press and turned it down using a file to the correct radius. Scott
I truly enjoy reading threads like theses. It’s motivating to see different ideas. So keep up the good work and keep posting cause it’s fun!
Rob and Joe, Thanks for the encouragement. Rob, What say you, this is a 35' car. This will be my first time mounting trucks. I will be using MTL Archbar trucks with Full Throttle wheels. Do I go with the fixed coupling, or the coupling attached to the trucks? Scott Comments from others welcome!
For a 35' car, body mounted couplers will work on almost any radius. I think they look better too, but the downside is you have to consider the coupler height, where the truck mounted couplers are always the correct height.