I had a few almost finished projects that I finished off on Sunday, in preperation for Project Frieghtcar. I also have an SD60M and SD40-2 that are in progress. I've set them asside to get three intermountin covered hoppers finished in the next 4 weeks. Hopefully I'll find time to squeze in the two locomotives as well. Motivation goes along way. These were all weathered on Sunday. Heavily modified Front Range (or was it McKean) front runner: From the B end: A heavily modified and detailed Athearn Impack car: The E unit: Close up of Impack A End A pair of Milwaukee Road 4427 Covered Hoppers - these are the original (not timesaver) P2K kits with added details A pair of MDC Soo Line box cars. These aren't prototypical and are likly ebay fodder, but I find lightly weathered MDC stuff does quite well on ebay. [ 19. May 2003, 10:50: Message edited by: yankinoz ]
Hey Rob, I just cleared a small space on my bench. I usually have 2 or 3 things going on at once. Buy the way really like the covered hoppers!!!!!!
Very nice job on all the cars! The weathering makes them look very convincing. I haven't yet made or bought any type of flat car or trailer, and I don't know much about them either. Are those first cars you pictured supposed to haul semi trailers? It looks like it, I'm just not familiar with them. Those covered hoppers and boxcars sure look nice. You said the hoppers are Proto 2K kits- but not timesaver? I haven't seen any 'complete' kits yet, but it's good to know that they're out there. Those timesaver kits have a lot of detail in them as it is, I can imagine that there's plenty of work to do on the full kits. Nice pictures!
Nice looking cars Rob. I just finished three cars and still have a couple to go to clear my workbench. But of course I was airbrushing last night so I started my project freight car anyway. [ 19. May 2003, 15:06: Message edited by: Tompm ]
Yes, both the single unit (with only 2 axles) and the articulated (5 platform, 12 axles) "spine cars" are designed to haul trailers only. Containers won't fit without a highway chassis (and yes, they often do ride on flat cars that way) Both model are early designs, run in the late 80's and into the early 90s but have mostly been retired today. The articulated car will only hold 45' trailers. The single unit will hold 48' trailers. Walthers has a kit of an 'all purpose spine car' that is on my to-do list, but after project freight car. They are good value if you can find them. The original kit releases for these cars came as complete kits - you have to put together the end ladders and the roof walks. Because they are older, when you see them, they are generally on clearance. I've been collecting them as I am shortening a bunch of these for 2-bay cement hoppers that The Soo Line purchased from Pullman Standard. The kitbash is EXACTLY what PS did - they cut out the center bay of the 4427' covered hoppers. (The cuts are easier to do on the unassembled roofs.)
Yes, Check out the post Latest Projects: A Boxcar & Two Gondolas. To actually clear my workbench I have to finish assemblying a Rail Runner/Athearn Seaboad System covered hopper, a custom painted Central Railroad of Pennsylvania (CNJ) 2-bay hopper, a custom painted Central Jersey boxcar. I then have to weather them along with a custom painted New Haven 4-bay hopper that is sitting assembled on the workbench. Looks like I will just have to add the Project Freight Car items into the mix and get done what I can. [ 20. May 2003, 04:22: Message edited by: Tompm ]
Really nice work, Rob. I, too, like the MILW hoppers and the reasonably (for Soo) cared for boxcar - not too many rust spots...
<font color="336633">Rob I got 2 questions for you First, I have not seen any Impack cars with that style hitch on, do you know which ones recived that hitch? The only hitches I have seen are the ones that come with the Athearn kit, and the Details West replacements, any info would be very handy . Second, How on earth do you get the Front Range Front runner to stay on the track???????? I have 2 of these and a four runner set (which are worse), I have changed the wheels to Kadee 28 inchers and added as much lead as I can, and still they fall of the track at any slight blemish </font>
Nice work Rob! Keep up the great work! Now to get a good sized spine car train to couple to my SD-80MAC in CSX to make the train...... Once I get the 80MAC done of course!
UTTX 60114 had them for sure - it's photographed on page 58 of MRG November 97 in one of Geiger's Spine Car series. In it he mentioned that all of the TTX Impack style cars use that style hitch (those are the Detail West parts but the A and B hitches had to be shortened to keep trailers level.) First, the whole twisting truck thing has been mounted solid, with no twist. They run fine on 30" rad, I haven't tried anything smaller (other than 18" snap track which they won't run on,) but they like Peco med points without drama. I have some IM 28" semi-scale wheels on order, I'll let you know how they track with those (it has KDs now.) When empty, it sits at the rear of a train only. This is fully prototypical because the real ones were prone to derailments and were generally at the rear of a train when empty - and is the main reason that almost all of them have been scraped. When loaded, I make sure I put a 'heavy' trailer on it. Some of my IM loads are 2-3Oz, others have no weights - they are loaded on flats or wells based upon the HO scale 'tare' - some of the models are heavy when empty, some not so much.
