Got my order in for the Atlas caboose trucks and did find that some of the 25 footers had Andrews trucks retrofited later so it is possible to use the MT Andrews trucks also. Also ordered the Gold Medal caboose kit for retro fitting some of my previous cabooses and have the thin ACC on hand now for using on the end rails to strengthen. So hopefully in about a week I'll have finished my harbor vessels for now and get back to railcars again.
Sounds good John, If yours looks too good , I may have to order another kit to try and match you ! I will refit the hand rails , I have to order some .010 " phosphor bronze wire to bend , but will practice first on some copper wire and some .015" steel cable strands used for grounding my dust collector system in my wood shop, and soak the ladders in thin CA glue ...
I've been digging through both of my SP&S caboose books and they had a number of 25 footers some built by them to GN plans other built by GN for them. I did find some of the SP&S cars to have the curved ladder tops so the Gold Medal kits will let me retro some older ones that are different lengths . I'll just have to put up with the brakewheel location on those. I also ordered some handrails in stainless that have quite few different lengths so I may be able to dodge having to make some. I plan of at least 2 as SP&S and the other 2 as GN.
Wrapped up the current ship project and started on the GN/SP&S wood caboose kits. Used the thin quick set ACC to strengthen the endrail assemblies and almost glued the metal dental pick to my hand in the process. Danged stuff comes out a lot faster than my normal thick gap filling stuff does. In my researches for the 25 footers on the SP&S I came up with one of the 25 footers being the first bay window conversions on the SP&S. Old gray cells started churning Hmmm. However the window arrangement on the laser kits is wrong and the window spacing also wrong, plus I am not about to try and mess up a nice kit piecing in a window with the fine lines. There is some extra scribed wood that it could be done with but......I have N scale styrene car siding that matches, caboose steps, Gold Medal end rails coming this week, and boxes of parts. So the sides and ends of the cabin once removed from their wood sections will become the templates for the bay window version in styrene. Since I messed up and forgot to order my decals, thinking I had some I placed another order today for them plus one more caboose and enough parts to maybe make another bay window if all come out right with the first edition. And as you can see from the background in the photo the benefits of acquiring a nice reference library over the years is paying off.
I got so tired of gluing stuff to my fingers with the CA glue, ( I use it and coffee grounds to fill voids and etc in wood turnings ) that now I use titebond II for all my non plastic glue ups, reserving the thin CA for reinforcing thin wood / card stock and paper, thread , and styrene glue for plastics etc. and other materials . As much modeling that you do , I am not supprised to see a very good collection of blue prints , spec sheets etc. used for modeling , no matter what the subject. Thanks for sharing John , we look fwd to seeing both roads completed caboose's.
A good library is probably worth it's weight in gold and I have manged to acculmulate a fairly good one over the years covering everything from locos to railroad stuctures. Even have one devoted entirely to railroad outhouses. It's called The Crappiest Railroad Book. Fun thing with both of the current caboose books is there is no scale assigned to the drawings that I've found. Fortunately I do have some known denominators like the truck wheel spacing and the carbody length,so with a little smoke out of the ears,and a handy rule and calculator I can get fairly close. I have cut the styrene sides for the bay window version of the 25 footer using 0.20 N scale car siding Evergreen #2020 and the AMB sides as a guide. I am going to laminate the sides due to the thinness, but the thinner sides do make for easier cutting. I found some Tichy Train windows that are danged near if not exact for the bay window versions and at least one set of Old Grandt Line metal windows that will make the bay windows themselves. Front and rear windows on the bays I'll have to wing it. When I ordered my decals today I found some Tichy windows that may also be appropriate for the bays themselves. Fortunately the bay window versions only have the two windows per side plus the bay so life might get easier.If I can get my big 12 pound tomcat to stop taking car parts. I don't know what he is building. So besides ACCing the endrails here is the first results toward the cabooses so far. Probably when I get the bay window version done AMB will annouce a bay window version for NP and SP&S.
Okay I'm officially off and running with the cabooses. Today got the subframe assemblies glued up using Elmer's Yellow Carpenter's Glue and they will set a day to get solid due to high humidity today. While they set I am going to pull out my wire and mess with forming some handrails for a couple. The project to create the 25 foot conversion to bay window that SP&S did with one is on hold while I await an order that includes some windows I want to try. Sides are all measured out for the bay and the windows and when I get to the underframe I'll do an under frame for the bay window version along with the four I'm doing.
Well I'm a little further along with the kits but they are telling me that my days of handling very small a delicate parts are about done. Sort of hold your breath and hope nothing breaks some of this wood is that fine. Decided to be a real glutton for punishment and sat down and made three sets of handrails and grabs using both the instruction template and the lasercut wood one as guides. Found it easier to use the laser cut wood ones as the template than the paper set for me. While laying out the scribed wood sides to go on the substructure I found that it was necessary to lightly run a sanding stick on the substructure to get any slightly protruding ends. Everything is so thin that even a slight bump shows. Window frames are a bear to deal with because of thier being so thin that they can be easily crushed (haven't yet) and the self adhesive backed wood frames can be a bear to separate from the paper backing. Don't know which is thinner the wood or the paper, and thank heavens for single edge razors to separate the two with its thinner edge than a No.11 blade. At this point two are painted and drying using Floquil Caboose red but still have the cupola to assemble plus underframe. I also elected to drill out two to accept the wire grabs which was another delicate operation to keep from crushing the little fellas. I will do at least one using the supplied laser cut wood grabs and one with wire to see which is better to my eyes. I thought about starting a separate thread on this build project but decided it was better to keep everything related to this particular AMB Laser Kit in one place. So I'll keep adding progress notes here. In retrospect this is definitely a craftsman level kit, and very delicate and those with ten thumbs, and no patience should probably think again about even getting one. My last order shipped and should be here by Thursday with the windows and decals. I'm hoping the windows I ordered will be adequate for the bay window version I am doing as referred to in a previous post. I also found a slight discrepancy between the instruction diagrams and the actual parts sprue for part locations. The instructions say the doors are on the window sprue but not instead on the underframe sprue. Though for a minute I was missing something until I found them.
Managed to finally get all the outside window frames done. I've opted to use plan B and install the window glazing after painting. Still have the cupola structures and the inside window framing to do. I used Floquil on two and Polyscale on two, both caboose red. Floquil seems to do better on the wood especially the frames in my opinion. My Tichy Train windows arrived this PM along with my decals and yet one more caboose kit. It appears that the Tichy windows may be what I want for the bay window version at first glance.
My order from my favorite pusher of things train related showed up a day early and the Tichy windows that I thought might do for the bay window were in it. Measured same and while not exact they are certainly more than close enough in the dimensions I need. So along with the 25 footers I now have a SP&S bay window caboose that was converted from a GN 25 footer.
Looking good John. Can't tell the difference on the paint job/s. glazing was the last thing I did before assembling the end rails and ladders. Marty Coil used the Testors window maker on the NP caboose he scratch built for me and I kinda like that versus the flat clear plastic. I may get some and go over all my glazing with the Testors Window maker..
Old age dementia and blindness, along with Mr. Murphy attacked me today. First I couldn't find one of my parts sheets for the cupolas after my overactive female cat, Deekus, who tawt she taw a burdie, and went across the workbench to the window like a hurricane scattering parts. After a hours search, numerous vocal incantations and offering Deekus as a sacrifice to the train gods I found it stuck to the back of another sheet. And what I had feared due to the delicate nature of these parts I finally almost broke one of the trim pieces that for now protrude over the ends. Fortunately not a complete break and some thin ACC restored it. Using the pattern from the wood kits I marked out the end pieces for the bay window version this evening and will cut tomorrow. So at this time I now have four 25 footers underway, and one bay window. However in that parts order yesterday was another Laser Kit 25 footer and I found that GN had also converted a couple of thier 25 footers to transfer cabooses. So maybe I'll go that route with the 5th kit.
Well another day and more progress. Finally got the main roof sections on all four but not without partially breaking another one of those end roof trim projections. And made some progress on the bay window version and now have the bay ends attached to the body sides and cut out the end cabin pieces plus fabricated the doors and installed the windows in the ends. You will notice that the end walls of the bays are angled in and that is correct, not an oopsie. And I found that I'm the beneficiary of an extra roof piece so the transfer caboose is now a go thanks to the extra pieces seen in the photo bottom. After a day of glue drying I'll be starting the underframes on the five and launching the transfer caboose which will give me 6 cabooses underway all based on the GN 25 footer.
Looking good John, i especally like the color scheme of the rubber bands holding the roofs on while drying ... although the two blues threw me off a bit ... how much total weight are you going with ? I have 6.2 oz on mine and it maybe a tad high but it does not do the accordian shuffle ... I got a video some where around here .. if I cannot find it I'll do another today and upload it to youtube ...
Hi John, looking good. Wanted to let you know about a good alternative to the 1/64th micro-ply and brass for the fragile railings, brake wheels, etc. I am a laser operator and I use a wonderful material called laserboard for this type of application. My favorite thicknesses are the .023, the .015" but I also use the paper thin.010 on occasion. it lasers exceptionally sharp and has no grain, its also less expensive than wood. If I had the exact measurements I could cut them for an after market kit but I have a feeling that you are too far into things now. I have a quick sample to show you. I cut the fencing in .015 laserboard for a layout I made 3 years ago. Its Z scale so it would appear even thinner in N scale. The tools on the side of the speeder shed were cut from the same material, again in Z. Keep up the nice work!
Big box of assorted rubber bands but dangit all my really small ones were gone so I had to triple each one. As far as weight goes they recommend 0.675 oz. but to me that seems a little heavy even if it is to NMRA recommendations. I have a couple of packages of Pinewood Derby Tungsten weights that are the half rounds and should fit okay and with the flat side glue down okay.
I believe what you describe is what AMB is using for the substructure, the inner window frames, and cupola window, and the entire underframe assembly, along with the end doors. The rest is all scribed wood and it is the end moldings that are under the porch roofs that are the sensitve point I've been calling names. However once you make it to the roof part those ends are under that and now glued in place. And yes as the picture shows I am past that point now. I like that fencing and you have a potential market for that for steam era stockyards and thier gates and chutes, not to mention just regular fencing.
