Steve,
You got my vote for 1st place freight car. Maybe I can get the boys from
Chicago to load up the ballot box. Your gon sounds great.I should have gotten
one when they were still kits.
Speaking of Batavia, that was Midwest Mod-U-Trak's big inspiration. We were
tinking of a large club railroad but the rent was so high in the Orland area
that we started thinking modular. When we saw what Batavia did with narrow
shelflike spaces we were sold on the "slice of life" approach. This year at
Naperville will be the last time MMUT is seen in public. The new layout will
unveil at Lyon's Township in the spring of '08. The railroad will be lighter,
easier to setup and more prototypic. This means we would be more able to bring
it to a Chicago area Q meet.
Anyway good luck on your entry and I'm glad to hear O Scale is alive and well.
May Bernie and Bat smile on all the freight car entries this year. Especially
any of you that stayed awake during my freightcar building clinic at Streator.
Rob Manley
----- Original Message -----
From: sholding@sbcglobal.net
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 9:25 AM
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Proto 1000 Q USRA composite gons
Rob
I started with an Intermountain. They sold the O Scale line to Atlas. Des
Plaines used this car using the Q art work and yes I have some of those. I then
made some molds for the end sheets in both the Murphy and dreadnaught ends. A
box car uses two sheets one lower and one upper while the gon only uses the
lower sheet. From the photos in the BRHS Freight Car Data Sheet on Composite
Gons the Q mixed and matched the sheets. The builders photo shows Dreadnaught
ends with Murphy sides while the photo below shows mixed and matched side. It
takes ten sections to do one car depending on how you match them up including
the two sections which come with the kit. The center is only half a section and
it looks like the Q used sheets from early coke containers to make it. I made a
mold using tooth picks for the ribs. All molds were made with Micro-Mart
molding RTV. I also use sheet lead for floor weights and put on all wire grabs.
In addition to the gons I have made molds of both the 8000 and 10,000 gal
tank cars and have made up triple dome tank cars. A triple dome car had three
compartments to handle different grades of product in each to the same
consignee.
Another easy conversion is the Weaver Troop Kitchen Car. Remove the roof
vents and weld plates over the holes. Weld plates over all windows and paint.
I course started in HO and was a member of the Little Q from about 66-80 when
I moved to the Midwest Model RR Club in Batavia. Got to hanging around with
some guys in On3 for a couple years. Had to follow the job and moved to
Galesburg where we build a huge portable HO layout for the 85 Railroad Days.
Everybody ought to try model railroading in a tent just once. The move to Texas
let me force the issue with the change of scales and have sold most all of my
HO except for a few choice Q models I built years ago and reinvested in O
Scale. And in 23 months we hope to build a retirement home with a 25 X 38 main
basement with a 18 X 24 side piece so Ma Ma can have a new kitchen up stairs.
But it will be in Dave Lotz's Lines East of the Smoky Mountains area.
Got to get back to switching out a freight train for the model contest in KC
SJH
----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Manley
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 9:58 PM
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Proto 1000 Q USRA composite gons
Steve,
Now I am really sorry I can't go to the meet. Although I model in HO, I
really love good O-scale. Make that envious. O scale reminds me of Bernie's
work. You'll have to post some fodoz. Did you start with the Desplaines Hobby
car or is it scratch?
Rob Manley
----- Original Message -----
From: sholding@sbcglobal.net
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 11:27 PM
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Proto 1000 Q USRA composite gons
Rob
Will have my rebuilt car at the KC Show
Course it is large enough you can see
1/48
SJH
----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Manley
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 10:39 PM
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Proto 1000 Q USRA composite gons
Leo and GA-15 fans,
I just checked the Walthers website to see what the commotion was all about
and it is the same P1K USRA car that was out a couple of years ago. I think I
saw one at my LHS back then and wasn't moved to buy any. I have built a few of
the Intermountain cars and think they are the best and most accurate version of
the USRA cars. Besides you know love to roll my own.
I start by chopping away the plastic grab iron parts runner, trash it and
substitute Tichy bronze grabs. At my BRHS clinic in Streator I showed the guys
how to pre shorten them using the Tichy hole drilling jig that comes in thier
NYC boxcar and PFE reefer. Basically it lets you to cut them to about 1/16"
from the drop bend. This allows you to glue them in the mounting holes without
having to cut the excess poking into the inside of the car. If you don't cut
them down first, it leaves little nubs on the corrugated ends and wood sides.
Not important if you want to put a permanent coal load in the car but you'll
loose that laser blasted floor and the carefully rendered inside corrugations.
It just makes a neater car and the grabs look much more to scale than the
plastic counterparts. I also use sheet lead from my old roof flashing to weight
the car down fitting itbetween the plastic floor and the etched wood floor.
I have a brass version from Oriental that was made in the 80's and compared
to the IM car is a little heavy on the details. I paid about 5 bucks more than
the retail of the IM car at Wheaton back then. Now the WmKW RTR car is OK but
if you are concerned about eras and how long the car lasted you may have an
issue. The Q liked to keep thier composite cars that way until scrapped or
converted. They weren't known to strip the wood off and steel sheet the
hoppers, gons and boxcars like the Rock or IC. Odd considering I think of the
Rock as a poor man's Q. Anyway what they did do to the gons to upgrade them is
to cut down the sides at the floor level and lower the sides and ends 18
inches. I've bought a couple of the kits to do just that but ended building
them as lettered which is why I now have a M&StL & Monon car. This was done to
1/2 the fleet about 1927 - 28. Murphy ends were replaced with recessed
Dreadnaughts. From 1936-37 the remaining 391 unmodified cars were lowered and
given solid floors. They also attempted a few TOFC cars from the GA-5s but
didn't last long and were relegated to company service. My point is the one
piece body would be a nightmare to cut down if you wanted a later date car. The
other issue I have is the P1K looks a little high in the saddle. Look at the 2
photos in the BRHS freight car plastic modeling guide to see what I mean. Look
around the draft gear area.
Admittedly the P1K car can help you achieve a large fleet, fast. The Q had
2,000 of these cars built and used them extensively for coal service. You could
build the Sunshine resin kits of other classes to suppplement your fleet and
add diversity, see them on the BRHS site. To save time use the WmKW car but
remember IM now has these cars built up along with the Tichy C&S USRA hoppers.
However you know how I feel about prebuilt kits unless you rip off all the
poorly de-burred plastic parts and replace them with metal stuff. Don't forget
to get some etched stainless Carmer cut levers.
If you want the full story on all the composite gons make sure you have the
Freight Car Data Sheet #7 and the Burlington Bulletin on the Coalfields.
1/87thly Yours,
Rob Manley
----- Original Message -----
From: qutlx1@aol.com
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 4:59 PM
Subject: [CBQ] Proto 1000 Q USRA composite gons
Any comments pro/con on the upcoming Walthers Proto 1000 Q USRA composite
gons? I've checked BB #35 but can't tell when these were gone from the fleet.
Leo Phillipp
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