September 7, 2008.

Another On2 project! 

A new piece of On2 rolling stock! so far I have the On2 coach done,
a Sandy River Car Shops boxcar kit complete except for painting, and some flatcars
being built with the Two Foot Projects group still underway.

After Bachmann came out with the On30 Forney, based on Maine 2-foot gauge locomotives, they needed some "Maine-style" rolling stock! They havent actually come out with specific Maine rolling stock yet, (im sure they will eventually) but they did
"re-tool" one of their existing cars to make a Maine-ish looking pulp car.

They used their existing flatcar, put the "low-profile" trucks under it, made some new
side racks, a nice looking wood load, and released it..

It looks good!  definately captures the feel of the Maine 2-footer pulp cars, but because its based on the older Bachmann On30 line, which is based primarily on 3-foot gauge prototypes, the car has a few issues that make it "not quite right" for a Maine car.

I compared the dimensions of the stock Bachmann car with a drawing by James Dunlop
of SR&RL pulpcar No. 240, and recorded the major differences:

The only dimensions im going to change are the overall width of the car,
and height of the deck off the rails. those are the "biggies" than make a car look
Maine-ish..narrow width and "low-slung" height.

So the width of the car needs to be narrowed by a full centimeter! 0.4 of an inch.
narrowing from a prototype 7.5 feet down to 6 feet.

and the height of the car deck needs to be reduced by 2 milimeters.

The length of the Bachmann car is 25 feet..SR&RL No. 240 (my prototype drawing)
was a 28-footer, and going through SR&RL rosters, it looks like the prototype
pulpracks were mostly 28-footers, and a few at 33 feet, none were 25 feet..
but im not going to bother to change the length..not worth the effort IMO.

The Bachmann wheels are also too large..
the prototype cars had 20" diameter wheels..
the Bachmann wheels scale out to 21.5".
thats a difference of 0.8mm in 1/48 scale...I could use new wheelsets, or all-new
trucks for that matter, but "the point" of this bash is to see if I can use as much of the
original Bachmann car as possible..including the trucks!
If this works well, I might someday build a whole train of these pulpwood cars..
maybe as many as seven to ten cars! so there is no sense in buying new trucks for
them all if its not absolutely necessary..

And the height of the "racks" is a bit too tall on the Bachmann car, compared to the prototype SR&RL car..but im not going to alter the racks..im going for an overall "look" of a Maine car. Width of the deck and height off the rail are IMO very important to that look, other details less important..if I was scratch-building a car, I could make all these dimensions more exact, but for a kitbash of an existing car, im not as concerned with the minor issues.

There was a ton of prototype variation in these cars anyway, as far as these minor
details are concerned.
 
 

There has been much debate on the On2 group concerning "adapting existing cars" versus "flat-out scratchbuilding"..

For something as basic as a flatcar, I agree that scratchbuilding is pretty simple, quick and easy. Check out the On2 flatcar project on the Two Foot Projects group.

And for Boxcars, it has also been pretty well established that trying to adapt an On30 Bachmann box car to an On2 Maine car isnt really worth the effort. again, it would 
probably be easier, and result in a much better model, to simply scratch-build the car..
That is mainly because the Bachmann car is SO different than a Maine boxcar.

Although some people have had good luck with adapting Bachmann boxcars..
I will have to explore that more.

But I dont agree that scratchbuilding is ALWAYS easier, quicker or cheaper!
In this particular case, with the pulp car, I built a decent looking "Maine style car" in 3 hours and for only $35..I would argue that in this case, kitbashing the existing Bachmann car was easier than scratchbuilding!

And the same for my On2 Coach bash..
yes, that 'bash was fairly involved, and took a lot longer than this pulpwood car,
but even so, it was probably a lot easier than scratchbuilding an entire passenger car.

So the "kitbash vs. scratch-build" debate really has a lot of variables..
it really depends on how good your "starting point" is for the 2-footers..

Bachmann On30 boxcar, based on 3-foot gauge prototype = not so great for Maine On2.
Older On30 flatcar, with the gigantic trucks = not so great for Maine On2.

In those cases, kitbashing isnt really worth the hassle..because the stock "starting models" are really very far off..you are better off scratchbuilding.

But in the case of the Pulpwood car..the starting model isnt bad at all!
just needs some tweaking, and it turns out pretty good.
 

So! first up, lets take a look at the stock On30 Bachmann car, before any modifications
are made:

Nice looking car! 
Normally im not a huge fan of "factory applied weathering"..
I usually think its looks pretty bad, and would prefer to do it myself..
but in this case, its not bad! subltle but effective..
if I do more of these cars (which I probably will) I will probably add MORE weathering,
more to some cars, less to others, so they dont all look the same.
 
 

Lets begin cutting this thing apart! 
Inspired by Don's combine project, im going to keep tabs on how long this project takes!
I have never done that before, but it might be interesting.

Step one, (above), disassemble the entire car.
tools needed - small phillips head screwdriver.
elapsed time - one minute. (seriously!)
 
 

Remove the air brake, (because the frame will be cut right in its path)
its glued on..I just cut it off with the x-acto knife.
 
 

Bring out the saw! 
This is a "mini table saw" that I first bought for my On2 coach project.
details on the saw can be found here.
 
 

So I need to remove 1 centimeter total from the width of the car..
after taking a look at the frame/floor assembly, I deceided to remove 5mm down
each side, first cutting right down the edge of one of the sills.

I lined up a brass "fence", clamped it down..safety glasses on, and slice!
 
 

Again, I stopped the saw to take a few pictures.
 
 

Here (above) is the frame after the first wo cuts are finished.
I cut the frame and deck together..I didnt glue them together before cutting, but
on future cars, I will glue them together before cutting...will make things easier.
 

Now, to make the other two cuts..I need the final car to be 10mm narrower than the original car..The saw blade has a kerf of about 1mm..so really I should only remove 4mm from each side, to account for the kerf..So I re-set the brass fence so it was only 4mm away from the blade, and made the second cuts..The photo above shows everything after all cuts are made.
 
 

On the right, the final three pieces of the frame..on the left, the cut-out bits,
to go into the scrap bin.

total elapsed time - 40 minutes..
most of that time spent setting up the saw!
 
 

I neatened-up the pieces, scraping away the flash from the cutting with the x-acto blade,
a little filing here and there, then glue the three pieces back together! pressing tight to
get a good glue hold (I use plastruct "plastic weld" glue, brushing it on and around the joints) glue the brake detail back on..then take a break for dinner while it dries!

total elapsed time - 50 minutes.
 
 

Coming back to the car after its dry..bottom looks great!
top deck looks not so great..the cut lines are very visable..
but! thats a non-issue in this case! because im going to re-use the pulpwood load!
so the cuts in the floor wont even be visable! 

At the end-sills, where the cuts are visable, I will probably fill the gaps with some green squadron putty and re-paint.

but as for the decking, "if I cant see it, I dont care what it looks like"! 
Im not going to do any extra work to the floorboards at all..

If this was, say, a gondola, where the floorboards are visable,  then I would probably narrow only the frame, and simply add new wood floorboards, of the correct width,
across the top of the frame.
 
 
 
 
 

Day 2
September 8, 2008.

On to the trucks!

The trucks (above) are the newer Bachmann "low profile" trucks, much nicer looking, 
(and much nicer for Maine cars!) than the older "standard" Bachmann On30 trucks, 
which look like this:

Those trucks are FAR too large for the 2-footers! too tall, larger wheels than the low-profile trucks, and made the car impossible to lower to a reasonable height.
The new "low profile" trucks are SOO much better! thanks Bachmann! 

I will simply keep the Bachmann sideframes as-is..I think they look fine.
all I have to do is narrow the axles and narrow the truck width..very easy.

There has been some discussion on the On2 forum about re-gauging these Bachmann trucks..the Bachmann trucks also have "nasty bosses on the inside of the axle box"
(to quote "stuart uk" on the On2 forum) So I will look for a way to reduce those as well.

And a good look at the Bachmann On30 trucks, as compared to other On2 trucks,
can be found on the On2 FAQ here.
 
 

Using my standard method of regauging the wheelsets..
snip 4mm out of the center of the axles, slide the resulting "stubs" into a new axle made
of brass tube..and done!

although in this case..I ran into a problem!
I took one of the cut wheels to my local hobby shop, who is well stocked with brass
tubing..but nothing fit! 
One tube was close..but too loose..the axle wiggled around too much..
I need a *tight* fit..
but "the next size smaller" was too small! there was nothing "just right"..
So I moved down the aisle to the styrene tubing..all the same sizes as the brass tuning!
So finally I checked some square styrene tubing..found one that fits! 
its the 1/8" square tube..the axles press in tight, distorting the tube somewhat..but its
a nice solid fit..so I went with it!
 
 

Above, one regauged axle, compared with an unmodified On30 truck.
 
 

Now the trucks also have to be regauged..same basic method.
cut 2mm out of each side, and glue the bits back together.
I used some styrene blocks to make a good joint.
 
 

Thats it for tonight..im leaving the trucks to dry (glue) and will come back to them
tomorrow.

Total elapsed time - 1 hour, 50 minutes.
 

Trucks work fine! by themselves..but they caused a new problem!
I filed down the axle mounts by 2mm, to reduce the ride-height of the car..
the wheels now hit the frame! hitting the center and intermediate sills,
and the big coupler box..

I would have cut these frame bits away BEFORE gluing the frame to the deck!
but I didnt know yet what would need to be cut away..for future bashes, I will know,
and will simply cut the frame *before* gluing it to the deck.
 

Some quick work with a small saw and the x-acto blade, and the frame bits are 
removed.
 

Check out the truck swing! thats very good..
of course, now there is no coupler box! but thats not really a problem, because the stock
Bachmann coupler box would have been no good anyway..wrong height..so its not a big deal it had to be removed. (I had to move one stirrup step..because the trucks hit it...you can see it in the upper left corner of the pic above..)

As for the "nasty bosses"..I didnt bother to change anything..yes, the trucks might end
up being a bid wide overall..but they are gauged to On2..and keeping the booses results
in nice rolling characteristics..keeping the original "needle bearings" on the ends of the axles..its all good!

 Total elapsed time - 2 hours, 35 minutes.
 
 

Day 3 (actually its "evening 3"..Im working on this about 1 hour a night)
 

Have to cut the wood load too!
it needs to be narrowed..
I cut it approx along these lines:

removing the "second row" of logs.
I used the mini table saw, and hacked away at it. 

A few words about cutting this kind of plastic..
I dont know what kind of plastic it is, but if you are going to cut it with any kind of
power saw, do it OUTSIDE!! preferably with a stiff breeze to your back, so the dust
blows away from you, safety glasses are a given, and I would also recommend a dust
mask!..this plastic makes some nasty fumes when heated, (saw friction)..
I will always cut this kind of plastic outdoors if using any power tools..power saw,
dremel tool, etc..if using hand saws, indoors is probably fine.
 

This kind of plastic also shatters easily if dropped!
I was hoping to have only three large pieces cut off..but one piece dropped and broke
into many smaller pieces on the deck! and I lost a few bits in the lawn..
I had to fill in the gaps with pieces of real twigs, which looks pretty good actually!

Paint all the white exposed plastic brown, glue the wood load back together, add new twigs where needed..and DONE!! 
 

Total elapsed time = 3 hours & 20 minutes, over three evenings.
 

Not bad!
fairly easy, and makes a decent looking Maine 2-foot pulp car,
mostly prototypically accurate, except for overall length.

I was hoping to find an "unmodified" pulpcar to compare it with, and take photos of my modified car alongside an unmodified On30 version..but thats not going to happen anytime soon, so I will just finish up this page without doing that..

Someday I will probably do more of these pulpcar modifications, so I will do that comparision then..

meanwhile, I took the pulpcar outside and photographed it with my entire "On2 fleet"! ;)
which currently consists of only four cars, and no locomotive to go with them yet..
although locomotives are in the works..

Placing the pulpcar with the other cars really shows that it "fits in"!
having it the correct width really makes it look at home with the other cars..
also, the deck height now matches that of the boxcars, also helping with that
"family look"..so lowering the height by 2mm was worth it.

here are the rest of the pics:
 

Conclusion:

well..its ok..its not bad, I like it, but I don't love it.
I think it looks fine, but I think I am slowly becoming an On2 "purist"! ;)
I have to admit that it does actually bother me that the car is a little too
short and a little too tall!

For future pulp cars, im not sure if I will adapt more Bachmann cars,
or go the "kit-built" or "scratch-built" route to get better accuracy..
hmmmm..time will tell!

thanks for watching,
Scot
 
 
 

Page started September 8, 2008
Email - sscotsman@yahoo.com
 

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