The Rr-90 has had the last details applied and is ready for paint. Note how the grab irons are mounted to the lower vent. The door
pieces of HO 4″×12″, 12 inches long, stacked one on top of each other and glued to the bottom plate of the brake cylinder. This assembly was glued to the floor on the same side as the AB valve, up against the center sill with the “flat” end of the brake cylinder 21′- 0″ from the A-end of the floor. (The pis- ton points to the AB valve and B-end of the car.)
I salvaged brake levers from At- hearn 1620-series 50-foot reefer kits, cleaned them up and mounted them in place. To finish the underbody, I re- formed A-Line stirrup steps to make the brake lever hangers, then added the various rods and pipes following the Cal Scale diagram but making al- lowances for the location of the compo- nents on these Santa Fe cars.
Details The details for all three cars are sim-
ilar. Let’s go over them one by one but noting changes for the specific cars. For brake wheels, I used a Kadee Ajax part for the Rr-91, Miner for the Rr-90, and Universal for the Rr-87 (which put this car in the 55500-55694 number series). The brake gear hous- ings used were stock Athearn housings for the Rr-87 and Rr-91, and Cal-Scale No. 283 on the Rr-90. The vertical brake rods on the car ends were cut from .025″ styrene rod, and the retain- er valve pipes, .008″ brass wire. A Cal Scale retainer valve was used for the high-mounted one on the Rr-87. I re- turned to my supply of CMA roof run- ning boards for the brake step, trim- ming it and adding the support brackets with HO scale 1″×2″ strip. Cut levers were bent from .012″
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
stops were cut from an Athearn PFE car, and the door guides were built up. The short ladders are Detail Associates parts.
brass wire with brackets made from 1″×2″ strip styrene and Detail Associ- ates No. 2206 eye bolts. Detail Associ- ates No. 6430 parts; unmodified for the Rr-91 and with the handholds short- ened for the Rr-90 and Rr-87, were used for the crossover walks. Spare Athearn bodies and a few mo- ments with a No. 17 knife blade provid- ed the door stops. They were placed per the prototype photos. For exhaust vent covers, located on the upper right at the A-end of the cars, I used a piece of .090″ wide chan- nel on the Rr-91. On the Rr-90 and Rr- 87 these were made from a piece of Evergreen No. 223, ³/₃₂″ styrene tube split in half lengthwise. These vent covers extend from the top of the top end rib to the roof line Tichy No. 302, 18″ straight grabs were used where needed, and the ladders I used were all Detail Associates No. FC6208 short ladders except for the tall ones at the B-end, left side of the Rr-87. These
were Tichy parts, No. 3066,
trimmed to match prototype photos. Nut-bolt-washer castings were needed
around the perimeter of the A-end, left vent on the Rr-91, and Grandt Line No. 5101 parts proved to be a suitable size. For refrigeration unit access door hinges on the A-end, left side vents of the Rr-87 and Rr-90 I used HO 1″×4″ strip styrene cut in 6″ lengths, center- ing them on the joint, with bits of Grandt Line .010″ styrene rod glued vertically in the middle. Archer Fine Transfers has done the hobby a real service with its line of three-dimensional decal rivets and sur- face details. I used their AR88025 riv- ets above the A-end vents on the Rr-90
and Rr-87 and to replace the rivets at the end and side joints on all the cars as needed. They were also used on the A-end, left side above or next to the re- frigeration unit vents on all three cars. The Rr-90 and Rr-87 also needed rivets below the second from the right exteri- or post on both sides. The tack boards were built up from Evergreen HO scale 1″×6″ strips into 18″×24″ and 12″×12″ sizes with 1″×2″ vertical styrene strips on the ends The temperature gauges were done
with a starter hole in the side about 4′- 3″ from the A-end and 2′-3″ up from the bottom of the side sill, then hand-twist- ing an ¹¹/₆₄″ drill bit just deep enough to create the inset circle without drilling through the side. I sliced a tempera- ture gauge off another Athearn body and glued it to a piece of 1″×8″, 8″ long; this two-piece assembly was in turn cemented to the car side (centered in the recess). The fuel filler caps were also salvaged from an Athearn PFE kit, two per car. They were glued to the side sills in line with the fill spout for the fuel tanks
A-Line style C stirrup steps were used on the Rr-87 and Rr-90, and De- tail Associates No. 6418 mechanical reefer stirrup steps were used on the Rr-91.
A few changes in the parts supply
have occurred since I built these mod- els. The steel roof running board mate- rial is now sold by Tichy, their part No. 3077, and 4/4 Improved Dreadnaught ends can be purchased from Branch- line Trains, part No. 100004. Using these ends means one does not have to do any cutting and splicing to copy those on the Santa Fe cars.
53
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100