only kidding. The actual number is only 43 per car. (And I built eight of these– that’s 344!)
Begin by placing them
along the outside edge of the deck boards, one between every stake pock- et, mounted horizontally. Then, count- ing from each end of the car, one board in; one board before the start of the well; even with the fourth stake pocket, and one in the board next to the car’s center. These should all be aligned with the outside edge of the well. Finally, the last will be used to support the brake staff (Fig 13). Figs. 14 and 15 clearly show the lift ring arrangement. I used Detail Associates No. 2206, and drilled out No. 79 holes for each, attaching them with cyanoacrylate.
The diagonal support on the left- most upright at each end is an Ever- green 1″×2″that is 3′-0″ long. The bridge plates are constructed from Evergreen .020″ sheet styrene, 2′-6″ wide by 4′-0″ long. The outside ribs are 1″×6″ by 4′-0″ long, the inside ribs are 1″×2″, also 4′-0″ long. The outside ribs align with the outside of the bridge plate, and then the same wood spacers
5.
as used for the pipes are used to align the inside ribs. Finally, there is a 2′-0″ section of .080″ channel (Evergreen No. 262) that is centered vertically on the inside ribs. The bridge plate is then glued onto the right side of each end, with its inside edge aligned with the coupler pocket casting on the car end. Adding the grab irons is the next
step. Tichy No. 3021 straight grabs are mounted in line with the rivets left from the cast-on grabs. On the sides, the grabs go above the rivets. On the ends, they are mounted below the riv- ets. Finally, I mounted a Tichy brake wheel using a 3′-3″ long piece of .190″ brass rod, held in place by the earlier mounted lift ring, and a Tichy brake rod support. The Tichy parts came from No. 3003, Vertical Brake Staff set.
Painting, lettering, and weathering I airbrushed my cars with Polly-Scale Steam Power Black, and then overcoat- ed them with Future Floor Wax (I be- lieve it is now sold as Pledge Floor Wax) thinned 10% with isopropyl alcohol.
6.
After waiting 48 hours for the Fu-
ture to set up hard, I lettered the car with Champion Decal Set No. HG-120, “Baltimore & Ohio Gondola (Long Gon, Black Car).” It’s too bad that Champ is now out of business. This is a great set that will do all kinds of B&O cars, in- cluding general flat cars and Tofcee cars in classes P-34 and P-35, as well as P-31a. I see sets on eBay®
all the
time, so they are available. At any rate, I used the data for the 65-foot mill gon (on the sets I have, this is the first set of data). The “Great States” herald is too big in diameter, but I am unaware of any smaller in HO, so I made do with it. Overall, the lettering is not an exact match, but it is close enough for my purposes, and certainly gives a sense of what these cars looked like. After the decals were applied, Cham- pion Decal-Set was used to eliminate any bubbles and silvering, and to get the decals to snuggle down over the rivets. Then the car was flat finished with Polly-Scale Flat. Weathering was done using Polly- Scale paint diluted into isopropyl alco-
5. The underframe members need to be lengthened to match the stretched carbody. Begin by cutting the two underframes from the kits so that you have two pieces 26′-6″ long. Insert the brake detail tree into each long piece, and cut off the excess. Make sure that one underframe member has the brake cylinder and the oth- er the reservoir and triple valve, so that when they are joined, your car will have a complete brake set. 6. The weight will need to have two new holes drilled to match the bolsters on the car. Note the centerline the author scribed to find the new hole locations, and the old holes, filled in with five minute epoxy. Glue the weight
in place, then glue the under frame members onto the weight. Visible on the inside of the car side is one of the styrene splice plates used to strengthen the joint. Another one was used on the opposite side. 7. Here is the assembled under frame. 8. The ends of the deck boards are notched to make it appear that the boards are separate pieces. Do this with an angled razor saw along each side. Then draw the razor saw across each board joint to finish the illusion of their being separate pieces of wood. Distress the deck surface to add texture and weathering to the car. The author used a Micro-Mark Distresser Weathering Brush for this.
7.
8.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
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