Rutland Cars The two Rutland cars used for references for the models are loaded with marble bound for the finishing plant in Proctor, Vermont. — Jim Shaughnessy photo
strips of frosted tape by lightly pressing it on top of a pattern and marking the rivet heads with a very fine marker. Then each tape pattern was stuck down at its new location, and the dots were lightly embossed with a fine needle. I re- moved the tape and cleaned the adhesive residue with 91 percent isopropyl alcohol.
Rivets New rivet patterns, marked with arrowheads, were added to the car sides to match the prototypes. Thick Cyano- acrylate formed the rivet heads.
The next step created raised heads in place of dimples. A small puddle of thick Cyanoacry- late adhesive (CA) was allowed to sit and thicken awhile. The timing depends on humidity and tem- perature. I picked up a tiny dot of CA on the tip of a fine needle secured in a pin vise. The needle was lowered until the glue — but not the tip — touched the inner rim of a dimple. When all went well, a CA “rivet head” filled the hole. When it didn’t, a quick wipe with a rag and a redo corrected
the goof. These cars had seen 40 years of heavy service by the 1950 time period of the layout. A few banged-up or missing rivets fit right in. I added more rivets on the car ends and where the origi- nal brake bracket was cut off, which was worth the effort. The new rivets closely match the size of the Athearn rivets and the Rut- land pattern. Wire grab irons and metal stirrups came next. Adding a hand brake some- what closer in appearance to the prototype was the other change from John’s models. The only photo I found while working on the models didn’t give a clear view of the device, so I guesstimated it. A clear photo of the brake staff on Rutland 2762 turned up af- ter I finished the models. Rich- ard Dermody took the photo when the car was on the Green Mountain Railroad in 1990, sev-
eral years after John detailed his cars. Using that photo as a guide, further searching led to a photo from Richard Bale’s collection. It shows that brake staff in its nor- mal and lowered positions on a different flatcar. Based on that photo, the Rutland cars appear to have had Feasible Drop Brake Shafts by the National Railway Appliance Company. These could rotate 90 degrees to avoid getting crushed by overhanging loads. The mount is hardly visible when the cars are running, but I includ- ed it because it adds a distinctive touch to the plain cars.
The round shape at the bottom of the fixture is a piece of bronze wire squeezed around the shank of a drill bit, leaving two short vertical extensions. The face of the piece was slightly flattened with a file. Bending the tops of the extensions inward 90 degrees
74 RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
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