RMC/Dremel Kitbashing Award
A minimum of
$100 and a Dremel Rotary Tool Kit with a variable-speed Dremel 3000 rotary tool and accessories are awarded to the monthly winner of the RMC/Dremel Kitbashing Award. Models must
consist of at least 50 percent commercial components. Entries must include
at least two high- resoluti on photos (minimum 3,000 pixels wide) and a short descripti ve text of the model and its constructi on. All entries must
be submitt ed on a CD or DVD; e-mail submissions will not be accepted.
Please mail to: Railroad Model Craft sman, ATTN: Dremel Award, 6324 N. Chatham Ave, Box 117 Kansas City, MO 64151
Unused entries
may be retained for future editorial use in Railroad Model Craft sman.
Robert A. Boyd Photos by
Chip Van Gilder
Maintenance-of- Way on the Puget Sound Road
When The Milwaukee Road's
built its Puget Sound Extension in the early 1900s, the railroad used heavy construction equip- ment available in that day. When Milwaukee spun off the extension in 1917, the more modern equip- ment was removed along with most of the rolling stock, leav- ing the newly independent Puget Sound & St. Paul with a rag-tag assortment of outdated gear. The Puget Sound operated for
the next 50 years with circa-1900s Maintenance-of-Way equipment such as this Bucyrus 25-ton steam crane. Light cranes of this sort are used everywhere for routine track and bridge repair, as well as mi- nor derailments, allowing the rail- roads to make do with relatively few of the large, expensive wreck- ing cranes. I kitbashed this eccentric piece
of MoW gear and its accompany- ing crane tender starting with a modern Walthers 20-ton diesel crane. The model depicts X-0089 as it appeared in January 1942, displaying the wear and tear of 30- plus years of steady use and mini- mal maintenance.
90 RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
Construction I felt the Walthers model lacked
the massive construction this sort of equipment was noted for, par- ticularly the fishbelly sideframes. It also lacked the outriggers this type of equipment needs, so the first step was to beef up the chas- sis substantially. I started by grinding the bot-
tom side girder flanges flush to the main girder faces with a Dre- mel tool to provide room for the fishbelly girders. The outriggers were made from
pieces of 5/32-inch styrene I-beam clamped between two lengths of 5/32-inch styrene channel that stretch across the width under the deck. These channels had to be filed away in the center to clear the pivot hub. Once the outriggers were installed, I covered the chan- nels with a piece of 0.010-inch x 0.250-inch styrene to lock the I-
Above: Note the rust on the underside of the boom where the paint was scraped away by resti ng on the tender’s boom saddle.
beams in place. The pairs of fishbellies were
then built up around the channel assembly. The fishbelly girders have side plates of 0.010 x 0.250- inch styrene reinforced on the inside below the original Zimac sideframes with 0.040-inch sty- rene. The vertical ribs are 0.020 x 0.020-inch styrene, the bottom flanges are 0.020 x 0.080 inches, and the outrigger pockets were made with bits of 3/64-inch angle. I made all the plastic-on-metal joints with extra thick ACC. Stock trucks and Kadee cou-
plers completed this part of the project.
Chassis I assembled the rotating crane
chassis pretty much as it came from the box. The Zimac carbody
AWARD
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