[MLC] Equipment Flatcar & Boxcar

Hello,

here’s part 3 of the rolling stock rebuilt. First I ripped down my old tool & work car. The shack and open workbench got scrapped, while the detail parts got sorted. Those that are still useful and matching to the new scale got stored or added to the caboose interior. The new”Supply & Equpiment Flatcar” will be used to haul logging equipment for log loading and others.

Afterwards, I took care of the boxcar i.e. camp & crew car. The photos above are showing the car as it was before the work started. My first plan was to cut off 35mm at the top of the side walls as I did on the caboose. But I came to close to the windows and had to replace them as well, which started to become very difficult. I also had to rebuilt the small section above the door, which made the whole job much more complicated. Best would be to cut at the lower end, but the floor from plywood is screwed and glued to the side walls and the boards on the outside are longer to cover half of the frame below.

Finally I decided to go the more complicated “easy” way and removed the whole body from the chassis. The chassis got an all new planking from boards I cut years ago for my new BCL&RR flatcars which never got built.

Back on the boxcar body itself, I placed new nails at the lower portion of the boards and lined out the cutting lines all around. I used my circular saw for the cutting, which worked perfect. I added some enforcement braces across the door area to secure the wiggle section above the doors.

Since the car now features a detailed floor, I decided to spend some attention to the plain plywood walls on the inside as well. I painted bord-joints with a pencil and hot-glued thin stripes in place to represent the timber-framework.

Once the car body was mounted on the flatcar, I cut off the doors as well and reinstalled them with all the hardware. Ad on the previous rebuilds, the car now looks longer and wider, just perfect for a 24′ long 3′ gauge boxcar.

By now, the car has no further interior, as I use it regularly to hold all the steam-up equipment on meets & events. But with the new details inside, it’s a pleasure to run the car with open doors..

Cheers, Gerd

[MLC] Rebuild of caboose #7 to 1:7-scale

And on we go….

the last week, I rebuild caboose #7 to the new scale of my 5″-gauge trains. When I build this caboose for my Bear Creek Lumber & Railroad, I had the unusual 4-wheel cabooses of the Uintah Railway in mind.

So the tiny and low placed windows are coming from the Uintah design. When I removed the copula during the last rebuild, I had plans to enlarge the windows on the top, but finally I didn’t. I was just to lazy for this additional rebuild. Finally, this will now turn into a benefit…

First I removed most of the interior before I started the rebuilt. The wooden strips on the outside are simply nailed in place, so it’s easy to lift them off for changes. I replaced the original fake doors with new ones in 1:7 scale.

The center photo above shows the cutting line. The black marker line is only for the photo, there’s a true pencil line for exact cutting below. The whole caboose got reduced in height by 2.16 inches.

Once the side walls were cut down, the roof immediately fits into place as before. As on the Shay, the model of the caboose has well won in “mass” while losing the “toy-character”.

I topped up the paint as necessary and started to reinstall the interior. I added some parts from the work caboose as well, as the work caboose will be rebuilt into an equipment flatcar later. As before, the caboose features interior lightning, but I didn’t reinstall the red lanterns yet. I’m looking for a new solution for the end-of-train marker light.

At the entrance to this post, I mentioned that I skipped the rebuilt of the windows last time… As we see today, this was a very good decision. One could even think, that there was some subliminal inspiration somewhere in my back head, that one day, I would switch scale as I do right now… Remember, the Shay finally was also a very simple rebuilt…

Last week I also evaluated the existing 20′ logging flatcars, which will perfectly fit as 22’6″ flatcars for the new scale of 1:7 without changes.

Next project will be the camp & box car, which might be a bit more difficult.

[MLC] Shay – Re-gaugeing the other way

Hello, after I checked my other 5″-gauge rolling stock for useability in 1:7 scale as well (and they will look great, promised), I couldn’t wait to get the re-gaugeing started. Usually, re-gaugeing means the change of wheel-gauge on a loco, but in my case, I just cut the cab down to change the scale, which […]

[MLC] Measuring and calculating on my Shay

Hello my friends, when I looked at photos of my 2″-scaled live steam Shay in the past month, I interfered with the proportions of my loco, compared to typical Shay locos. To match the already existing rolling stock of my railroad, I build the Shay in 1:6-scale, as my back-in-time Bear Creek Lumber & Railroad […]

[MLC] Logging Flatcars – part 2

Good morning, the new logging flatcars for the Moody Lumber Company are ready. Once the side sills were ready for assembling, I took all parts together to create the basic car frames. Once a frame was done, I painted it in my prefered freight car color and laid them into the sun. Once the third […]

[MLC] Logging Flatcars – part 1

Hello, when I cleaned the workshop two weeks ago, I found lots of timber cut-offs and I decided to use them for a project I had in mind for a long time. During the last Moody Lumber operation session at Zürich, I had several derailments with the loaded disconnects. The heavy log loads. Most were […]

[MLC] The tale of 3 roof-slats – building a new flat car

Hello fellows, once upon a time, three roof slats decided to go and see the world behind the horizon. They liked to see other areas as well as taking on some serious task… They just got rid of being ordinary roof slats. No issue, the Moody Lumber Co. has its own car-carpentry ;-) First, the […]

[MLC] Shay #1 is now ready for regular service

Hi, during the children’s treat last week, the Shay proved her power and function during 8 hours of non-stop operation. As reported last week, the loco also showed some issues, which got solved in the meantime. The packing nut of the front cylinder was self-loosening, so I added locking screws to keep them in place. […]

[MLC] Logging Forney #2

Hello loggers, since the car roster is mostly done, it’s time to spend some attention to my Forney loco. Last year, I spend a rebuild to make her look “Maine style”, which doesn’t match the new logging approach anymore. The new logging Forney at the Moody Lumber Co. should be more solid ans sturdy and […]

[MLC] Water Car #3 (Riding car)

Today I’ve a “fast project”. Last year, I build a new riding car to go with my Maine-style Forney, based on a typical tender. This car doesn’t fit well into the new logging railroad style, so I decided to repaint it into some kind of old tender, reused as water car on the logging railroad. […]