cnw1961 challenge #1

cnw1961

cnw1961

Member
Jan 7, 2006
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Germany
Here is my entry. I want to build a wood boxcar like the accurail car in the pic. I want to use styrene, stripwood and some Tichy Train detail parts. I already scratchbuilt some structures and was satisfied with the results, but this is my first attempt to build a freight car – it might end as a monumental failure. In this first pic you can see how I started to build the styrene body. Next step will be to apply stripwood.

Boxcar1.jpg
 
Thanks for your encouragement, but I am afraid, it’s the finish that counts, not the start., OK here are some more pics of my progress.
To build the body of the car I use .040 styrene. For finer detail I sue .020 or .012 styrene.
Before I started, I thought I should apply the stripwood right at the beginning, but now I see there are some other tings to be done first. First step: work on the ends of the body to prepare for Kadee coupler boxes.

Boxcar2.jpg

Boxcar3.jpg
 
To see if the coupler boxes are at the right height, I need to build the underframe and install the trucks. The underframe is made of strips of .040 styrene. For the thicker parts I glued the styrene in some layers and filed and sanded it until it had the right shape.

Boxcar5.jpg

Boxcar6.jpg
 
In the next pic you can see the underframe glued to the body, the holes for the trucks are already drilled.
 

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  • Boxcar7.jpg
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I didn’t plan to get so far this weekend, but I got carried away the moment I started. Now that the weekend is over, I’ll have to slow down.

O.K. One more update for today. I glued thin .040 stripwood to the sides. It really starts to look like a boxcar.

Boxcar10.jpg

Boxcar11.jpg
 
I did’nt make much progress today. I cut some .040 x .040 and .070 x .012 strips of styrene to make the braces on both ends of the body. And I installed coupler boxes and Kadee #58 couplers to see if they are working properly. That’s it for today.

Boxcar12.jpg
 
Wow nice job it looks great with the strip wood I never realized this could be done. I'll have to show my son this thread he's 15 and very adventurous . I bin trying to line him up with summer RR tasks so far I have him pretty busy on the electrical end, but I bet he'd like to do something like this.:wave:
 
I continued to work on my boxcar today. The next step was to build the roof. I made it of .040 styrene. I didn’t cut two halves for the roof, I just made one piece, cut the styrene half way through in the middle and bend it along tihe cut. It is much easier to assemble it in one piece. I cut it slightly bigger than necessary to sand it down after assembling to achieve a perfect fit.

Boxcar14.jpg

Boxcar13.jpg
 
The roof should protrude .020 on both sides. To achieve this, I laid a sheet of .020 styrene on the sandig paper. Then I took the boxcar and laid it on the styrene with only the roof touching the sandiing paper. I sanded the roof until the side of the car was firmly touching the styrene.

Boxcar15.jpg
 
In this pic you can see the result of my efforts. I am glad it is really looking like a boxcar now. I wasn’t so sure when I started this.

Boxcar16.jpg
 
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