TOFC/COFC Dilemna

[edburchell]

I was starting to build my intermodal tofc/cofc facility when I was faced with a dilemna. I needed 30+ trailers to fill the scene up, and so I looked through my model boxes....not one trailer. I went to the dollar store and came back with my usual craft paints, glue, and hobby blades and a small game for my kids. It was a cheap knockoff of the Jenga game. I opened the box and all these nice 1/2" square rectangular blocks fell to the floor...I picked one up. So armed with my hobby knife, cardboard and cereal box, a section of cable tv cable, some glue, a bit of wire, and paint and the finished product is below.
Starting with a block of wood:

Adding 1/8th cardboard to bottom...and 1/16th cardstock to sides

Adding some paint, strips of cereal box cardstock, the inner sleeve from cable tv cable for tires...along with wire for axles and this is what I came up with:

N scale 40' trailers(set of two)...$8.99 US
Cost to build one of these(my version)..........$0.15 Canadian
Look on people's faces when I tell them it was made by Kelloggs, Rogers Cable and Hasbro...Priceless
For everything else in N scale there's cardboard!!!!

 

[jsoflo]

Awesome job, that looks great, can't believe what it came from!

Also on the $$ saving front, saw a great tip on creating those gigantic stacks of containers you see at intermodal facilities and ports: use a front of actual N scale containers, but behind it, cut the containers behind this for those sections that stick out, leaving a hollow back that nobody can see and leaving the appearence of a huge container stack without buying loads of containers.

Great work!

 

[Clerk]

WOW Ed. That looks fantastic :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[60103]

How much for another 9 games? :thumb:

jsoflo:
i think with 16 containers you can make a pile 4x4x4 (64). Someone else can figure out how to do it if you don't model the far side.

 

[edburchell]

Each game contains about 20 pieces so that's 2 bucks to meet my quota for trailers....a box of cereal cost $2.95 and I feed the kids too....the wire and cable TV wire cost me nothing so basically I can furnish an ENTIRE empire for under $45 Canadian. Or $10 if you have a layout like mine.

 

[train1]

Now that's ingenuity for ya. When in doubt.... improvise :thumb:

 

[2-8-2]

Well done! :thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:

Threads like these are always among my favorites. I know it's helped me look at things in a different way. To look at a game piece and say, "Hey, I can use that for a semi trailer!"...that's pretty inventive.

 

[60103]

Hi ed. I got the impression there were 3 pieces! Sorry. Are those pieces the game?

 

[Herc Driver]

That is great!

 

[jsoflo]

Ummmmm.......... what do the kids do with the game without any pieces? hamr

 

[edburchell]

Here is the second scratchbuild based on the same idea as my trailers. Although this time instead of cereal box for the sides I chose IDE cable from an old computer. I plan on making the outside of the stack with these and inside will be simple blocks of wood with detailed ends.