Redwood Empire Division
Hacksaw Bill Writes Again
Bill Leventon’s Articles from the Redwood Empire Division CALLBOARD
BUILDING THE WESTERN PACIFIC TRAIN #2--THE ROYAL GORGE
I don't know why, but it was early this year that I finally obtained an old (November 1974) copy of Trains magazine. In it was a series of photos from Robert Hanft, two of which intrigued me. Both aerial photos, taken October 7, 1948, these two photos showed a six car consist on the Western Pacific of Train #2, the Royal Gorge. The cars were all heavyweight, except for a streamline dome-coach, and the train was powered by a 4-8-2. This train spoke to me from the photos and said, "model me"; and, armed with the Trains magazine and "Western Pacific Steam Locomotives, Passenger Trains and Cars" by Guy Dunscomb, I proceeded to do just that. The consist as listed in the magazine included: express car, Harriman coach, streamline dome-coach, diner, Pullman sleeper and a Pullman observation lounge.
The first car:
Judging from the photos and confirmed by Guy's book, the express car is actually a Harriman baggage car, car numbers 121-140. Somebody, I'm not sure who, recently offered a painted and lettered model of this car in brass for $375, which is $360 more than I care to pay. Therefore, I started with a Model Die Casting Harriman baggage car kit pre-lettered for W.P. The baggage door placement is too close to the center of the car for the W.P., but that was a concession I was willing to make.
What can be considered the biggest aesthetic discrepancy of the model can be easily corrected: Model Die Casting, as well as Athearn, in their heavyweight cars, injection mold their trucks with talgo arms for coupler mounting. One truck fits all cars offered. This means that the truck placement under any baggage, R.P.O., other head-cars and possibly the diners are in the wrong spot: they are not close enough to the ends of the car. After plotting a more appropriate location for the trucks, I removed the existing truck mounting boss from the bottom of the car. I then drilled new holes for truck mounting and glued in bosses protruding outward. Next, I sectioned the floor close to the bolsters on the side toward the center of the car. I then sectioned the floor on the car end side of the bolster so that when the bolster pieces are rotated 180 degrees, and the floor pieces are reassembled, it will fit onto the new bosses glued in the car body. With the fitting of the car floor to the body, the bosses were cut to length. Couplers were then mounted to the body. I use Kadee #5s and position the knuckle opening to center under the diaphragm edge. This allows for operation but the diaphragms touch under coupler compression. Fortunately, I had a few sets of correct trucks from Central Valley. With the trucks in the right spot and couplers set to the correct height and distance from the car ends, the next step is the roof.
The ventilators provided in the kit are the wrong type and are in the wrong position for the model desired. Using the shank of the kit ventilators to plug the roof holes, glued in securely, the resulting nubbins were filed flush and filled with putty (I like squadron white putty for this job). Masking around the areas to be filed or sanded will save rivet detail from being damaged. Again using Guy's book for new ventilator placement, eight holes were drilled and Details Associates Harriman style vents, P/N 36604, were installed. With the roof painted, trucks and couplers installed and diaphragms attached, the car can be called complete...or it can accept a plethora of detail parts to really finish the model!
Bill Leventon
From the January 1998 CALLBOARD
CMR/I AND CAR DETECTION
A few weeks ago at a Sonoma County Model Railroad Society meeting, we were discussing CMR/I car detection in the hidden bi-directional staging yard. This yard is double-ended with a "front door" and a "back door". We were discussing "deceleration blocks" (for lack of a better term) and their lengths so that trains do not foul the turnout ladders at both ends. We already equip cars with one "detected" wheelset and know that locomotives are detected through the resistance in their motors. We also know that most steam locomotives electrically pick up on the right side while the tenders pick up on the left side (some diesels do this as well). What this means is that the steam locomotive will not be detected until the first wheel of the tender is in the deceleration block. For a Big Boy, this means that it will have traveled thirteen inches before detection occurs. Since we were talking about two deceleration blocks in series and having them at both ends of the staging yard, each yard track would have a net loss of twenty-six inches in usable length. What to do?
What I have done is to wiper steam locomotives to behave electrically like Kato diesels so detection will occur soon. Not all people may be inclined to go to that extreme; however, early detection is desirable. By taking a piece of copper-clad board .312" x .500" x .040" T and etching two parallel traces, wipers and a chip resistor can be soldered on (see sketch). This device can then be glued to the cover place with the wipers touching the backside of the flanged wheel of the first driver. Each locomotive must, however, be taken on a case-by-case basis. By doing this, the lengths of the deceleration blocks can be cut by 2/3 to 3/4, increasing body track length without fouling the yard ladders.
Now for the other end of the train. As we currently operate, cabooses are equipped with one "detected" axle. Which end of the car has this axle? Some railroads operate with cupolas to the rear, some operate with cupolas to the front and some don't care. This may not be a big deal for cars that are thirty-four feet in length; but what about passenger cars of 80 feet? Not all passenger trains have an observation car to designate the rear, and not all passenger trains operate with the same consist in the same order, designating what is to be "forward". If the detected axle of the last 80' passenger car is toward the train's front, that means that the last eleven inches of the car is undetected and the back door of the yard ladder is unprotected. Through research, either by photo or prose, you may find that anything can happen in railroading and sometimes it is neat to model that occurrence. A coach may be in a train as a tail car (I will use a single door car as an example) with the door towards the front of the train, or it may be toward the rear. By equipping all tail cars, cabooses or otherwise, and all cars over 50' in length with a detected wheelset at BOTH ends, the length of the deceleration block can again be shortened without leaving the back door open and unprotected....CYP (Cover Your Posterior)!
Bill Leventon
From the November 1997 CALLBOARD
BACKDATING STREAMLINE PASSENGER CARS
A few years ago I had a bright idea. I had obtained a copy of the Model Railroad Cyclopedia #6 from 1950 and in it were drawings of streamline-fluteside cars "suitable for the El Capitan" on the Santa Fe. Hot dog! I thought, as the Concor coach and observations matched the drawings. I then proceeded to buy Concor cars. Later I acquired a copy of Car and Locomotive Plans for Model Railroaders, copyright 1948 by the Santa Fe Railroad. It had the same drawings as the Model Railroad Cyclopedia of 1950. It also provided car numbers and prototype manufacture. Subsequent research showed that while the window placement on the coach, observation and diner as depicted in the S.F. planbook are for cars of Budd manufacture, the cars themselves as drawn are clearly of Pullman-Standard design. This made the drawings in the two books and the Concor models wrong. By this time I had equipped a good many Concor cars with Athearn double-equalized trucks in place of the more modern single-equalized trucks provided in the kit. What I really wanted were cars that showed attributes of Budd manufacture. What to do next?
About this time I was able to borrow a copy of a Southwest Prototype modeler magazine that had an article on Budd car fluting pattern. I counted four versions. I then looked at A.H.M./Rivarossi/I.H.C. streamline-fluteside cars. They seem to be of 1953 vintage Budd with rounded corners on the rain gutter and doors and lacking letterboard flutes. What I wanted were cars from 1938-1946 with letterboard flutes. I measured the distance between the two letterboard rails on the I.H.C. cars and gained a number of .140". Idea time: seven K&S brass rods of .020" diameter would fit between the letterboard rails and make flutes. I first removed the rain gutter in the letterboard area. I then used a piece of Evergreen strip styrene .022" x .135" (I don't have the Evergreen number handy) cut to the appropriate length for the Santa Fe decals and glued it to the car centered in the letterboard area. Working from photos, I cut and fit the brass rods, butting them up to the letterboard. I then installed them with Sper Glue in groups of seven. At this point, I have also exchanged the single-equalized trucks for the Athearn double-equalized trucks. I have yet to correct the window configuration and backdate the doors, but I feel I am on my way in generating Pre-War Bud streamline cars.
Bill Leventon
From the July 1997 CALLBOARD
IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT TURNOUT
Ten years ago I was involved with the H.O. scale module group. One of its many specifications was the use of Atlas turnouts #6, code 100. The Mark I turnout was offered at that time and Dave Gibbons showed a method of jumpering to improve electrical continuity. The turnout worked well but I still hate the big point-pivot rivets. Subsequently, Atlas offered the Mark II turnout which now has an isolated, powerful frog and die cast point rails. While there were improvements in some areas, problems were also generated. Whereas the Mark I could be jumpered for better operation, the Mark II was a basket case since you could not solder to the movable die cast point rails. Coupled with the obnoxious point-pivot rivets, I have had enough. I removed all point rails to within six ties of the frog, filed from rail and installed new point rails, replaced and relocated the rail jumpering system and still used the stock throwbar. Now I could run my trains through this turnout, anywhere, anytime, and have it look decent. I should point out that, as a personal opinion, that most turnouts do a credible job of selecting diverging routes for trains to follow. However, they may make poor limit switches when routing electrical power. That is why my turnouts are electrically "bulletproof" when it comes to letting my trains pass through. Power routing to divergent tracks is accomplished by contacts on switch machines. All this might make for a clinic.
Fast forward to the present: I've heard from people who "hang ten on the Net" that the best turnout for D.C.C.-controlled layouts, electrically speaking, is the Atlas turnout. This is true because each point rail is polarized to its adjacent stock rail, as opposed to traditional "live frog" turnouts. The challenge now is to make your favorite turnout behave electrically like an Atlas turnout. Some will be easier to convert than others. The primary job of a turnout is to allow a train to pass without table-thumping, train nudging or generating a shower of blue sparks. If a turnout fails to do this, all other niceties incorporated are just gimmicks.
Bill Leventon
ATHEARN STREAMLINE PASSENGER CAR:
UPGRADE ON BASIC APPEARANCE AND PERFORMANCE
The Athearn streamline passenger car can, with a minimum amount of work, be made to fit in quite well with cars such as W&R Enterprise brass models. With the modifications described below, the roof line, skirt line, and diaphragms line up with the brass model. Not bad for a then-$6.00 car (like just about everything else, they now cost a little more).
1. Take one truck and drill a #50 or 1/16-inch hole in the center of the coupler mounting boss. This will be used as a compass for finding coupler mounting position.
2. Cut off all remaining talgo arms flush with truck bolsters.
3. Pre-fit car floors to bodies with smooth slip-fit. This is important on SL RPO cars as the body is too tight on floors.
4. Cut two pieces of .040" styrene 1/2" square per car times the number of cars to be done.
5. Remove paint on floor from bolster to end of car between floor beams. (On unpainted cars this is not necessary.)
6. Glue styrene pads between floor rails and flush with end of floor; size to fit area.
7. Scribe car centerline on styrene pads.
8. Take truck frame (step 1) with drill bit inserted through coupler boss hole and set on floor. Using the truck frame as a compass, scribe an arc across the styrene pad through the scribed centerline.
9. Drill a #50 or 1/16" hole where the scribed lines intersect. This is where the coupler will be mounted.
10. Nibble and file car floor bolster boss flush with center sill. (+.005, -.000)
11. Drill and tap 2 holes 5/32" inward from body bolster on centerline. This is to provide a pin to prevent the trucks from rotating more than their required travel. Tap #2-56
12. Take Kadee #5 box upper (the one with the boss on it) and remove lip on top front.
13. Glue upper box to styrene pad centered on pre-drilled holes.
14. Tap through coupler box with #2-56 tap.
15. Mount Kadee #5 couplers using #2-56 short screws provided in kit.
16. Mount trucks using #2-56 x 1/1" RH screws and washers provided in kit. Cut mounting boss on truck to just above car floor to allow a little "rock".
17. Insert #2-56 x 3/8" in holes from inside of car floor outward. These are the holes of step 11.
18. Take car body and, at the end door vestibules, trim the base of the vestibule to a 45-degree angle between the vestibule uprights.
19. File a notch between the vestibule uprights and parallel with V-door bottom 1/32" deep. This is to allow clearance for the coupler box in its new position.
Car is now complete for this sequence.
20. Remove box from floor bottom flush with bottom edge of skirting. Many methods work equally well for this job.
21. Cut a piece of styrene .040" thick to fit hole in door at inside-of-floor level.
22. Car can now be assembled and car weight installed, and is otherwise ready for detailing to be added.
Bill Leventon
From the December '98 Callboard
Hacksaw not required
After racking my brain over rivet counting, trying to be perfect, there comes a time when it is time to "play trains'. Settling for the look and feel of a railroad can be just as rewarding as counting nuts and bolts. I'll explain. It seems that more and more people have more space to railroad than times in the past, But not all modelers have the space they would like to have. In a small setting a cab-forward locomotive, two boxcars and a caboose looks as ridiculous as a SD-90MAC pulling two auto-racks, in HO scale. However, HO gauge, with a multitude of track components, can fill small rooms with ease. It is what can now be put on HO gauge track that intrigues me: the Bachmann train sets in On30. Reviewers of these sets have been going gaga over them. Myself included. A train, large enough to see and touch, be in scale, and fit in a small space has appeal. For those of us who suffer from P.F.S. (Post-Forty-Syndrome) with rude awakening that eyes and hands don't work as well as they once did, larger trains may be the solution.
Until now anyone working in strange scales and strange gauges had to scratch-build or kit-bash most everything. The work of Gordon North among others, in On30 comes to mind. I know from my experiments in Sn2 that you can build and build and build and build and it may take years before anything comes to fruition. I like to tinker, but enough is enough. The beauty of the Bachmann offering is that you can take the train out of the box, put it on the track, and it goes! You can run a railroad immediately. This allows one to tinker with trains because he wants to tinker, not because he has to tinker.
Back in the October 1962 issue of Model Railroader magazine there was an article called: Narrow Gauge to Ophir. It was about a railroad built to the scale of 1/5"=1', Tn3 1/4, and run on HO gauge track. Commercial mechanisms were used but everything else had to be scratch-built or kit-bashed. Let's keep it simple and do On30. While we're at it, since I like the sociability aspect of model railroading, that is sipping with friends while I'm switching, it might be nice if more than a few were to partake in On30. Round robin operating sessions with interchange equipment can be had with trains that run good and look good. And are affordable. If this is appealing, then On30 may be for you.
Hacksaw Bill
March 99
Building the Western Pacific Train #2, "The Royal Gorge"
The Second Car
The second car is a Harriman coach, seventy-eight feet, eight and one half inches in length and has ten pairs of windows. As a WP, car the numbers were 301 to 320. Number 320 was the car chosen. Both the Model Die Casting Harriman coach, which has seven side windows and the Model Power Harriman coach which has eight side windows, were considered. The WP coach requires two kits to build it. The wide windows on these models will be later divided into pairs of windows using strip styrene. For this model I chose the Model Power product since I already had one on hand, and they have interiors. Actually, I had one coach and one observation to work with and discovered that the rivet pattern differs slightly from carbody to carbody. No matter, it will still work. Also, some Model Power cars are partially glued together at the factory and are a pain to disassemble. Next time I will use Model Die Casting cars.
I cut the first carbody between the eighth wide window and the bathroom window, with the intention of splicing the carbodies in the center of the window spacing, between the rivets. I cut the second carbody between the second and third wide windows. Filing and fitting the two body parts, they were then connected using styrene strips behind the window spacers, and across the bottom of the floor underneath the seam. The underframes or floors were then cut into pieces that splice together under the opposing end to the carbody splice. The floor should fit snug.
Two roof sections are cut apart and spliced for length, leaving rows of rivets intact. The stock roof vents are removed, the holes filled, new holes drilled and Details Associates Harriman style roof vents (part # 36604) installed. Check Photos and drawings in "Western Pacific Steam Locomotives, Passenger Trains and Cars" by Guy Dunscomb.
From the July 1999 CALLBOARD
Struck by a bolt of lighting:
A few years back when I was modular railroading in HO standard gauge, I had a need for a group of buildings for a small town scene. The Tyco Center Street series had just what I wanted, with a little hacksaw work. One of the offerings was the Miracle Furniture Company. It took three kits to generate a two –story building and a lot of furniture for the showroom floor. One aspect of these kits is the 12 volt incandescent lights provided. Their brightness can be adjusted for changes in the ambient room lighting at the different locations of module set-up. Planning to light buildings and change light bulbs, BEFORE the building is assembled, eliminates the need to imitate Dr. Kildare and surgically remove built-in light bulbs. On this structure, with two stories, I mounted two of the stock fixtures on the underside of the roof, which is removable. When illuminated, these two bulbs made light spots on the showroom floor, with the corner areas being substantially darker. To counter act this I installed a piece of light diffuser panel from a drop-in ceiling fixture. The light coming through the diffuser panel was then evenly dispersed throughout the showroom. See figure below. The customers of this store appreciated the fact they could see what they were buying. 4-11-99
July 1999 (part 9)
BUILDING THE WESTERN PACIFIC TRAIN #2, THE ROYAL GORGE
The Third Car:
The third car is a Budd manufactured dome-coach. ConCor now offers a dome car lettered for the California Zephyr. This car, however is really a Pullman-Standard product, specifically the Santa Fe 500 series. I was lucky enough to obtain an earlier offering by ConCor which, in fact, was a Dome-coach. (ConCor has since re-released the Budd dome coach although I have not seen it for the CZ as of yet).
The model, out of the box, has the skirts removed over the trucks so that the car can take what is considered to be model railroad curves. One of the most visible characteristics of the Budd dome-coach, and the rest of the CZ, is full length skirting. This plays hob with tight radius curves but the car appearance is greatly improved. When this car has full length skirting it needs thirty-nine inch radius minimum. To make the skirt fill-in pieces, I used skirting pieces form an I.H.C. Streamline-fluteside car that had suffered the effects of Bill. These fill-in pieces have almost the exact same flutes as the ConCor model and the difference does not noticeably show.
To get the car low enough I removed the truck mounting bosses from the frame center sill. I then cut the heads off the truck mounting push pins and glued them in place. And drilled and tapped 2-56. The stock trucks were used with the boss filed to almost flush. In place of the stock wheelsets I substituted KADEE 33 inch wheels. This should get the carbody to the correct height. Check my measurements. A 2-56 screw and a retaining washer holds the trucks on. After removing the cast on diaphragms, a piece of styrene .020" thick was glued to the car bottom for coupler mounting. The frame rails Were then relieved, flush with the styrene pad, to allow for coupler box mounting. KADEE couplers were used with 2-56 screws, the upper box being glued in place. Diaphragms for this car are from American Limited and are the operating diaphragms P/N 9000. Painting, lettering and a few detail parts complete the car. 4-8-99
Hacksaw BillWrites Again Part 10
Building the Western Pacific train #2, the Royal Gorge
The fourth car:
The fourth car is a heavyweight diner and comes from the pre-painted I.H.C. eight car set. Although it is lettered for WP, it is clearly a Santa Fe car. However, looking at the diagram in Guy Dunscomb’s book "Locomotives and Passenger Cars of the WP" I found that the windows of the model matched the diagram when the mullions were removed. These WP diners have Harriman roofs with and without air conditioning. The pre-lettered car name here is California and I chose to model the car as the Robert Hanft photo showed in November ‘74 issue of Trains Magazine. The Harriman roofs from Model Die Casting were used. After filling all holes, they were cut and fit for length and glued together. A word of caution; I cut and spliced in relation to the restroom vents, having that part of each roof becoming scrap. I found that the roofs are not symmetrical from side to side and when lengthening the roof components should be taken elephant-style. The roof vents over the kitchen area are from Model Die Casting and are inserted as per the book diagram. The roof vents over the seating area are Detail Associates Harriman style roof vents (part # 36604) and are also installed per the car diagram.
The trucks and couplers come next. As the model comes, the trucks are held on by a push pin directly over the center axle of the six wheel truck. Since I like to be able to service my rolling stock when necessary with ease, I moved the mounting position .230" toward the end of the car. With the wheel-less truck held in place, and in line with the car body, drill through both the truck and the car floor. After removing the stock truck mounting boss from the car floor, ream both the new truck mounting hole and the new floor hole to accept the threaded boss made from the original wheels. (See "A use for something useless" in the Nov-Dec ‘97 CALLBOARD ) After tapping the new boss-56, install the truck and a washer 1/16" thick with a 2-56 screw and retaining washer. If there is too much car rock, file the mounting boss to almost flush with the truck bottom. To mount the couplers, glue a piece of styrene .060" thick between the center sill rails. From the end of the car, which is recessed behind the diaphragm mount, measure back .250" and drill and tap a 2-56 on centerline. Glue the KADEE #5 box upper in place and assemble the car. The car is now ready for weighting and detailing. 4/8/99
Hacksaw Bill Writes Again Part 11
Building the Western Pacific train #2, the Royal Gorge
The fifth car:
The fifth car left me in a quandary. Trying to positively identify this car is an aerial photo printed in a twenty-five year old Trains Magazine ad without the benefit of the appropriate consist list left me a choice. Robert Hanft, in his description of the train, labeled it a Pullman sleeper. This car, from the pre-painted eight car I.H.C. set is numbered 393, which is a cafe-coach. I therefore chose to have the fifth car be the cafe-coach.
Not much needs to be done to this car. The trucks and couplers are mounted the same as the diner. The window location on the model are for a sleeper and are passable for the cafe-coach. Anyway I am not going to change them. Check references including "Western Pacific Steam Locomotives, Passenger Trains and Cars" by Guy Dunscomb, pages 340-341. The next move is also a judgement call since I don’t have all the information I would like to have. Remove the steps from one end of the car. With the removed step end pointing to your right, fill in with styrene below the door and install a stirrup step. The door on the other side is blanked out, I’m not sure how, for refrigerators. Touch-up paint and detail to suit.. 4/8/99
