Over the last year, I have been working to put together a complete American Freedom Train in O scale. I first found a complete set of the 10 K-line Display cars and their 2 Showcase cars. This was followed by Lionel's 5 passenger cars and 101 entrance car, an MTH Baggage car 100 (to be modified to car 20), and a Legacy GS-4. There are a couple more Lionel cars to be acquired, but notably missing are the three 85' Flat Cars with the 10 concession trailers called "wagons" (Circus terminology). I found three Atlas 89' undecorated Flat Cars that could be detailed to match the prototype. The wagons would need to be scratch built. Fortunately, decals are available for the 10 wagons, additional vehicles, and the Flat Cars.
I contacted Todd at Accuen Media and purchased a set of decals for the wagons. BTW Todd created the FreedomTrain.org website. After pouring over the photos on the site and a few in All Aboard America, I started building. I started with wagons 11, 12, and 14. Along with wagon 20, they had 2 container doors and 2 cam lock/operating bars on one end. So I started with Atlas Trainman 20' containers as the basis for these wagons.
First I shortened the containers to their required lengths. Dimensions are listed in freedomtrain.org in the Roster section. Wagons 11 is 19' long, while 12 and 14 are each 17'. Here I ran into a problem. The decals are sized for standard 20' lengths. You can build most of the cars to correct length except wagon 14. The ticket information between the windows and the length of the fold up Tickets signs on the roof require a minimum 19' wagon length. So 19' it is. I shorted the wagons by removing a section in the middle and glueing the pieces back together with MEK. It does not matter where you remove the section as long as you avoid the assembly screws. Then I scraped off the 2nd pair of cam locks/bars with a chisel blade and sanded, filled with putty and sanded some more. I attached 220 grit sandpaper to a piece of plate glass and sanded the top, both sides and the plain end until the surfaces were flush and some paint was removed (to allow better glue adhesion). I also sanded off the little nubs on the bottom that hold stacked containers in place.
I covered the sides, top, and end with 0.020" Styrene. While these can be cut by hand using a straight edge and #11 blade, I used my NWSL Duplicutter. This greatly increased speed and accuracy in cutting sheet styrene squarely. I didn't need to measure the pieces. I placed the container in the Duplicutter to set the size, locked down the slide, then inserted the styrene, locked down the bar, scored the styrene and snapped it. When cutting the top, I inserted the container with the 2 side pieces in the Duplicutter. This automatically sized the top to overlap the edges of the styrene sides. Likewise I shimmed with a piece of styrene on one end when setting the long dimension of the top and sides so there was a slight overhang on the front of the wagon. The front piece was recessed.
Before mounting the sides, I cut the window openings in wagons 12 and 14. The decal sheets show exact locations for the windows, doors, and other details based on a 20' length, so I adjusted the window spacing. After marking the windows, I cut them out with 1/4" and 1/2' wood chisels, and filed the edges. Pieces of 0.010" sheet styrene were glued to the inside of the windows. To represent the doors, I applied strips of Evergreen #8204 HO Scale 2x4s to the door outline
I glued the top, then sides and front with MEK applied to the container. The corners were very tight but the rectangular box was too plain looking. I added Evergreen #291 1.5mm styrene angles to the top and front sides and #113 strips as window sills to add visual detail.
If you have never worked with MEK or other thin solvent based glues like Plastruct Plastic Weld, they are great to work with. You apply it to one or both surfaces and press together. They rapidly weld the pieces together. Alternatively, you can position the pieces together and just slop the glue on the joint. It will find its way into the joint. IMPORTANT: don't touch the glue soaked pieces until the glue is dry or else you will leave a very non-scale fingerprint. If you leave them alone, the slopped on glue with simply evaporate. MEK evaporates so fast that with larger parts, you have to apply glue 2 or 3 times to the pieces before assembly. These glues really enable you to build rapidly.
Now it was time to build the undercarriages. The rear fixed undercarriage uses these parts:
(6) 9/16" pieces #262 0.080" Channel
(2) 1 7/8" pieces #264 1/8" Channel
(4) 9/16" X 7/16" 0.020" sheet styrene "home plates" (Note: the 2 interior pieces are trimmed to fit between the 1/8" channels. Drill the axle holes before assembly)
(2) 7/8" length #135 0.030 x0.100" Strips (one end cut at 45 degrees)
(1) 3/16" piece #262 0.080" Channel
The front undercarriages pivot. I built mine to to appear that they could pivot, but they are fixed. They use these parts:
(4) 9/16" pieces #262 0.080" Channel
(2) 1 7/8" pieces #264 1/8" Channel
(4) 9/16" X 3/8" 0.020" sheet styrene "home plates" (Note: the 2 interior pieces are trimmed to fit between the 1/8" channels. Drill the axle holes before assembly)
See photos for layout.
Here are the wheel parts:
(8) A-line 116-50104 HO Trailer Tires
(4) 5/16" lengths Plastruct 90606 1/4" tubing
(4) 1/4" lengths Evergreen 3/16" rod (drilled out for brass wire)
(4) 7/16" lengths Brass wire
Once I had the first one built, I used my NWSL Chopper to cut parts for multiple wagons.
A diagram for the tow bar is included in the decals. This was constructed from 1/8" Channel with a 1/32" slice of #223 3/32" tubing for the hitch.
Two pieces of 0.020 Styrene represent the fold down Tickets signs. Decals were applied and they were glued to the roof. I'm still looking for some suitable materials to make air conditioners for Wagons 12 and 14.
This was a challenging but fun build. I will construct Wagon #20 from another 20' container. The remaining 6 Wagons do not have Trailer doors and have a variety of shapes and details. At a train show I just acquired some cheap 20' containers to use. The wagons are a lot easier when you have a nice square styrene box to build around.
Next I plan to modify the Flat cars, paint and decal them. I will update the thread.
Bob
