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I thought I would start a thread on traction freight equipment.  Feel free to post things about any interurban or street railway items you are working on.  To start things off I will post a few photos of an old interurban freight trailer I picked off EBay a few years back.  I am going to start working on it and getting it into working shape.  It has some light hand lettering on it that states that the car was built in 1941 in the Schmidt shops.  The car is lettered only on one side for the Columbus and Lake Erie Electric Railway. I plan to just clean the car up. Add a few details and repaint it.  It is  of rather basic and some what crude construction.  It came on some ancient Andrews style trucks made up of rough aluminum castings. I have put my standard Athearn plastic arch bars and Intermountain wheel sets on the car as the club I am a member of ( DFW O Scale Modelers) is working on a modular traction layout now and to start out it will be 2 rail initially . I only have a small test track at home to run on and no over head put up yet.

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  • DSCN3581: Old sand cast aluminum trucks with steel wheel sets.
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Last edited by Nortonville Phil
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O27 is actually pretty well suited for O scale traction in 3-rail, as it makes for 13.5" radius curves (2-rail scale trolley curves are about 12" radius, per East Penn Traction Club standards).  If you search back through the Track Plan archives,  I did a bunch of trolley module ideas using O27 track.  

Is anyone making 3-D printed models of curved freight car ends?  If so, fitting them to plastic wood-sheathed boxcars and the like should be fairly simple... 

Mitch 

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Is anyone making 3-D printed models of curved freight car ends?  If so, fitting them to plastic wood-sheathed boxcars and the like should be fairly simple... 

Mitch 

I had made a some resin parts to permit the application of 1/32" thick scribed siding to a curved end years ago when I was making CERA freight trailers.  Mildly tricky to do but I thought those cars turned out pretty decently then

 

On the 3D direct application of a printed part to existing boxcars might expedite things, but most of the freight trailers were at least 1-2' narrower than standard freight cars.

rattler21 posted:

If anyone has an extra brass traction flat car please contact me.   John in Lansing, ILL

Who imported a brass traction flat?  The only traction flats other than scratchbuilt ones that I am aware of were the A-N/Zimmer kit (wooden) and the kit that I produced (resin/wood).

 

mwb posted:

I had made a some resin parts to permit the application of 1/32" thick scribed siding to a curved end years ago when I was making CERA freight trailers.  Mildly tricky to do but I thought those cars turned out pretty decently then

H'm!  Sounds intriguing.  

On the 3D direct application of a printed part to existing boxcars might expedite things, but most of the freight trailers were at least 1-2' narrower than standard freight cars.

(nods) True.  60xx series O27 boxcars, then?  They're narrower and sized to traction dimensions, more or less.  Not wood sided, but one can't have everything.   

Mitch 

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:
mwb posted:

I had made a some resin parts to permit the application of 1/32" thick scribed siding to a curved end years ago when I was making CERA freight trailers.  Mildly tricky to do but I thought those cars turned out pretty decently then

H'm!  Sounds intriguing.  

Couple of years back in O Scale Trains mag.

On the 3D direct application of a printed part to existing boxcars might expedite things, but most of the freight trailers were at least 1-2' narrower than standard freight cars.

(nods) True.  60xx series O27 boxcars, then?  They're narrower and sized to traction dimensions, more or less.  Not wood sided, but one can't have everything.   

Mitch 

Some of the MTH RailKing stuff to traction width,

Last edited by mwb
M. Mitchell Marmel posted:
mwb posted:
Couple of years back in O Scale Trains mag.

Which issue?   

Some of the MTH RailKing stuff to traction width,

Ooooo!  Do tell.  You have intrigued me!

Mitch 

It'll take me a while to locate what issues and what columns....

There was an article by Andy Brusgard on converting an MTH Railking container gon to a traction gon.  I did at least 2 of them for me since you can pick those up cheap, convert to 2 rail, and sell the MTH trucks for close to what you paid for the entire car.  I know I added my resin castings to the ends of these to get that radial coupler end.  Good cheap fun with lots of play value!

Last edited by mwb

Martin,

I measured the traction box car and it appears to be 1/4" scale. It is about 42' long and about 8'4" wide over the body.  I also came across a reference today to a Schmidt who modeled the Lake Shore Electric in Ohio.  This was in an early issue of Trolley Talk.  It said that he was an early modeler and builder of standard gauge traction equipment. He must have gone into O scale at some point.  

As far as traction flat cars go.  Remember there is also the kit by Midwest Train Hobby for the C&LE flat car. This is a wood kit.  Is Midwest still in business? I have one of these that I have built.

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Nortonville Phil posted:

Martin,

I measured the traction box car and it appears to be 1/4" scale. It is about 42' long and about 8'4" wide over the body.  I also came across a reference today to a Schmidt who modeled the Lake Shore Electric in Ohio.  This was in an early issue of Trolley Talk.  It said that he was an early modeler and builder of standard gauge traction equipment. He must have gone into O scale at some point.

Neat!  There's a lot of old "stuff" out there with real character worth saving and enjoying.  I do have a CERA trailer that's 17/64'ths that I just like despite it's age and size; it is rather accurate to a set of plans I have.....somewhere......that are also 17/64'ths.

As far as traction flat cars go.  Remember there is also the kit by Midwest Train Hobby for the C&LE flat car. This is a wood kit.  Is Midwest still in business? I have one of these that I have built.

 

You are correct!  I forgot about the Midwest kit.  In business, I think, yes.  Well, at least Jason's Brass Poles lists Midwest kits on eBay.

Pine Creek Railroad posted:

MWD,

    Your CG&W Car looks great, real nice job!

PCRR/Dave

Thanks!  Just my version of what was in the Brusgard article in OST - reasonably cheap project as these cars can be had very cheaply, and in my case since I'm going to put 2-rail trucks under them, reselling the 3 rail trucks makes this even a better deal.  Adding a underbody details and bolsters is easy; annoying bit is Dremeling off the cast on details and clearing that up.  Adding the rounded end castings is also pretty straightforward.

I think the Pacific Ele tric had some 40' boxcars which could be interchanged with "steam roads".

The South Shore and LIRR did have freight service.  These now are done by other companies.

The Texas Transportation Company serviced the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio TX.  Both are gone.

This is HSR in France, but is there at least one train set which carries mail?  

Yes, there was an extensive system. You need to find the book Forth Feet Below. Some of the equipment is at the Illinois Railway Museum. Last I heard some of the tunnels are still used for utility corridors. Also the Chicago Tribune had a conveyor belt for news print rolls in some of the tunnels.   The city inadverntly flooded much of the system in a construction mistake several years ago. I do not what has happened with the tunnels since then. 

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