Kitbash railroad roof?

Me too. I have a MTH Brill trolley that I need to convert to the railroad roof.

This weekend, I'm hoping to try a belt sander on an old wooden roof from an O-scale coach.  There are a number of issues:  the roof is too wide, it is curved on the bottom, and the end curves are too abrupt.   I will post the results. 

- BRUCE

Hello Guys

Yes, the belt (or hand) sanding way is what we used for over 50 years to make the curved ends of Clerestory roofs from the stock roofs (with flat blunt ends) provided long ago by Walthers Company in  O Scale ( and also in HO scales) .  They even had a metal template for sanding the roofs and checking the proper curve shape.  One trick I used to hide the rough wood grain from sanding in early years was to cover the entire upper roof including the sanded down sloping ends,  with long pre cut sections of thin file folder cardstock.  Its smooth and lends itself well to appearing to be canvas covering over the wood roofs which many older cars (railroad and streetcars and EL cars) had.

You can also carefully line-locate,  and then press in the rivet lines and patterns to the undersides of these cardstock sections --  to replicate rivet patterns on the roof exterior.  The finished painting looks great and no wood grain showing thru.

In more recent years (decades)  I used auto body shop "red spot filler" BONDO filler on wood which was sanded -- even fine sanded - to avoid the tell tale grain --- this  stuff comes in a red and white small (they have various tube sizes) tube and is pre-mixed... just squeeze it out, spread and smooth it, and let dry.  Then very fine sand the remains to a glass smooth finish.

regards - Joe F

You can hand and form using a 4-in-hand file/rasp if you lack a belt sander or think that the belt sander might be too "aggressive".  I start with the belt sander and move progressively through the 4-in-hand to various sanding blocks

Shaping these ends is a lot easier than one might think and you just have to exercise some patience; adding the edge "bead" is a little annoying, but again something that patience will cure.  Walthers used to make metal edge bits, but I just make them from wood and shape, sand, carve, fill and sand until I'm satisfied.

Roof sections for trolley/traction/interurbans are not in production as far as I know; they do show up on both eBay and at O scale meets.  I had 1 mixed in with regular clerestory roof sections Sat. at the Chicago meet and sold them all off cheap(!!!) since I didn't need them and cash in hand was more interesting at the time.  I have plenty in my shop already anyway.  They are narrower and have a different proportional cross section profile that's easy to spot when you have both in hand.

You can also locate the old ICC styrene roof sections and use those as well.  Been thinking of making a mold for ends and straight sections based on those roof sections on/off for a number of years now.

Finishing - sanding sealer or I'm covering it with "canvas and tar" - either way there's no wood grain when I'm done

If you give me the measurements I have an old Ken Kidder trolley car brass clerestory railroad type roof. I have hat it for many years and I cannot see my using it. It is like new.

nate

I need a roof that is just 7 5/8" long for the single-truck trolley.  Bobby Ogage (above) could probably use a longer one.  My friend with the wood-working tools just had a loss in the family, so will do other stuff until I can plane and contour the roof. 

Thanks, Nate.  I need a roof that is just 7 5/8" long for the single-truck trolley.  Bobby Ogage (above) could probably use a longer one.  My friend with the wood-working tools just had a loss in the family, so will do other stuff until I can plane and contour the wood roof.   The one I am using is for a regular coach, but the clerestory is low like on the streetcars, so I think it will come out OK.  Planing the bottom will also reduce the overall width.  The MTH trolley that I am using as the basis is actually a little wider than it should be, so I don't have to actually get narrower than 2" or so.  If it is still not narrow enough, I can saw the roof lengthwise and then glue, gill, and sand.  I have done this before and it looks OK.

I am mostly nervous about shaping the ends.  I will take the advice about a rough belt-sanded shape followed by hand sanding.  The contour of the ends is considerably flatter than on steam coaches.