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On30 Tips, Ideas, & Pictures Locos and rolling stock
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MRH Author 5,625 posts Bernd MRH Author 5,625 posts
Bernd

 

At Doug's request for some ideas, tips, and pictures I've started this thread.

I modeled both in O and HO scale for a while now and have a few months back decided I needed to stick to one scale in order to get anything finished model wise. Here are some pictures of a project I started but never finished. It's a set of nine On30 wooden boxcars.

The pictures show a simple way of mass producing a line of box cars. This will work for any scale. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here the idea is that you can scratch build a fleet of cars with simple blocks of wood in a short time period and it will work for any scale. The tip is that you can look at other scales for rolling stock such as an S scale boxcar that would scale out to a 30'6" for an On30 car. And of course the pictures to show all of it. Questions follow modelers?

Bernd

 

New York, Vermont & Northern Rwy. - Route of the Black Diamonds - NCSWIC
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DKRickman Prolific poster 3,069 posts
DKRickman

Building blocks

Wouldn't it be easier to use a roof piece which is shaped with the correct slope?  I believe Northeast makes the stock on HO, and possibly other scales.  Also, if you have access to a table saw, it would be easy to build.  But then again, if you have access to a table saw, wouldn't it be just as easy to make solid freight car stock which you could cut to length?

Ken Rickman

Danville & Western HO modeler and web historian

http://southern-railway.railfan.net/dw/
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Terry Roberts Regular poster 345 posts
Terry Roberts

Variations on a theme

Lots of ways to get to cars with this as a start.  Ken's ideas bring several more to mind.  I've built several cars in a couple of scales using Bernd's techniques as a starter, both in wood and styrene.  Some of them were kits.

Experiment and use what works best for you...and let us know what it is.

Terry
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Bernd MRH Author 5,625 posts
Bernd

Buying - V - Making

The car building method was presented way back in MR. As I said it's applicable to all scales.

Now being the DYI'er that I am why should I buy? I do have a table saw, 10" cabinet saw plus several other wood working tools. I am building my own cabinets for my house. So cutting the wood is no problem. I could have bought the proper contour roof, I also could have used the table saw to cut my own. The idea of using a full block is another way to go.

I thought I'd point the way on building your own cars in a mass production way. I figure I've got the three T's, Time, Tools and Talent. I just need to narrow down my interests to one, not many.

Next I will show you how to grow a tree and harvest the wood for building such cars.

Bernd

New York, Vermont & Northern Rwy. - Route of the Black Diamonds - NCSWIC
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Terry Roberts Regular poster 345 posts
Terry Roberts

sawmill

I have the sawmill, kiln and planer to help...

I'm trying to cut some blue stain pine lumber (I have the logs) to cut some scale lumber to see what this looks like in a structure without any additional work.  It has to wait til spring when the snow melts so I can cut lumber and it warms up enough to work in the garage.  More later...several months at a minimum.  The garage was about 30F today.

Terry
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