Start of the build

The kit as it comes from BGR is a very nice collection of resin, plastic and brass parts and a thick text heavy instruction booklet along with some line drawings.  

The floor casting had a slight warp at one end.  This was easily fixed with some hot water and weights.  I put the casting in hot (not boiling) water a couple of times and straightened the casting while the resin was soft.  I placed it on my granite kitchen countertop under some weights while it cooled.  This fixed the warpage nicely.  

 I took some brass stock and cut it to fit inside the inner vestibule walls and epoxied it to the floor casting.  This not only adds some weight but will keep potential warpage of the casting to a minimum.  I'll be adding additional weight in the car to help it operate well.

 Underbody detailing is well underway.  I'm more visual when it comes to building stuff so have had a few challenges figuring out how to build the underbody details.  I am searching for good photos showing the piping and other details, but those are hard to come by.  If anyone has shots they would like to share please do, I want to do this properly.  I swapped out the air tanks that came in the kit for some Branchline plastic tanks that I had as the ones that came with the BGR kit had air bubbles and some damage from shipping.  

 Showing my underbody progress warts and all. I realize the piping and some brake details are probably not correct, but it was challenging to figure out the instructions with nothing visual to go by.  If anyone has details on this stuff, I'm all ears.  I've added additional details since the photos, will try and get photos to post when I have the chance.  

I've neglected to take photos of the carbody, will have to do that in the near term.  This has been an enjoyable kit to build, which is a good thing considering I have 5 more BGR passenger car kits to go...

Marc Simpson

Painted and running

Nice to see another project on the go. When will we see one painted and running around the layout?

The build continues

A few more shots of the car in progress:

The carbody in progress.  The resin quality on this body is approaching injection molding in my opinion.  This is a beautiful example of the resin kit art.  I have changed the vents on the clerestory roof to match the prototype, which has fewer than the instructions call for.  Nice to have a few extra parts.

 I found a couple of online shots of the 7189 as well as the beautiful shot from Mark Perry that clearly showed metal sheeting had been put in place behind the smokejack.  I used some 0.005" styrene to represent this sheet metal.  I still need to clean up around the base of the smokejack as I used some gap filling CA to smooth the gap between the roof and base of the stack.

 Further work on the underbody details.  More piping, brake detail with the chain and rod details, and a cast metal electrical plug on either side.  It is coming together well.  Whether my piping from the airtanks is correct or not remains to be seen.  Some etched  brass strapping rounds out the cross member/center sill detail.  the small grey square is for the steam vent which gets added later.  

Marc Simpson

2 steps forward, one step back

I was merrily progressing on the underbody detailing for the combine, getting the brake gear and other bits put together.  Then I moved on to attaching the battery and tool boxes to the underframe.  But something wasn't right.  Everything was as it should be according to the instructions and the way the underframe was laid out in the kit.  But the battery boxes were on the wrong side of the car according to the prototype photos I was using.  I looked at other photos and it seems there were two underbody layouts (maybe more?) for these cars, and my prototype had the one not done with the model < Insert expletive here>

But all was not lost.  If I swung around the underframe 180 degrees and remount the air tanks the layout will be correct for my prototype based model.  The brake cylinder will likely be backwards but you would only know if you are looking at the car upside down, which will not be a frequent occurrence.  I do have to cut clearance for the baggage doors in the floor but that isn't a big deal.  I will also fill in the current notches in the kit floor for aesthetic purposes.  

I was talking with a friend who runs quite a few BGR Group passenger cars on his layout as part of his CP passenger fleet.  We got onto talking about the cars, and he told me he was swapping out the resin kit trucks for Walthers heavyweight passenger trucks as the resin trucks were essentially wearing out and becoming problematic.  I am heeding his advice and using Walthers trucks from the start on my cars.  This requires some additional work on the underbody as the Walthers trucks mount differently than the kit trucks.  The truck bolster is outboard of the kit bolster location, and the Walthers trucks need a taller bolster as well.  I trimmed off the kit truck bolster after measuring the difference between the kit trucks and Walthers trucks.  I marked the new location and went about figuring out what to use.  It just so happens that Evergreen Styrene makes the perfect width and thickness that I need - 0.060"x0.250" styrene strip.

Just what the kit doctor ordered

I cut this into a scale 2 foot square for the bolster, marked the center and drilled a pilot hole for the mounting screw and epoxied it in place.  this did require a bit of trimming of the cross bolster detailing but since it will be under the truck this won't be noticable.  

New bolster epoxied in place.  The 0.060" thick material gives me the proper mounting height (subject to confirmation on the track) for the trucks.  I plan to use either a small brass shim or a washer between the truck and bolster to avoid wear on the plastic.  I have heard this can be an issue as the cars are operated.  Onwards to redoing the air tanks and piping.  

Marc Simpson

January 7th progress

A few spare moments today saw the brass shim added to the bolsters and the airtanks kludged in to their correct position.  A bit of "by gosh and by golly" to do the piping based on some poor underframe images and we're off. Next is getting the trucks fitted to the correct height and then onwards.

My imaginary piping arrangement.  I'll have to live with the brake gear arrangement, that's too much work to change.  

 Nice shiny brass shim on the bolsters.  That should keep the wear down to a minimum.  Also note the battery box (large box) and tool box (small box) in the appropriate locations.

Marc Simpson

murphy

Marc as soon as you finish it you will get a nice clear drawing of the brake system. I am enjoying following this.

Descent into madness

I picked up some Details West roller bearings from Central Hobbies the other day with the idea to use them to replicate the roller bearing heavyweight trucks on the prototype cars.  I gave it a whirl this evening and all I can say is that I'm glad I have an Optivisor knock off on hand.  

 Truck as it comes from Walthers with standard bearing journals.

My original plan was to drill out a hole the same diameter as the roller bearing casting.  The first try at this approach had the bit hitting the end of the axle hole so this would be no good.  You can see this on the left side of the truck above.  I decided the better approach would be to simply file the truck journal box flat and epoxy a trimmed roller bearing onto the surface.  I popped off the angled support over the middle axle to allow the journal box to get filed down.  It actually turned out to be easier than it sounds to trim a cast metal 0.011" diameter casting as they are fairly soft.  

 The original casting is on the right, the trimmed down version on the left.  I did 3 of these in about 10 minutes once I figured out how to do it.  The initial work is with an Xacto followed by some careful filing.  

 3 roller bearings ready to go.

I mixed up some 5 minute epoxy and attached the roller bearings and the support (can't recall the proper name) over the center axle and left them to dry.  Only 9 more to go...

Marc Simpson 

Pins do the trick

I had to move the truck mounts a bit outward from the kit location due to switching to Walthers trucks from the kit supplied resin ones.  This was a recommendation from a friend who operates a sizable fleet of BGR cars on his layout.  In the kit version the mounting pin is centered over the middle axle, while the Walthers trucks have the mounting location offset from the middle axle.

As previously described I made mounting blocks and epoxied them to the frame at the new location.  All was well and good until I test mounted the trucks on the new blocks.  Apparently Lepage 5 minute professional epoxy doesn’t have much in the way of shear strength, as the block broke off the frame as soon as I started turning the mounting screw.  Not what I was trying to accomplish.

Realizing that I needed to give the mounts strength led to some “settin’ and thinin’”.  There will be torque from the screw when I attach the trucks, so this needs to be counteracted.  The best way seems to be using pins to hold the block in place. 

I used some 0.030” brass rod to do this.  I drilled 4 holes around the main mounting hole, reasoning that these would be sufficient to take the strain off the glue joint.  The pins were trimmed and filed flat before being inserted and glued in place.  I remounted the trucks and, success! The blocks stayed put and the truck is firmly attached. 

To mount the trucks, I used a 5/8” 2-56 screw with a Kadee washer, 0.3” plastic bushing (made from plastic rod to keep the truck from flopping around on a small screw in a large hole in the truck) and another Kadee washer.  This combination gets the couplers at the correct height according to my handy Kadee coupler gauge.  The metal washers should minimize potential wear on the frame and truck, as well as keep the trucks freely moving. 

A lot of work for a minimal visual impact, but hopefully it will pay off when operations commence.  On to more aesthetic parts of the car.

Marc Simpson  

Sometimes it is right under your nose

During an idle moment today I was thinking about my combine project.  I drifted back to when I lived in Winnipeg (Manitoba) circa mid 1990's.  I remembered a string of old equipment sitting on a siding, destined for the future Winnipeg Railway Museum in part of the trainshed at Union Station.  I recall walking the length of the cars shooting slides of the various old pieces of equipment, thinking that they would be interesting subjects for future modeling projects.  In the dim recesses of my mind I recalled a CN combine.  Hmm, I wonder if I shot it?  

I have a large slide collection, unfortunately poorly organized due to sloth and constant pulling of slides for presentations, reference etc.  I occasionally have sparks of organization, and during one of them I put potential modelling subjects into slide pages in a binder.  A quick flip through said binder (after a bit of searching) produced a half dozen slides of CN 7188 including detail shots of the underbody and both sides of the car.  Since the first car I'm building is 7189 I would say this is going to be about as close as I'm likely to get to this level of detail shots.  It almost seems like I was even then planning to build one of these cars.  Now I just need to get out and pay for Vuescan to get rid of the watermarks...

 CN 7188 in Winnipeg March 1995

 Underbody details.  Better late than never, right?

Marc Simpson   

What a great feeling

it must have been to rediscover those pictures!  You're doing a super job!  Can't wait to see the end result!

Bart

A seat to sit in

In a few free moments (been a busy week) I started on the interior of the passenger compartment.  It is pretty basic with cast seats and walls.  I added a floor to attach things to so that I can paint it separately from the rest of the car.  The seats will sit a bit high due to the brass weight and the plastic but I doubt that will be much of an issue to the passengers.  I used a scrap piece of plastic to straighten the walls of the washrooms while the glue dried. 

 I received a good photo of the interior of the car so I can paint the seats, walls and floor the appropriate colours, but it is doubtful much of the interior will be visible when the car is finished so I won't be spending too much effort there.

Marc Simpson   

generator mounting

The instructions were somewhat ambiguous about how the generator should be mounted.  Fortunately the photos I took of CN 7188 clearly show the mounting of the generator was perpendicular to the frame below the baggage door, roughly centered on the tool box on the opposite side.  the generator hangs very low, relatively close to the railhead.  The brass casting took some work to get it cleaned up, and I fabricated a mounting tab out of shim brass that I bent to shape. 

I filed a mount for the pulley(?) end of the generator out of styrene, and the full generator with mounts was attached to a styrene square which in turn was glued to the floor.  Personally I think it looks pretty good, and it clears the railhead and looks right when compared to my photos.  I also test mounted the interior and it looks good to my eye.

I have also decided to redo the brake pulley system to be correct for this car, as it was not correctly located relative to photos.  That will be the next task.

Marc Simpson

Finding the right plug

I popped into Central Hobbies yesterday to pick up the new issue of Model Railroad Planning which features an article by my friend Mark Dance about the use of wyes on layouts.  It is a good read, and it is always neat to see a layout in the magazine that you have operated on and are familiar with.  But that isn't the point of this post.

I was looking through the parts racks for passenger car detail parts, particularly pulleys and brake details.  It was there that I stumbled across this:

I'm not sure if Custom Finishing parts are still available but they have many useful bits and pieces.  My photos showed a very similar plug on the combine.  Score!  Very nice to get an accurate part off the shelf.  

They are tiny, as you can see.  There is more material in the casting sprue than in the parts themselves. I'll be using the sprue as additional weight for the combine.

 The plug is located along the side of the baggage door as per the photos.  Another small detail to enhance the car.

Marc Simpson

Fixing the brakes

I mulled over the errors I found in my original brake arrangement, especially after I found my underframe photos of CN 7188.  I contemplated leaving things as they were – the easy way out that few people would notice. But why do it the easy way?  So off came the pulley system and brake rods. 

 This time I used the photos as my guide.  I located the pulleys per photos, using the edge of the first set of windows in the coach portion of the car to locate the hole in the underframe.  This go around I added the chain between the brake cylinder and the pulley system.  The chain will hang down for a nice underframe detail effect. 

Overall I think the evening’s efforts were worthwhile.  The underframe is approaching completion with only a few minor details left to add. 

Marc Simpson    

Can of worms

I have been digging around the internet trying to find additional photos of 7189 in either CN or VIA service, specifically  trying to find shots of the opposite side to the tool/battery box side.  I finally found this shot by John Eull on railpictures.net ( http://railpictures.net/photo/249303/) that clearly shows the side I am looking for.  I was originally trying to get the layout of the roof vents and smoke jacks on the roof.  However when you look more closely it appears that the exit door and steps have been removed/plated over.  In this shot on railpictures.ca ( http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=5101) you can clearly see that the stepwell has been replaced by a vertical step on the far right side of the car.  I guess I have answered my roof vent/stack question but opened up the question of what the former door area looks like.  Ah the joys of trying to model a specific prototype...

Vents and smoke jacks are done

With the guidance of the John Eull shot I put up earlier I have finished the vents and smoke jacks on the brake cylinder side of the combine.  Yay!  Now to get a better shot of the blanked out door so I can wrap this car up.  Interior is done, carbody pretty much done except for the blanked door, underbody done except for the mystery step at the blanked door.  getting closer  by the day to finishing the basic work.  

 The roof vents are in place along with the smoke jacks.  I'm glad I waited for a photo to guide the process.  The big round steel cylinder on the brass strip was from an office renovation.  They were pulling out a bunch of plexiglass photo holders that were set out from the walls by these things.  I salvaged the plexiglass for future use and hung onto the steel cylinders for future use.  I'm finding they work perfectly for adding weight to boxcars and in this case passenger cars.  Fits inside the carbody with some epoxy.  This won't be visible in the combine as it is in the baggage section.  

Marc Simpson

When the levee breaks you can finish your combine

After finding the shot of 7189 online yesterday I checked with my friend Mark P. if he had any other shots of the combine as well.  Turns out that he does, including a couple of roster shots of the side of the car I need.  He also filled in some details regarding why the door and stepwell on the baggage end was blanked out. 

The mystery is no longer a mystery.  This shot is cropped from an image taken by Mark Perry in 1978.  It clearly shows the modification to this end of the car.  

It turns out that this car had a diesel generator at that location to provide power for the car.  As well, it had a Sinclair skate blade antenna on the roof for a 5 watt radio set.  I suspect both were added due to the combine operating on remote track along with relatively slow speeds.  The 7189 operated out of Winnipeg to Sioux Lookout, Ontario as well as later on the mixed trains between The Pas and Churchill and The Pas to Lynn Lake.  CN also had quite a few cabooses equipped with diesel gensets instead of wheel generators for operation on branchlines with low speed limits.  The question remains as to whether any other combines were equipped with gensets. 

This sudden influx of information and photos required me to undo some of my earlier work on the car (again).  I pulled off the wheel generator I added previously based on my photos of 7188 as it was not correct for 7189.  I should have known better than to assume both were the same.  As the saying goes, “if you assume you make an a%% out of you and me.”

 I trimmed and sanded the doorway where the genset was located flat for a 0.020” thick styrene panel to fit flush in that location.  I also trimmed off the drip strip over the doorway as well as it appears to have been removed when the car was converted.  The new panel is flush with the bottom of the car body.

After I glued the panel in place I drilled out mounting holes for 5 grab irons.  I have a drilling template for grab irons that I made years ago for this type of project.  The bottom grab iron is inline with the grab iron on the car end, so my initial drill holes were for this mounting location.  I inserted this grab iron into the car through my drilling guide and marked the locations of the other grabs.  I removed the drill template and drilled out the other mounting locations.

Using a 0.020” strip to offset the grabs from the car body I glued the grabs in place from inside the car body. 

There is a fuel filler and breathing pipe at the top of the panel.  I drilled two 0.030” diameter holes at the appropriate location based on the photos.  Some 0.030” rode was bent and filed to represent these pipes and glued in place. 

 A muffler for the genset is located on the end of the car.  Using some additional wire and a piece of styrene rod I cobbled together the muffler, drilled a locating hole and mounted it in place.  All the mounting locations are based on photos. 

 Overall car as of January 22nd.  I still need to add another grab iron to the car end, as well as a small step below this end grab iron.  These were likely added to help the car men access the genset for maintenance.  As well the Sinclair antenna remains to be added, along with the steps for the baggage doors and below the genset.  The combine is starting to come together nicely if I do say so myself.

Marc Simpson

A few final details

As the kit comes from BGR Group, it has two nicely rendered etched brass steps to attach below the baggage door, inline with the edge of the door closest to the passenger compartment.  On the prototype cars the lower rung of the steps was offset outwards relative to the mounting location on the car, likely to line the steps up with the outside of the combine.   I used a pair of flat pliers to put a slight offset in the steps as per photos.

Step and plug detail shot on 7189 in The Pas in 1989, from a shot by Mark Perry

I carefully(!) cut two slots in the resin to fit the mounting tabs for the steps into.  I attached the steps and carefully pressed them into the slots to give them a secure mount, and glued them in place with gap filling CA.  The photo above shows both steps.

In another example of what assumptions can do, I realized from the newly located photos that I had the electric plugs incorrectly located for 7189.  They were in the right place for 7188 though!  So off they came. Fortunately since they are white metal castings this was easily done.  

The plugs on 7189 are roughly in line with the side of the single window between the baggage door and the passenger compartment.  It is mounted in line with the side of the window closest to the baggage door.  I glued the plugs (again) to the car body, hopefully for the last time.

On the 7189 there is another vertical step below the blanked out doorway where the genset was located.  Since the two steps supplied in the kit were already used I needed something else to use at this location.  But what?

I have a number of Rapido Trains baggage cars that I picked up for a very good price.  Several of these cars have assembly issues that require rebuilding them.  One car is tagged to go into work service after rebuilding with significant modifications.  I figured this car could spare a vertical step to the 7189 cause. 

I measured and cut holes for the mounting pins in the floor of the combine.  I had to trim the resin along the outside edge of the car that the stepwell mounted on to give a flat surface for the vertical step.  The donor Rapido step was securely glued in place.  I cut off one of the vertical legs (there are 3 on the unmodified step) as this wasn't present on this car.  It is slightly different than the prototype step but its etched metal construction should give it some resilience when the car is in service. 

 I put my attention back to the roofline.  The prototype car had a Sinclair “hockey skate” type antenna mounted on the roof for a 5 watt radio in the car.  This was likely there for use in the remote passenger service areas this car was used in.  Based on photos this antenna was above the single window between the baggage door and passenger compartment, centered on the roofline.  I used a nicely etched brass antenna from my parts bin.  I drilled a mounting hole using a #79 drill bit and glued the antenna in place, carefully ensuring that it was oriented properly and parallel to the long axis of the car.  

Marc Simpson

Visitor from a parallel dimension

I’m not sure if this is more appropriate for a quantum physics blog or a model railway blog.  While looking for a wayward part that I dropped in front of my workbench, I found a visitor from a parallel dimension: the Details West roller bearing that flew away while I was attempting to file it down.  It was sitting in plain sight on the floor by my feet.  If only it could talk perhaps it could explain what the 8^th dimension is really like. 

I decided to take advantage of its return and finish off my roller bearing heavyweight trucks.  I mixed up some epoxy and glued it in place.  My heavyweight trucks are now good to go. 

While I had some epoxy going I decided to start finishing my 3^rd smoke stack on the car.  As the kit comes from BGR Group, it has two complete stacks along with a number of stack bases with a selection of stack types to put on the car. 

 I had previously glued one of the stack bases onto the roof at the appropriate locations.  I used a length of 0.030” brass rod to give the stack solid attachment to the roof.  I glued another length of the rod into the top of the stack base and added a length of styrene for the pipe. 

The kit parts are not appropriate for the stack on this car, so I’m scratchbuilding this stack.  I’m going to try making the cap with shim brass.  If it works I may try doing the same to the rest of the stacks as the cast kit parts are a bit thick.  I think a shim brass cap would be a nice prototypical looking detail.  I used this method on a Jordan spreader (that I should put on the blog at some point) and it looks good.  The only issue maybe how resilient the shim brass will be to handling.  I have a couple of ideas that I may try on that front.

Marc Simpson

This car is

coming along so great!  What a great job!  Thanks for sharing.

Bart Hollis

The last step

I've literally reached the last step on the combine build.  on the end of the car with the genset CN installed a grabiron and step on the carbody end, likely for access by maintenance personnel.  Using photos and some guesswork I figured that the grabiron was 18" long.  I drilled the locating holes for the grabiron but will wait until the car is painted before I put it in place.  

I estimated the step at 18" long as well by 6" wide. I had some bits and pieces of a Kadee walkway from another project (CN tank hopper car) that I hung onto just in case of a project like this coming up.  The Kadee walkway is 18" wide so I trimmed a scale 6" piece of walkway for the step.  On one of the prototype photos you can see that the shadow of the step shows it to be a grate type of step, so the Kadee material is a good representation of this.

 A lot closer look at the step than you'll ever get in person.  

I took some 1/64"x1/32 bar stock from Special Shapes and bent two L shaped supports for the step, a scale 6" wide by 3" tall.  I glued the supports to the step and then glued the step to the car body end, using photos for locating the step.  This is relatively easy for both the step and grab iron as I counted the rivets (yes, I am one of those rivet counters...) to get the proper location for the parts.  

The step glued in place with the supports.  Now my maintenance workers will have someplace to stand.

 End view showing the step and grabiron locating holes.  It will be easier to paint without the grab in place so it will get applied after the car is painted.

There are likely a couple of other things I need to do on the combine, but I am about 98% done on the construction portion of the build.  Now to get it painted...

Marc Simpson

Thanks

Lots of fine work Marc. Great insiration.

Jack

Hurry up

will ya?  I can't wait to see the end result!  Then again, I'll miss seeing the progress.  What'll you be doing for an encore?  You will be doing another project, won't you?

Bart Hollis

Put a cap on it

The remaining stack finally got a cap put on it.  I was thinking of using brass shim to do it, but questions about how rugged it would be, along with the need to replace the caps on the other two stacks led me to decide to use some plastic for the part instead.  

I took some 0.090" diameter plastic tubing and cut it lengthwise to get a 1/2 round shape.  I used the other caps as a guide and cut it a scale 15" long.  When I added the piping to the stack base (also 0.090" diameter tubing) I added a length of 0.030" brass rod for added strength.  I left a bit of the rod out of the end of the tubing "just in case".  

The rod offers a good attachment point for the cap.  I carefully drilled a dimple in the plastic cap with a 0.03" drillbit.  I was careful not to drill all the way through the cap.  A dab of CA on the rod and the cap gives a solid mechanical attachment point that should be able to stand up to some handling.  

 The cap glued in place.  Next up is blanking out the 3 windows below this smokejack as per the prototype.  A few other small things remain to be done but we are getting nearly there.

Seeing as I am getting close to needing to paint the car I have been giving that some thought.  My painting skills are rusty as I have had my painting gear in storage for years due to moves, family additions, etc.  Painting this car is not likely were I should start relearning how to paint.  My friend Chris on the other hand used to do custom painting and his work is stellar.  I enlisted him to paint the car (for future considerations) for me so I need to get this wrapped up to send along to him. 

Marc Simpson