Railroad Cars

[Oceaneer99]

I posted the plans from a Megow kit that I bought, for a gondola train car.  The parts in the kit were somewhat different from the plans. The kit had nice wheels and better couplers than shown on the plans, but the parts used to make the trucks are pretty bad.  I'm told that modelers today just buy new trucks and couplers.

Garet


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4218

[dave_t]

Garet, are the cardboard parts embossed? I have never seen rolling card-stock before

[Oceaneer99]

Dave,

Yes, the cardstock is embossed with rivets and vertical bars, to which you glue strips of bamboo to represent reinforcing pieces.

Animek, this is the only rolling stock (good pun, Dave) kit that I have.  I was trying to find information about scratch-built railroad cars, and found very little outside magazine articles and a few Internet articles.  When I was a boy, I started construction of my own design HO hopper car, complete with a latch that would flip open for unloading.  I never finished it, though.  Anyway, I decided to buy a kit to see what they were like in that era (1930s-1940s; this plan is 1939).  I think the kit is missing a few pieces of the trucks, but they weren't great to begin with, and full wheel trucks and couplers are available at hobby stores.

I do have some 1930s magazines that have amazing scratch-built brass locomotives with electric motors in them, but most of these articles do not have plans.

Garet

[Oceaneer99]

I posted a railroad car plan from The Modelmaker Vol. 11, No. 6, June 1934.  This magazine is not to be confused with Model Maker, which is how I ended up getting them.

Although I have a number of issues, there are very few plans and drawings.  This is one of about three that I have noticed while going through them.  My issues are very old and brittle, so my scanning the interesting ones is probably prudent, especially following our recent discussion of water damage!

Oh, Animek mentioned before (with respect to Z scale trains) that if you make one of these, you should buy the completed trucks (wheels and couplers).  They work on railroad layouts and aren't that expensive.  HO wheel trucks are about $5 for a pair at my local hobby store, though the couplers are sold separately.  I just have to figure out which style I need for each era.  They have different versions for modern, old, and by tonnage.

Our rather spartan layout is N-scale, but that seems like it would make for small cars!



http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4334

[dave_t]

Garet, was "Model Maker" a better magazine then? Our library has "Model Craftsman" magazine from the 1930s, but I have never looked into it.Here is an example-

http://cgi.ebay.com/June-1935-Model-Craftsman-Magazine-Trains-Planes-Ships-/310213030357?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Magazines&hash=item483a2331d5

It looks like most of the model making publications were train focused in the 30s.