# Geodes as load for ore cars (pics)



## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Wanting some loads for my Bachmann side-dump ore cars, but not wanting to do the traditional coal or gravel, I opted to break up some very small geodes and see if I could make a load out of them. Here how it went.

First I took a 2 lb sludge hammer and broke up some very small and relatively inexpensive geodes that my wife had purchased when on a field trip with her 4th grade class studying geology.










Next was gluing the broken stones to a small piece of plywood cut to fit the ore car.










Then I painted the edges and any visible plywood black with craft acrylic paint.










To make the load sit up a bit in the car I glued some runners to the underside of the plywood.










Then just drop the load into the car (oh, I locked the dumping action of the car as discussed in another thread in this forum). I'm happy with the result.





















Not a prototypical load by any means, and not as spectacular as large (and much more expensive) geodes would produce, but I like it. Maybe try some iron pyrite next (fools gold) and see how what looks. 

As always comments and questions are most welcome.

Best,
TJ


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Nice idea! Pyrite is a great idea--a mine car loaded with huge nuggets of fool's gold would be terrific


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Looks great. 

Is that one of the plastic Bachmann ore cars? Or is it one of the newer metal cars?


Whatever version it is, I like your wood look.


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Matt, 

> Is that one of the plastic Bachmann ore cars? Or is it one of the newer metal cars? 

Plastic as far as the load box and levers and whatnot. It's a newer Bachmann in that the plastic had the wood grains molded in. I understand that the first run cars were smooth. 

> Whatever version it is, I like your wood look. 

Thanks! Amazing what some paint and endless trial and error can produce ! 

Best, 
TJ


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## smcgill (Jan 2, 2008)

TJ you could us foam ( instead of plywood) to help cut down on the weight.Go get some white stones for another load. looks good. Sean


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

TJ, another fine looking car. I second the idea of using foam under your rock load. With those small cars I assume you'll have a smallish loco doin the work the pieces of wood may add up quick in weight, especially with real rock loads. I like the look of the wood grain as well, it's true a little bit of paint can do wonders to anotherwise average car. Point in case are your bachmann log cars another nice paint job you did. 
Beautiful job. Thanks for sharing! 
on another noe, could you send me a pic of your bachmann log cars or post one here. I was trying to find the original post but can't. 

Terry


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Pyrite! That'd be a hoot!

You geode load is cool.


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Tj:

That really looks good!

Les


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks everyone! I was not sure how gluing the rocks to Styrofoam would hold up but I agree that weight is an issue when using real rocks. 

Best, 
TJ


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By paintjockey on 26 Aug 2009 06:46 AM 
TJ, another fine looking car. I second the idea of using foam under your rock load. With those small cars I assume you'll have a smallish loco doin the work the pieces of wood may add up quick in weight, especially with real rock loads. I like the look of the wood grain as well, it's true a little bit of paint can do wonders to anotherwise average car. Point in case are your bachmann log cars another nice paint job you did. 
Beautiful job. Thanks for sharing! 
on another noe, could you send me a pic of your bachmann log cars or post one here. I was trying to find the original post but can't. 

Terry 
Terry,

Thanks for the kind comments on the paint job. Be happy to email you the hi-res version of these pics. You can pick up my email address here: http://tjlee-turtlecreek.blogspot.com/

See the link in the bottom left hand corner. Meanwhile here are the 640x480 pics that I think you are referring to...






























Replaced the plastic logs with pieces of a bottle brush bush from the front of my house. Stained the light gray wood with some redwood deck stain.

Oh, here is the before shot:










Best,
TJ


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

TJ,

Would it be asking overmuch to get a pic of a log car w/o the load, top and bottom and one side shot? Posted here is fine. I'd like to roll a few of my own.

Thanks,

Les


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Les,

> I'd like to roll a few of my own.

I kept notes in case I do another set of cars.. Delta brown velvet thinned over the wood parts, Delta dark burnt umber full strength on the stuff that's supposed to be metal, drybrushed Folk Art barn wood on the wood grain, a mix of Delta burnt sienna and Delta red iron oxide thinned to a heavy wash and sloshed haphazardly around on the burnt umber (metal type parts), and finally thinned Delta black as a wash over everything.























































Sorry about the quality of the pictures but that's another skill I'm still working at. If I do another set I'll do a better job to sand out the mold lines (although once you put logs on the car you can't see them) on the trucks before painting. Same on the knuckles. But this was my first attempt with log cars. Hope that is of some help!

Best,
TJ


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## smcgill (Jan 2, 2008)

It is amazing what a little time and paint will do.

LGB's trucks before adding paint










With some paint.



















Came out looking not as plastic. Sean


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

TJ,

Thanks much for the pixes. I noticed on one end where the brakewheel was, there was a chain going back to (apparently) a spring on the rooster pole. Is that to simulate brakes? 

Les


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Sean,

Thank you for posting the LGB version. They look fairly straightforward to build, too. Did they have brake assy's on them?

I like the figure, incidentally.

Les


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## smcgill (Jan 2, 2008)

Don't you hate when you double post!!!!!







To answer you're question, No brakes, just link and pin! Boy I wish I could make figures .


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Les, 

>... there was a chain going back to (apparently) a spring on the rooster pole. Is that to simulate brakes? 

That would be my guess. The chain is attached to the brake wheel on one end and to an iron bar on the other. On the Bachmann cars the bar just slips under the central beam of the car and stops. But I would assume it would lever a braking mechanism on the prototype. Just my guess of course. 

Let me know if I can do anything else to assist. 

Best, 
TJ


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

TJ,

Yes, there is one other thing ...







Shoulda thought of it sooner. Can you give me (to the closest 1/4") length (w/o couplers) and the width of the racks? I'd appreciate it.

Les


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks for the pics. I had yours stuck in my head when i painted one of mine and i just wasn't happy with it, but i couldn't remember what you had done. 
Thanks again 
Terry


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Les, 

> Can you give me (to the closest 1/4") length (w/o couplers) and the width of the racks? 

The center beam is ~10 3/4 inches 

The cross beams are ~4 inches 

From center of the lead cross beam to the rear cross beam is ~5 3/4 inches 

From either end of the center beam to the start of the nearest cross beam is ~2 1/8 inches 

Hope that helps. 

Best, 
TJ


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Terry, 

> Thanks for the pics. 

No problem, hope they were useful. If you want the higher res copies of the pics send me an email. 

Best, 
TJ


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

If there were brakes,(on the LGB cars) they wouldn't be air. And would be truck mounted. Unless brakemen were riding the logs, those brakes wouldn't be used in motion. Keeping the loco on the downhill side provided the brakes. Skeleton log cars could support air brakes, disconnects couldn't. 
The skeleton car should have outside hung wood beam brakes...

John


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

TJ,

Thanks for the dimensions. Longer than I thought, even. 

Les


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Posted By Totalwrecker on 29 Aug 2009 06:14 PM 
If there were brakes,(on the LGB cars) they wouldn't be air. And would be truck mounted. Unless brakemen were riding the logs, those brakes wouldn't be used in motion. Keeping the loco on the downhill side provided the brakes. Skeleton log cars could support air brakes, disconnects couldn't. 
The skeleton car should have outside hung wood beam brakes...

John 




John,

That's an interesting point: I've seen pixes where the brake wheel was apparently meant to be operated by walking (or standing) alongside the car, and others where it seems some sort of tool was inserted in the ratchet to crank the brakes down. (Or, 'on'.)

In my case (ca ~1875 or whatever) air brakes are not an issue. I've got a pic from one of the guys on brake racks for disconnects, but it seems the brakes were operated from one point, a chain or linkage ran to the other truck to tighten _its_ brakes.

On another topic--but connected to the subject at hand, I picked up a roll of flat steel, like banding strap, but it's not so brittle, and it's not coated. It's rather malleable, point of fact. It's about 7/8" wide. I have visions of using it in place of the brass plates on things like log cars, gondola bracing and the like.

Les


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Cars rolling back on the mainline or into the weeds beyond end of track were a headache, so they set the parking brakes..... 

I dunno Les, connecting the rooster seperated trucks with a chain seems awkward. More likely each truck had it's own brake. 

John


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## KYYADA (Mar 24, 2008)

I watched a TV news show one time and they shown a Z scale train for sale for 100,000.00 It had three hoppers one loaded with diamonds one with emeralds and the last with rubies. 

Johnny


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By KYYADA on 29 Aug 2009 08:23 PM 
I watched a TV news show one time and they shown a Z scale train for sale for 100,000.00 It had three hoppers one loaded with diamonds one with emeralds and the last with rubies. 

Johnny 

I wouldn't want it... not prototypical.


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Posted By Totalwrecker on 29 Aug 2009 07:22 PM 


I dunno Les, connecting the rooster seperated trucks with a chain seems awkward. More likely each truck had it's own brake. 

John 





Well, that's not exactly what I entended to say--though I prob'ly did. I _should_ have said, "on skeleton log cars", there _seems _to be a type of car out there that has only one brakewheel and a chain or set of links (johnson rods) on a bellcrank that _appear_ to set both trucks' brakes from a single wheel. I don't know quite what the situation is.

I agree wholly that on disconnects, there'd be a brake wheel on each truck, because they appear, going by the literature we have, to be used for moving smaller and shorter items, like working quarters.

That whole issue of undercarriage mechanization is unclear in my mind. I asked a lot of questions maybe a year ago, and got some pretty good pixes, then I saw other pixes where the links and bellcranks were used. Maybe this was with the advent of air brakes, something I'm not using.

I think when I actually build a few, things will clear up to a great extent. When I realized awhile back that most engines, for instance, are shown missing some fairly obvious things like draincocks on the cylinders and operating rods for the sand domes, is when I decided I needed to study up some more. I'm thinking more of the high-$ RTR models than the homebrewed ones.

Good catch.

Les


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