# A new D&RG RR (Narrow Gauge) boxcar



## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi,

I have been building one of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad class 3 boxcars – this design was built from 1878 to 1883, and numerically the greatest number of D&RG boxcars built to one design. They were sold to the RGS and other railroads in great numbers as newer designs were built by the D&RG.

The vehicle has 24 foot long over the body, and still has the ‘porches’ or platforms at each end . Paradoxically they were called 25 footers; the early ones had the short wheelbase (3foot 2inches ) trucks, but later builds had the 3 foot 7 inch wheelbase which can be produced easily from the Bachmann/LGB American freight truck. Confusingly there are a couple of designs: I have modeled the earlier style, the later deign has a couple of springs in the centre.

The body is made of my usual material: Sintra board, mostly 5mm thick – with the interior having supports for the roof, which is 2mm thick styrene On the inside of the floor are a couple of ‘lead flashing’ weights glued roughly over the bogie pivots. The doors including the smaller end door, which was used for loading timber into the vehicle on longer lengths than could otherwise be loaded, are fro 3mm thick sheet. All the body/roof and doors are scribed with an Olfa cutter.

Having glued on the roof the trim between the roof and sides are covered with some styrene trim. The handles for the doors are from 1.2mm plastic covered wire; the steps (unusually they are on both ends) are from black styrene and tiny bits in white added to them; – each step has 7 pieces. The brake staff is 1.5mm wire with an Ozark brake wheel and ratchet. Before fitting the roof walk add the supports for it and paint the location for it, and the underside of the roof walk also – it’s easier that way. I make the supports from small pieces of 2mm thick styrene the end ones are full width the others one piece per side – when dry sand the tops flat. The end ‘porches’ are thicker pieces of PVC foam, scribed to replicate a couple of planks. The air(brake) pipes are from bicycle spokes bits and the pipes themselves are bits of wire sheathing with a piece if single copper wire (from 3) inside to keep the shape; the ‘chain’ is twisted 5 amp fuse wire glued in position, with a tap from styrene.

The underside of the floor is simplified, it has four ‘end to end’ supports made from strips of wood: the truck bolsters are cut from the Bachmann flatcar that also provided the trucks; if required adjust the height with extra strips of styrene. The straight air brake cylinder is from bits of tube and strip from the ‘bits’ boxes. 

The tie rods have turnbuckles on them, unusual for my models, so I used a couple from a the above Bachmann chassis, bend them slightly to get the right bends on them and glue them to the cross beams and the floor, having first marked it as to where they should run, the ends of them in the full size vehicle appear on the ends of the ‘porches – the detail (one disc and one piece of 1.5mm square styrene ) are added there. There is also a couple more washers and bolt heads each side of the central coupling pocket but those are square again styrene as is the central oval shaped coupling pocket - then paint the lot black – after a tip from David Buckingham I use (emulsion paint) tester pots from a local Wilkinson’s store (£1.00 each) much better value! I will also use them in my figure painting. 

Bogies or trucks – are modified Bachmann – carve off (I use a sanding drum) the centre detail and replace it with the new from your plan (I use a 1st Edition – now there is now a second edition of the book ‘A Century of D&RG Narrow Gauge Freight Cars 1871 to 1971’ by Robert Sloan, and my scanner & photocopier to produce full size plans. The bogie plans are there but a bit difficult to read. Brake shoes and supports are added – they are very close to the railhead when fitted – my supports are flexible PVC (though styrene would also do the thickness is 1.5mm; they support the cross beams that hold the brake shoes themselves – those beams are tilted upwards slightly with tiny strips of 1.5mm styrene on the front edge of them. Brake shoes are generic, and 2mm thick, paint the curved face of the brake shoes before fitting them as you will not be able to do it when the bogie is re-assembled, to also make life a bit easier also paint the sides at the same time.

Transfers are not yet done – they still have to be worked out! When designed the will be made by Stan Cedarleaf.

For some reason – I suspect the very poor winter light, the ‘finished paint’ colour in the photographs is terrible – it should be a deepish red brown – I used Anita’s Acrylic paint Bark Brown colour, it will now be weathered.


Here are a few photos of the new vehicle


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3 photos of the body being built - note the re-used Bachmann tie rods, and bolsters.



















Two views of the finished, except for decals, vehicle. The computer (and me!) have been working on them, though there is more to do - at least I have found some suitable fonts. 










The trucks after some surgery and replacement 'bits' taken at the same time as above in that very poor light.

Enjoy,

Yours Peter.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Peter

A really nice job on the new boxcar.


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## chuckger (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Peter, 

Good looking car, the DSP&P had some cars with porches built by Litchfield Bros. Great job. 

Chuck


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Peter, looks great. Would the "porch" on this car be solid; an extension of the frame akin to a flat car, or would it be part of the link-and-pin coupler, as shown in this drawing of a Billmeyer & Smalls boxcar, c.1873, about 5 years earlier than your car: 










On the car in this drawing, the end walls are attached to the frame member set inside the end beam; the end beam is a buffer of sorts. The link pocket is bolted to this buffer beam. It's got a pin of sorts that extends through the "inside" end beam, with a cap on it so when it's in tension it's pulling on that "inside" beam. There's usually a springy bushing or something similar between the beams as well, at least from the explanations I've read. 

Yours is a different car, but likewise an early D&RG box car. I'm curious if they used two different construction techniques. 

Later, 

K


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## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi Kevin,

Interesting point Kevin, These are class 3 boxcars which were the first that Denver shops built – there is a drawing in Sloan’s book, drawn by the Denver shops: its very much reduced, which shows basically the same as the B&S drawing that you have shown in the end details in the plan etc..


The outer end of the ‘porch’ is shown as a solid square timber, then a small gap and another square timber across the body. The link & pin coupler goes through both, but they are not connected together. Plan view shows some very narrow timbers –these MAST be a covering to the narrow gap – I think the gap between the two takes the inner(each side of the center pair) strengthening rods , and some more bolts – so the inner timber may be laminated? Those strengthening rods may be tie rods - I cannot be sure , I think there are only two tie rods, with turnbuckles, near to the outside; the outer pair have round washers and the usual nuts – the inner ones have square washers etc. 

I think the air cylinder (straight air, so not the same style (its simpler) as the automatic version is not shown on the plan –may be in the center, or as the flat/gondola style where it is close against the inside of the outer timbers. It is not shown on the end view either.

The first of these boxcars had the short wheelbase truck, later have the longer (as Bachmann ) version though the center is different and was later changed as well; those porches also on the flats and gondolas built at the same time, are a bit of a nuisance for those not using body mou8n t couplers , I am afraid that I moved the bolsters out a small amount to give space for the couplers to work!

Normally I find a photo to assist in such questions as above– not in this case though! There are none that I can find that are clear enough, which due to the age of them does not surprise me. 

As above these were the first boxcars built by the D&RG itself they seem to have ‘bits’ of the B&S design, the next design (too late for me) have no ‘porches’, the end doors were less tall, and the doors changed sides for sliding open going from left sliding to right sliding, and the B&S style end steps disappeared being replaced at one end only now, with the usual bent iron rods .

The D&RG shops had moved on, they even later rebuilt some of these and lengthened them whilst they were doing the rebuilding, those turned into Class 5 vehicles.

Thanks for the thoughts

Yours Peter.


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## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi Chuck,


I think you mean the gondolas - they had the end porches possibly for more space when knocking out the end planks, the D&RG seems to have used the same idea.

The changing of flats to gondolas and back again was a quick job, perhaps done at the end of the summer , preparing for more coal being used in winter?

Thanks for the thought

Yours Peter.


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## chuckger (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Peter, 

Checking R Rudnick's book on the DSP the first box cars where built by Hallack Brothers not Litchfield Bros sorry for name screwup. The Hallack cars where 6 6"' wide and 26' long and did have porches. Two photos of the cars where taken at Morrison, the first photo is in DSP&P p110, CRAp15 and MB#1p124 can be accurately dated as 1874 according to Rudnick. The second photo is on p 308 of the Pictorial. The Denver Daily Times of 3/18/1874 reported that Hallack Brothers where to build five of these cars with a length of 26 feet and a with of six feetsix inches These cars where uniquely different from all of the South Park box cars in that their doors opened to the left and they had short little porches on the ends. 
Bachmann's big hauler box car is close to this size if you raise the roof like K did on his market car, and the doors already open on the left side. 

Chuck


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## Ironton (Jan 2, 2008)

To the best of my knowledge the "porches" were there as a shock absorber. The pocket for the link and pin couplers were simply bolted to the end plank on the drawing above. When the engineer slammed the cars together the end plank would allow for a little spring action. Also, if the slam was too hard they only had to replace the one plank not rebuild the entire end of the car. 

Hope this helps.


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