# 61 Foot C. & O. Well Hole Car



## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Last November I received my first shipment of Buckeye trucks from Alan at GAL Line and I posted some of the initial assembly results. Since then I've been working on and off on a 61 foot C&O Well Hole Car for the trucks to fit under.
This is the result.



















The floor panels lift out as per the original design. However, I'm not sure how much more space the railways would allow between the load and the rail head.





































On the original truck assembly the brake shoes have quite an offset to the wheels. I was able to move these in quite a lot by laminating in the inner side if the truck frame and filing a curve on the outside of the frame. This brought the brake shoes in about a 1/4 inch. I also built the brake plank at each end of the trucks with the pull rods. The rods can't go right through as I had hoped as the centre axle needs to be removed to get at the centre location screw. The spring planks are notched at the lead end of each truck to prevent fouling on the coupler box. The car in this configuration has no problem negotiating a 7'6" radius curve, which is what I build to.

*Then there's the credits:*
Trucks: from GAL LINE - [email protected]
Wheels: by Sierra Valley
Couplers: Kadee 906 (modified)
Decals: Cedar Leaf Custom Railroad Decals
Brake stands and wheels: by Ozark Miniatures
Paint: by Polly Scale Paints. (we're going to miss them)
Last, but by no means least: The Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society for builders photographs, data and paint/stencil drawings.
Oh, and I did the other bits.
Cheers.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Harvey

That's some mighty fine modeling there fella, thanks for sharing.









Hey, I see in the first picture your Prairie Grain Elevator is holding up very well.


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## Burl (Jan 2, 2008)

I assume the body is built from styrene? Would love to see construction photos, if you have any you can share.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hello Burl,
These are a couple of construction photo's, all in styrene.
If there is anything specifically you want to see, let me know and I'll see what I have. 




































Cheers


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Thanks Steve,
The car runs very well and I'm really pleased with the outcome.
As for the elevator, my latest grandson found an easier way to open the doors, instead of sliding them he pulls them out. These have been repaired and the training program completed... I hope.
Thanks again.


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Harvey, 

Very nice build....neat car....really clean work as shown by your in process pictures. 
Thanks for sharing those. 

Brian


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Nice! What are the holes on the top of the deck for? My first thought was keyholes for chain tie-downs, but wouldn't the slot be on the opposite side (pointing towards the center of the car)? 

Later, 

K


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By East Broad Top on 09 Jun 2013 04:05 PM 
Nice! What are the holes on the top of the deck for? My first thought was keyholes for chain tie-downs, but wouldn't the slot be on the opposite side (pointing towards the center of the car)? 

Later, 

K 
Kevin,

My guess would be for steel rods to be welded. Most of the HiWide loads on these types of cars are actually welded to the car body for the journey. They weld steel rods from the load to the car, and use those weld plates (those square things that are sticking up from the car plate). So my educated guess would be that the holes serve the same purpose.

Craig


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

woow, a perfect model. Very nice.


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

That's some amazing work, humbles a guy.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hi Kevin, Hi Craig,
Good questions about the tie down holes. First let me say they are correct to the builders photographs and drawings, so let me say that I think the
they are for chain hooks and not chains alone. This is the conclusion I came to, also the chain tensioners (I forget the correct name for them) have a hook at each end so one end can snag the chain and the other end fits into the tear-drop shaped hole.
As regards to the plates on the bolster decks I think these are for access to the double air brake systems between the underside of the bolster and the top of the trucks.
From what I can gather from the C. & O. Historical Society there was only four of these cars produced by Greenville Steel Car Co. of Greenville, PA. They were built in 1942 for the conveyance of glass lenses for Pikes Peak observatory...and yes America was at war at this time. The cars were heavily modified over their life cycle for carrying diverse items such as oversized bridge sections from Bethlehem Steel and Boilers from Combustion Engineering. Some of the photographs purchased from the C. & O. Historical Society are absolutely awesome, but unfortunately come with a caveat that I don't publish them without permission. I must respect this request.
Thanks for your feed back and your interest in this historical monster. 
Cheers.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By harvey on 08 Jun 2013 01:45 PM 

Last November I received my first shipment of Buckeye trucks from Alan at GAL Line and I posted some of the initial assembly results. Since then I've been working on and off on a 61 foot C&O Well Hole Car for the trucks to fit under.
This is the result.

{snip} 

Oh, and I did the other bits.
Cheers. 

And "the other bits" have been done exceptionally well.... Superb job, Harvey. Superb job.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hi Stan,
Many thanks for your comments on this project and to everyone else as well for their supportive comments. The Well Hole car has been a diversion from some other projects I currently have on the go, some of which have been on the go for over a year now.
I have some flat cars that I'm finishing up right now and I wanted to post a comparison between the black blob before the decals are applied and great results after.
Unfortunately I can't get out side to take any photo's as it won't stop raining, two (more) inches today! 
Stay tuned, more to come.Cheers.


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## s-4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Outstanding! Great pictures of your well car! I'm really looking forward to starting a build like this, so thanks for the inspiration! Do you have any photos of the car in service with loads and other rolling stock?


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hi, as I mentioned earlier the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society ( [email protected] ) have a limited but very good collection of photographs of these cars as well as a couple of painting and lettering drawings. These are available for purchase at a very reasonable price and if you do purchase any they may (as they did for me) e-mail you a couple of photographs as well. They do come with a request that you do not publish them, which I understand and respect as this is one of their avenues for fund raising 
Additionally there are two published photographs of car #80996 in the Train Shed Cylopedia No17 on page 205. For anyone building Flats, Well Holes or Depressed Centre Cars, this is a very good reference. 
The published data for the Well Hole Cars is as follows;

Length over end sills ..........61' 9,1/4"
Width over platform.................10' 5"
Height of platform ends ......4' 3,5/8"
Height of platform centre.....4' 0,3/4" (note the corrected spelling)
Light weight ..................114,100 lbs.
Load Limit......................262,400 lbs.
Well Length ...........................35' 0"
Well width ...............................7' 8"
Well Depth ........................2' 4,3/4"

A big car!!

Cheers.


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## s-4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Harvey, 
Thanks for the great info! 
Sadly, the C&O isn't really my area of interest...I do wish there were such excellent resources available for NH logging railroads. 

I was actually referring to your model....I was wondering if you had pictures of it on your layout with other trains?


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

s-4
Hopefully I can get some trains out this weekend, the rain is supposed to ease up a little. I haven't built a load for it yet, but I'm planning to build a bridge section which is shown on one of the photographs from the C. & O. Historical Society. The load also required idler flats at each end of the Well Hole Car. I'm working on the flats at the moment.
So yes, I will post a photo of it in service and eventually with a load.
Cheers.


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## KCmike2013 (Jul 19, 2013)

Wow that is very good craftsmanship! I loved seeing the build photos too


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Filling the Well.
These are a couple of progress photo's of the bridge sections I've built for the Well Car. I'm in the process of building the tie rods and bracing, then I have to remove them all for painting and final fitting. I checked the tunnel (under the deck) clearances yesterday and the load passed through without any problems. The overhang at each necessitated the building of the idler flats, a good excuse I thought. These are noted in my other posting of the 36 foot flats. (A Flat Trio).

This is the reinforcement flanges being attached. The bends were made using a sauce pan full of boiling water and immersing the styrene for a minute or so.





































More to come.
Cheers.


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## Burl (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice... now you'll need to build a couple idler flats to go along with it!


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Burl; 

Check out Harvey's thread "A FLAT TRIO." He has already done them. 

Best, 
David Meashey


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## Burl (Jan 2, 2008)

Sorry Dave... guess I've slept since then.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

And finally, an update on the load for the Well Car. 


















Decals look very good Stan, thanks again. 
The large oxidized steel supports are fabricated from sheet plasticard as are the bridge sections. The smaller ones are plasticard structural shapes. The wood is wood as are angular side braces. The whole troop looks good rolling around the yard, but I think I need a couple of white flags for the lead engine.



















I think this build turned out much better than anticipated and I'm really pleased with the outcome.
Again I would like to thank all those who have helped me through this and for the great feed back.
Now if I could just get focussed on the caboose.
Cheers.


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