# 86' HyCube Auto parts boxcar build



## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Alright, let get started. I find I really enjoy the research when there is some available. I sifted thru many books, magazines and websites as well as some of my own DT&I documents. From that I did what I always do, draw up a plan for the car I want to build. In this case I'm building a Pullman Standard early version 86' HyCube boxcar. It was nice to have a drawing to use as a starting point for my drawing (I found one in Mainline Modeler magazine....I'm still mourning the loss of that magazine). So, after drawing it up I then do a bit of engineering on the drawing establishing construction plans and convert it to standard commercial styrene sizes.

Here's an end view section showing how I laid out the construction. Most of the shell is made out of 1/8" ABS plastic. Solvent welded together










I knew I had the ends already done since I made the master pattern and mold when I built my P-S PS1 40' mini hycube boxcar. Actually it was a kitbash of 2 USA Trains 40' boxcar ends stacked to match the prototype. When I made that pattern I actually made it match the 86' car since doing the 40' mini meant just removing the upper most dart type rib (resin really sands and files very easily). The doors I knew I wanted to only make once since they would take a lot of work to make look good so I came up with my approach to how I build them into the model. I then made the pattern and cast them up.

Here's my plan for the doors, note I made the doors with a backing plate that gets glued to the inside of the boxcar sides. 










The real doors are recessed into the door opening just like the plan shows. That's something I learned while drawing and photographing the real cars for reference. That's another part of the research I enjoyed. I found out that one of the real DT&I cars was still running in captive service just south of Columbus, OH and I was lucky enough to correspond with a couple of people one of whom happens to substitue engineer on the train that hauls that car daily. He let me know the schedule and I was able to get a LOT of great close up shots for detail of the real genuine P-S car I am building.....how cool.

OK, side bar story aside, here's a picture of the pattern just before I cast it (I still had a couple rivets to put on after this picture). Most of the black rivets you see are actually Archer fine transfer resin rivet decals. They found a way to put resin blobs onto waterslide decal sheets. Archer has a website if your interested. (Micro-Mark is marketing thier own version) These rivets are 'O' scale bridge rivets.










Here's a shot of my first cast door part. 










This is A.K.A. the cast that cleans out the mold and exposes where you need to concentrate your efforts when pouring them. A few of the resin rivets remained in the mold and are part of this casting. I also found out where air bubbles are likely to be a problem - as you can see in this part so now I use a little brush in the trouble spots when I cast each piece and that pretty much took care of that problem. Just for giggles I shot this part with Krylon aluminum spray to see how cool they'll look painted.
Here's a shot of the body flipped over showing the basic box construction. 










I cut the inner bulkheads to the height that the lower sill piece would register against them, that way no measuring to make sure they would parallel the side sheets. The lower sill pieces are one per side whereas the side sheets are 2 per side, as the doors interupt them in the middle. Cutting all the black ABS plastic sheets is done on a table saw as that is the most reliable way to make panels of the same size. I rip all the inner bulkheads at the same time which makes it easy to keep the box square and parallel. Then use the table saw and fence to cut all the bulkheads to the same height so the floor will have a group of even surfaces to rest on. Refer to my end view plan to understand what I'm saying.

Here's a closer shot near the doors










As well planned as I try, improvising along the way does happen. Notice I had to notch the lower sill pieces to clear the door casting. Notice also the bulkheads between the doors are narrower than the bulkheads between the sides. I built the box with the side bulkheads first, then I shaved (on the table saw) the bulkheads between the doors til they fit nice and snug. They are CA (superglue) glued to the resin door backsides. Let me go backwards a second. Once I had the side pieces cut I scribed the weld lines on them, then to make one complete side I first glued the 2 side pieces to the doors using a straight edge to keep them all inline at the top surface. The bulkhead width then was determined by the end castings width. I played with a piece on the table saw till the sides were just a bit under the overall width of the end castings. At that point I stood the sides on thier top surfaces (another great use for a table saw is to use it as a surface plate to assemble on) and solvent welded some of the bulkheads to the sides. With them all on the table saw top it keeps the top of the sides and bulkheads flush so when I attach the top I know I have a solid and flat surface. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of any of the above process.
Once the sides are glued together with the bulkheads I then CA glued the ends to the sides. Now it was time to cut and fit the roof. I left it a little long at each end knowing once the top was on I could file it down flush to the ends.

Here's what that stage looked like










At the same time you rip the bulkheads to width it's good to rip the floor to the same width, and then when I went to fit it all together I shaved just a bit more off the side of the floor and it fits like a glove. The bulkheads are great because when you have the floor off they make nice handles to carry the body around when you work on it. I'll use them when I paint the body also.

Now that the basic box is complete it was time to start the detail work. First was to make the little ribs on the lower sill. Since I needed 48 of them plus 4 double wide ribs (made by doubling up 8 more) I decided I would take the time to make one nice one and cast it up. from that one I cast up 8 copies and made a pattern/mold of those 8. That way I only had to pour 7 sets to have the amount I needed. That may seem like a lot of casting but it beats trying to file 56 pieces to be the same size and shape. From there I just glued them onto the lower sill.
Here's a shot of it after that point










Also notice I've added white styrene behind the recessed ladder pockets in the sides at the ends, as well as the reinforcement plates below the doors. Also at this point I made body bolsters for the trucks to attach to on the floor. Nothing fancy there, just a build up of 1/8 " black ABS pieces 7/8" wide solvent welded to the floor plate.


Now I turned my attention to the roof. I determined the flange ribs wouldn't be worth the effort to cast so I made those out of styrene bits, a look at the drawings will show the sizes I used. But the reinforcing bump in the roofs I wasn't about to file 23 of those since they have several angles to them. Again I got lucky since that formation is the same as the mini hycube I had built. So I cast up 23 of those (casting those at the same time I was casting the little sill ribs).
Here's a look at the roof ribs in place










Notice I used a little spot putty to smooth out a rough spot in each formation (that shows the importance of taking the time to make the masters as perfect as possible)


So now that completes the roof.


Now, about the floor, I wasn't going to detail it much at first but since I had a good drawing of the floor arrangement, I decided it wasn't that much work to detail the floor.
Here's a shot of the floor after I had installed all the ribs and bracings










Once all those pieces were glued in place the floor plate went from flimsy to relatively rigid, especially the center sill.
I was still waiting to see the USA Trains 60 boxcar to see if I could use thier coupler box.









Not long after I got my first 60 footer from USA I decided I would use thier coupler box. I bought a set off of a fellow largescaler that had removed the body mount box and had installed truck mount couplers to his 60 footer.
Being anal retentive, I had to get rid of the USA couplers and replace them with the Accucraft #1 ga. couplers (AP11-738) which are actually 1/29 scale. I know because I measured them to a drawing of a scale coupler. I have been converting my fleet over to these couplers.

Here's a shot showing the coupler box and the modified Accucraft coupler installed.










You can see in that shot that I was installing the side ladders (vertical pieces from Burl Rice - resin castings I had purcased from him when he was still doing casting) with brass rungs, drilled and glued in place.
In this picture you can see I've used Tichy Train Group rivets (the brown ones) to represent the rivets for the bolsters and crossbearing beams as attached to the lower sill.










Also added are the car pulling loops and the jack pads on the lower sill.

In this close-up of the end shows the many scratchbuilt bits and Grandtline rivets (the grey ones) that make up the end details.










The brakewheel is a USA Trains part from the centerflow hopper car. The Ajax brake housing is a resin casting I made. The walkway is part of a USA trains boxcar roofwalk. The tackboard is a resin casting I did of a USA trains boxcar tackboard (I did those when I was making my mini hycube boxcar).

At that point I turned to the doors









The vertical rods are 3/32 dia styrene tubes laid into the scallops and then capped with half cut 5/32 dia tubes cut at the cross ribs. Also a 5/32 collar was slid onto the vertical pipe at the door opening mechanism bars. All other little details are just scratchbuilt bits of plastic.

So, that's where I am now. I still want to do the brake and airline detail underneath as well as a few more little detail bits on the body before I take it out to start painting it.


I hope some of you enjoyed and or learned from this review.
Take care,
Brian


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Wow Brian, that is some amazing work!


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## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

Superb Brian. As usual. The door detail is incredible.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Brian.... That's just awesome..... Well done.....


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

That is a GREAT build, keep it up Brian 

Chris


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks guys,

I believe I've finished the construction phase......onto the painting and decaling phase.

Here's the underframe completed and painted.....I even did all the airline details (yeah, I know I'm crazy....)










I did get a coat of primer on the body too....no picture of that yet.


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Well, I did get a shot of the body in primer....not a great picture


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Well, today was clear enough, I took her out and put a coat of color on it. I had been debating what road to paint it (I was leaning to DT&I - surprize, surprize) but, after much deliberation, I am making it Conrail!
Considering they has the largest fleet of these cars it only makes sense my first car is Conrail.
Here's a few picts of it sitting in the basement drying.
I'm really happy with the finish.

Now I have to get to work on drawing up the decals for it.

Enjoy!


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## cj and m (Feb 6, 2010)

Very insperational Brian ! Thanks for the info on the rivet strips , will be using them on future projects for sure.


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Well, I got the decals drawn up and printed, so today I applied them.


It's at this point I can breathe easier and am getting very excited. I'm always
a bit worried when it comes to priming/painting/decaling as so many bad things can
(and have) happened during those phases. But this one is going really well.
Anyway, here's a few picts I just snapped. I still have a few more decals to print then add but I couldn't help myself showing it off tonight.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Awesome, Brian....


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

When you can take close ups like that, then you KNOW you've done a great job. Now 6 more cars to go.


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

That is one awesome looking car. Great work. Later RJD


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

Ya just have to humble yourself in sack cloth and ashes before guys like this. Masters. 
Now If I could only buy the basio cast parts from him???


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks Guys,

Marty, those are some pretty heady words.....you could do the same level of detail if we could figure out how to slow you down. I envy your ability to produce and produce, I think you build more in a week than I do in 3 months.

Now here's a challenge for Marty. This is a picture of an 86' boxcar in 1/8 scale (7.5"ga). It's almost 11 feet long, it is very impressive in person. It's owned by a guy in Michigan.










I suspect it won't be long and Marty will be making one in 1/12 scale....you could use it as a dog house!


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## general1861 (Jan 22, 2010)

How did you print the white decals...You did an AWESOME job!!! 
Travis


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Travis, 

Thanks! 

I use an ALPS printer. It's a laser-jet type printer that uses a white ribbon cartridge.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

You are Mad sir, stark raving MAD! 


...keep up the good work


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## ConrailRay (Jan 2, 2008)

@import url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Provide...ad.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css); Posted By DTI356 on 06 Jan 2012 06:37 PM 
















NICE!


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

Alright, I got the rest of the decals applied, so here's the official Builders photo:










Now, I just have to work up the courage to apply some weathering to it.


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## cj and m (Feb 6, 2010)

Thats one awsome car ! Thanks for sharing your fantastic work ! I was wondering ,when you said the rivet strips were on a decal paper,do you use a decal setting solution on them and do you have to apply them to a painted glossy surface as you would with regular decals?


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## DTI356 (Jan 3, 2008)

They are applied just like decals (because that's what they are...not printed ink but resin blobs in this case). Smooth shiny surface prefered. Bare unpainted plastic is smooth and shiny. Yes I used setting solution. And just like decals you have to overcoat them to lock them and keep them protected, so painting over them does just that.


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## mrh044 (Oct 11, 2008)

Great work as always!! Beautiful model!


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