# building a 7/8th scale milk car...



## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

I have been working on some 7/8th scale rolling stock. this is a milk car used on the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington railway in Maine. it is a two foot gauge car which is similar in size to a UPS delivery truck. It would have run daily picking up milk cans left by local farmers at station platforms. I guess it might also bring finished products like butter and bottled milk or cream to any customers who wanted such fancy things. It would have been heated in the winter to keep the milk from freezing and cooled with ice during the warm weather.










the frame was made from pine which I sawed on my table saw. I made a bunch of brass fittings to add some realistic detail.










once the car frame was decked, I made plywood panels for the sides. I sheathed the inside with pine.
















I glued the sheathing with super glue. I applied the glue to the plywood and misted the strips with accelerator.

the sides were then glued onto the car 









I milled beaded boards for the exterior sheathing using my micro table saw. They were milled with an over lapping joint so they cover completely without any gaps.


















this time I sprayed the accelerator onto the car side then added the planks one at a time. 

the roof for the car has an internal frame. I made it to look like the prototype's









I sheathed the roof with 1/16" birch plywood then a covering of aluminum furnace duct foil tape. 









I gave the entire car a spray of rattle can paint which happens to be pretty close to the prototype color.








cardboard cut to fit the door and window keep paint out of the interior.


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Eric;

Oh my! That car is going to be nice. BIG too!

Best,
David Meashey


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

The doors are 1/8" plywood with pine sheathing. the inside is diagonal, the outside is the same tongue and groove as the rest of the car.










I made hinges from copper sheet. I stacked 4 layers of copper, pinned them together, marked them out, drilled the screw holes then sawed them out using my band saw ( a full size wood working saw with wood blade ) this gave me sets of 4 matching hinges. the copper was then bent around a peice of bronze wire.










I made windows from strip wood (pine). the window "glass" fits into slots sawn into the strips. I pre-painted the strips using some scrap sheet metal in the slots as a mask so that only the outside has paint.










I used photo shop to render the lettering from the opening photo to a form that I could transfer to the car side. I printed it reversed on my laser printer, then ironed it onto the car side. I painted over the markings with a paint pen.










That is where I am at today.


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## Xavier A. (Feb 25, 2011)

I like it.
And I like the clever use of aluminum furnace duct foil tape.
I use it too.

Regards.,

Xavier


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## Jean Gilles Durand (Jan 6, 2009)

Beautiful construction
Can you explain us how the lettering transfer on the car. Thank you


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

Jean--

I used photoshop to make a black on white version of the photo of the car side...showing ONLY the letters by playing with the contrast then inverting the black to white and then reversed it right to left. I printed black letters on white paper on my LASER printer. laser printers use heat set ink which will transfer with a hot iron onto other surfaces.

here is the car next to big brother at the WW&F railway museum today.


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

Eric,
Would you care to share the technique you used to generale the beading on the bead boards. I can see several uses for that.
Bob C.


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

To make the siding, I started with1/16" thick strips cut on my full size table saw. I also used it to cut the ship lap edges. this requires the used of featherboards to hold the strip in proper alignment.

The fine grooving was done using a micro table saw. Mine uses machinists slotting saw blades. The kerf for this project was only 0.016" I set up a fence and cut each slot separately. It took some careful measuring and a bit of tweeking to get the spacing to look right.









by the way, here is the full scale car next to a standard gauge caboose (Maine Eastern...former Soo Line) Two foot gauge stuff is small next to standard gauge stuff. The cab of the FL-9 was huge!


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

sweet


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## ewarhol (Mar 3, 2014)

WOW!!! Well done.


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