# The 1/6th scale mine car project



## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I finally had some time to work on this project a bit more this evening and I even took a few pictures of it.  I'm working on the frame and wheel assemblies at this point. Now that I've gotten this far, I have to decide what type of body to put on it. Here's the frame so far.


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Nice job









1/6...hmmm. You could make it an Indiana Jones Temple of Doom mine cart. I'm pretty sure there are 1/6 scale figures of Indiana Jones out there.


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice looking car. It will be hard to decide on a body. Could be an ore care, explosives or fuel. 1/6 and 1/8 are fun scales to model. You can do anything you want really.

Check out this site. Lots of 1/13.7, 1/13.3, 1/12 , 1/10, 1/8, 1/6 and 1/5 http://www.7-8ths.info/index.php


Looking forward to your next.


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## Koploper (Apr 3, 2011)

What happened to the photos? I can't see them....just big white boxes with the little red X in them. Rats!


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Koploper on 25 Dec 2011 12:44 PM 
What happened to the photos? I can't see them....just big white boxes with the little red X in them. Rats!








That means you using a browser that does not support the Data URI encoding format.









Wikipedia - Data URI Scheme[/b]


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm using internet explorer 8 and I can't see them either. 

I don't have problems see everything else on this site.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm using Internet Explorer 9 and have no problem seeing the pictures posted by Amber.

I have no problem viewing any other pictures on this site.


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## Eric M. (Jan 3, 2008)

Hi Amber,


This looks like my type of project. I have done something similar with the (at the time) largest spoked wheels I could get. I did 3 1/2" gauge, and I did a v-dump style car as you can see:





























I decided on fixed axles and bronze bearings inside the wheel centers as many mine cars did have independent double bearings for helping to negotiate sharp radii.


You may be interested in knowing that the 7/8ths scale wheels from Ozark are actually made by Gary Watkins of Sierra Valley Enterprises. He is a nice guy and he has made wheels in other scales. You would probably be interested in the 1/10 scale wheels which would probably get you closer to a better size for 1/6 scale. He often has neat wheels that he has done in small production runs that aren't even mentioned on his website so it's worth calling him up to ask about that stuff.  Click here  for the link to Sierra Valley's website.




You may also like to see the mine car that I built in 1/4 scale. I built it out of antique cast iron "pocket door" wheels a weathered hardwood frame and ABS plastic body tub that was "rusted".












I would also recommend taking a look at some of the postings on the site Bob recommended-- lots of great stuff on there.


 Regards,


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Nice mine cars Eric! There are several of the full size v dump cars on display within 10 miles of where I live. I believe they were used in iron ore mines in the area. I thought about making a v dump car but I haven't found the right size I beam or C channel material to use for the frames. The car in front of the museum a few blocks from the house has a double channel on each side of the frame with the sprung pedestals bolted between the channel irons on each side. Those cars have the bearings in the wheels also. Actually, most of the mine cars that I've seen have the bearings in the wheels. The Sierra Vally website does have nice wheels! When I bought these wheels, I didn't realize that you could get them directly from Sierra valley's website. 
It's interesting that this project started out as an idea to build a mine push car for the G.I. Joes. 
As for my pictures, I can't post them directly to this site as I'm not a paid member, so I have to post them to my Flickr page and then copy them to post here. That's the only way that I've found so far anyway. That seems to limit the size of the picture that ends up here, no mater how big it is there. Maybe after I've sold off more of the HO scale stuff in the basement on ebay, I'll be able to get a paid membership here. 
Thanks for the link, Bob, I'll have to take a look at it.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Here's a couple of pictures of the v dump car in front of the museum down the street. This is a 2 foot gauge car.


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

Those are interesting cars Amber! Not easy to build either, even with a pretty complete shop.


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Eric, really nice work on those ore cars! I especially like the last one. I thought it was the "real thing" until I read the description.


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## SE18 (Feb 21, 2008)

nice job; the 7/8 forum mentioned is 100% builders of large scales, they'd be happy to see you. 

BTW, put a pck of cigarrettes or beer can beside for perspective; you can really appreciate the size that way 

Dave


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I finally decided to make a side tip box for this car. I had to figure out the hinge setup fpr the side tip, you can't buy parts for these kind of things anywhere. I'm trying to build this car as a mostly wood car that would have been built on-site by the miners from steel parts and lumber, the way a lot of the wildcat miners did when they were starting a mine with very little money. 
I'll post a few more pictures once I've made some more progress.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Well, I never did make any more progress on this car the way I was planning it. I just never worked out a decent design for the center pivot hinges for the side dump box. I finally gave up on that idea and decided to use the car's frame for a flat car to haul stuff into the mine on. Here's a picture of the frame with the pieces on it to support the deck. 

 

There's a lot of holes in the frame because I decided to move the axles further apart on the frame, it just seemed the logical thing to do as part of the new design. Since this picture was taken, I've made a bit more progress. I've got the deck boards on it now, and I'm working on the improvised link and pin buffers for it. I need to take a couple more pictures of it now. 
The other parts in the picture are frame parts for a small version of an Iron Mountain Mining Co. ore car that I'm slowly working on, along with my other projects. When I get stuck on one project for some reason, I start back on another of the several projects that I have going. Someday, I might actually get 1 or 2 of them done.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I just uploaded a current picture of the progress on the car. 

 

The wood pieces in front of the car are the very unfinished end buffers for the car for the link and pin couplers. I'll be using small double headed nails for the pins, there's one sticking up out of the one buffer. The soda can is just for size reference.


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## Eric M. (Jan 3, 2008)

Hey Amber. Looks good. I did prefer the closer axle spacing you had on the original frame though. Better for that super tight radius track in the mine!

Keep up the good work.

Regards,


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Eric, I thought about that, but I was a bit concerned about coupler swing on the cars. With the extra length that the buffers will give the car, the links will swing pretty far out on tight curves. I'll have a better idea about that after I get the buffers glued on to the car. 
I found some thin link chain that will work for the links, although the links are just long enough with normal curves, they might be too short for tight radius curves. 
I need to make a set of reenforcing plates for the buffers where the pins go through. In prototype use, the stress on the wood without the reenforcing plates would probably rip out the pins with the abuse that a car like this would get.


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