# Little scratch built styrene passenger car



## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

3 or 4 years ago I started making a steam loco tender from scratch. It had all the bends, rivets and wrapper's as per the prototype. It was really complicated and I was having moments of doubt, would it look good? I'd never built something of this calibre before in styrene and this was fuelling the doubt. 

I put the tender away and knocked out a stock car in wood, easily my best large scale built. After a few HO builds I decided to revisit the tender, but indirectly by doing a simpler project to build the confidence in styrene model making. This project was to have no curves, no rivets and was to be a bit more relaxed.

I tried to get some evergreen scribed styrene which became impossible is Australia. In the end I decided a little board and batten passenger car so I could just use the basic styrene sheets.

I have been working on the project on and off for about 2.5 years and progress has been steady and here are some progress shots.
This picture shows the sides being cut and glued.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Here are the ends almost done. All bits have been cut from styrene sheets except the for quarter round of the door frame.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

I’m using a plan from Garden Railways magazine as a guide for my model. I’m blown the drawing up to 1:20.3 and extended the length by hand.

I’ll be using a set of Bachmann passenger car trucks which as much bigger that the drawing shows.

Alan


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice neat work. Glad to hear of someone else that works at my rate of speed.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Very, very nicely done, Alan...









Will be awaiting the images of the finished model..


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## ewarhol (Mar 3, 2014)

Looks great Alan. Looking forward to more updates.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Stick with it Alan, I'm sure it'll be a great addition to your railway.
For wooden side panels I've used sheet styrene, scribed deep lines in to the surface then gone over it with a 60 grit sandpaper. When painted it seems to give a good representation of wood.
Look forward to seeing your progress.
Cheers.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Slow and steady wins the race Jerry!

Harvey, do you a scribing tool to do it? and I think you missed a 0 in 60, maybe 600 

Alan


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hi Alan,
I did some underfloor floor boards a couple of months ago, the method I used was to layout the lines, scribe them, then using a triangular sectioned needle file with the end ground for a sharp corner on at least one of the edges. I run this up the scribe lines to deepen and widen the groove. Using 60 grit paper glued to a small block of wood I distress the surface (lightly) then finish up with a wipe of 220 grit paper. The shallower indentations from the 60 grit will get filled with paint, but the deeper ones will stand out.
Give it a try and see how it works for you.
I did some flat cars a while ago and used individual boards. This was easier as I used a rotary sanding drum on my drill press and just wiped the styrene strips across the drum as it was rotating. This method works well as long as you remain focused and don't wipe your knuckles over the rotating drum...Ouch!
Please don't ask why I go to all this trouble for the "underside" I get asked this all the time.
Cheers.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Harvey, I'll give that a try! I have seen articles along the similar favour, but never given it a go.

Alan


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

gave it a go Harvey, needed a bit more sanding with the 60 grid to make some wood grain stand out.

Alan


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Glad see you made a test piece Alan, I did several tests before I was happy with the outcome. I guess the other thing I should have mentioned is that I air brush with flat paints from my dwindling stock of Poly Scale paints. If your grooving tool jumps out the groove, don't worry about it, it'll look like a split in the wood when you've finished.
Cheers.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Alan, I don't want to open old posts, but if you have a look at "A Flat Trio" posted 9-10-2013 and "61 foot C&O Well Hole Car" posted 8-13-1013, these have styrene disguised as wood for the deck on the flat cars and the bottom board panels on the well car.
Cheers.


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## Scott (Jan 29, 2008)

I use a scribing blade I got from Ebay, and then use a small wire brush or razor saw dragged across lightly. Followed by the back of a blade to add character and a hardened wire end as a punch for knotholes. Whatever the technique as long as you achieve the effect you desire.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

The sides, ends, and central divider all done.










I went to the trouble of adding similar detail to the central divider because I felt a basic flat shape even for this ‘a bit of fun’ project. Funny thing is after I stuck it all together I noticed the back of the ends and sides are far from elegant, oops. i'll need to hide them with some people.


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

Very nice job, those are going to be some good looking cars.

Chris


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hi Alan, as Scott pointed out you can get scribing tools or adapt existing available tools to suit your needs.
This is one I adapted some time ago for scribing underfloors. The holder is a #2 X-Acto knife (X3202) with a shortened #15 keyhole blade (X215). The blades cut easily with side cutters, make sure you protect your eyes when cutting the blades.










Cheers.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Thanks harvey, looks good. I have used razor saw blades to distress wood when building fright cars, seems I need to start adapting those skills to styrene, why I'm doing this project. These are great tips from yourself and Scott.

The next bit was the end beam and hand rail, no styrene  . I don't have a table saw to rip down timber, so i started with two square moldings from the hardware store and glued them together. I cut it down to get the right height then used my Dremel drum sander in the drill press to shape the curved front and ends.

The hand rails were knocked up from brass, soldered with a little butane touch, normal solder used with some extra flux. Note the little 'hook' at the end of each rail near the middle to hang a chain from later.


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Wow, really nice work!


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

It was time to cut the base from some 6mm clear acrylic. It’s a basic rectangle shape with a cut out in each corner where the steps will eventually sit, the below pictures shows the main bits together on a pair of Bachmann trucks.










Today I received a package, my first 3D print! I have been working on another complicated 3D model (top secret for now), but to understand the process and develop my 3D modelling skills I did a simpler model and had it printed. I modelled up a couple of smoke stacks for this passenger car, overall they look really nice. The smaller cylinder where the joiner is at the base of the stacks is so I can spin the stack in my drill and give it a light sanding to smooth it out. The picture is as it came from the printer.


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Looking good!

What CAD software are you using for the 3D stuff?


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Thanks Ray, I used the free version of SketchUp and had it printed by Shapeways.

I have only used SketchUp, I'm finding it very difficult, however practice makes perfect.

Alan


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Bit more progress on the passenger car, this time on the underframe. The detail underneath was kept relatively simple, its just a flat base with a good representation of break detail. I wasn't to worried that it wasn't perfect if you picked it up and looked underneath, but it had to look right at eye level. I must admit I did take it further than originally planned as I'm a rivet counter!

The castings were in my bits draw, I think they are all Hartford except the queen post which I'm positive are Ozark castings. The air tank strap was made from brass wire and soldered to the casting, its grey now because its had a coat of etch primer.

All the other bits are brass wire and styrene. I need to finish of the train line on the coupler side of the bolster, but won't until I get the end beams on.


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Nice work on the brake system.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Not much progress of late, other distractions in life.

I have added more detail to the end beam including grabs (bent up using pliers) and a buffer thing… does anyone know the proper name for the buffer thing?

Alan


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

steam5 said:


> and a buffer thing… does anyone know the proper name for the buffer thing?


Oddly enough, it's buffer, https://books.google.com/books?id=T...epage&q=passenger car end beam buffer&f=false


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

steam5 said:


> and a buffer thing… does anyone know the proper name for the buffer thing?


Oddly enough, it's buffer, https://books.google.com/books?id=T...epage&q=passenger car end beam buffer&f=false
and
https://books.google.com/books?id=w...epage&q=passenger car end beam buffer&f=false


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

Okey dokey, oddness I do not understand is happening here; edit created instead of an edited post, a duplicate post showing the edit. 
That happening and the reasons for it are well above and beyond my pay grade of computer knowledge.


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## Dick Friedman (Aug 19, 2008)

You might use Bachman's 24 mm wheels under that car, if you can get them down under. I've used them on perhaps seven or eight Hartland two axle cars and they look great.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Dick, Sure I can get those wheels down here, I'll check them out.

Progress has been slow on the car since my last update, to many other life distractions. Since the last update I have attached the end been to the chassis. To do this I glued it and then drilled a hole through the beam into the chassis to insert a brass pin and capped with a white metal casting.

I've also made the four steps out of styrene. The sides were cut to the approximate shape and then final shaping was done with a Dremel sanding drum in my small drill press.

Alan


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

I've started work on the interior of the passenger car, which will be very basic. Firstly I've stared building some bench seats, nothing flash, but they will do the trick.

The pictures shows the first one, and has already had a coat of primer.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Sorry it’s been a while since my last post, but life has been flat stick.

Since the last post I have been working on the roof, this has been quite challenging. Originally I wanted to form styrene into a gentle curve. I tried doing this using a cylindrical metal bin, I taped styrene down to the bin and poured hot water over it. It did hold, however the results were not uniform. In frustration I looked for a better method, I laminated strip word held in position with masking tape underneath, overall it looked much better than my styrene attempts.

I'd love to do a flash roof, but for this build I'm going to keep it simple.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Next I laminated the strip wood over the top with masking tape which I've seen described here. Once it was all taped down I ran glue along all the edges to hold it all down nice and tight. Its bit hard to see from the pictures but you get the idea 

Laminating the tape over the roof was quite a therapeutic task, much better than trying to form a styrene roof.


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## riderdan (Jan 2, 2014)

It's looking really impressive. Do keep posting your progress--I might not have that level of skill, but I love to see a well-crafted, hand-built model come together.


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