# Work car



## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

Mik on largescale central came up with agreat idea by having a builders challenge. We had something like 2 weeks to buid something and could not cost more the $20. Basically had to use what was on hand. It took me some time to decided what to build. I looked through pages of magazines. Then I though hey I have been wanting to build a work car. I had everything on hand but did I have enough time. I figured why not try. I started on Sunday. I first painted a Hartland flat car. Then I added some decking to the flat. On Monday I was off from work and all alone. I started on the shack and fence in the morning. Later in the evening when the kids went to bed I finished putting siding on the shack and detailing the window frames etc... On Tusday I made a roof using styrene and masking tape for the top coat. The chimmney was added as well as all the details. Once the glue dried I weathered the wood parts and tools some what. Then today the final touches were done and is now ready. Overall im pretty impressed. I did not think I had it in me to scratch build soemthing like this. Total cost $0. I had all the wood on hand. The HLW flat was an extra I had. All of the detailed parts were left overer from my Dunkirk project that ordered before the challenge (Which is also done). I have to thank my pin nailer, I could not have done it whithout you.


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## smcgill (Jan 2, 2008)

Just so NICE !!


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## Idraw4u (Aug 19, 2008)

That is really great! Nothing like a plan coming together.


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Well done for a down and fast build. Later RJD


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Nice job. I love these work cars. Maybe I'll have one on my railroad someday.


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## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

Nice job! That would look great behind your Dunkirk locomotive!


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## sbaxters4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Well done Shawn!! looks like a great work car but now it needs the rest of the work train to go with it!!  Let's see what you come up with for that!!!


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

Nice project, did you win the challenge?


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

Looks really good.


Couple questions about the Hartland flat. 


It looks like it has sprung trucks. Do they come with these? The old Hartland flats and gons that I've kitbashed have all had rigid plastic trucks. But they are a few years old so maybe the newer models have sprung trucks.


On the decking. Did you just paint over the molded on deck and add the wood on top of it? 


I ended up hand scribing and painting the molded on decks for my Hartland flats. Not easy to do and took some time. Here's a link to a photo of one of the three hartland flats I kitbashed into idler flats:


Idler flat


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## TruEnuff (Jan 1, 2010)

Just a great job, Shawn.....and inspiring too. Lesson learned: it isn't always necessary to have a pile of money and time to do something thoughtful and creative. And maybe a bigger lesson learned: SIMPLY DO IT! (My biggest fault. If I could just stop thinking and planning and DO...well, who knows?)


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Shawn;

Very nice! Just an idea in case you do decide to build more work cars. The innards from an HO railroad crane can be used to make a fairly credible large scale hand derrick. The derrick on the car shown below was built from the works to a ConCor HO railroad crane, plus details from Ozark and others.




















Yours,
David Meashey


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## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By San Juan on 13 Jan 2010 04:46 PM 
Looks really good.


Couple questions about the Hartland flat. 


It looks like it has sprung trucks. Do they come with these? The old Hartland flats and gons that I've kitbashed have all had rigid plastic trucks. But they are a few years old so maybe the newer models have sprung trucks.


On the decking. Did you just paint over the molded on deck and add the wood on top of it? 


I ended up hand scribing and painting the molded on decks for my Hartland flats. Not easy to do and took some time. Here's a link to a photo of one of the three hartland flats I kitbashed into idler flats:


Idler flat



Matt thanks. The trucks have no real springs just plastic ones. What I do is take the truck mounted couplers off and cut the arm the couplers attaches to. Then I spray paint the flat car and trucks (I didnt really focus on spraying the tops since they will be covered) I use to do the tops like you mentioned but found nothing beats real wood (Although yours look really good - I was never good at painting plastic to look like wood) What I do is sand down the top sides to get the grooves out, that way when I put the wood boards on top it does not look like two layers of wood planks. Then the final touch is adding Bachmann knuckles to the body. I found this to be the fastest way. Wholsesale had the flats for $14 last year this year they went up to $24 or so. Still nota bad price. I hope they run the $14 sale again. Whats great with these and the bachmann flats is you can make so much out of them.


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

Yet another great looking car Shawn, keep it up. 

Chris


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## SE18 (Feb 21, 2008)

That's really a work of art! Are you modeling 1:20.3 exclusively now?


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## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SE18 on 15 Jan 2010 08:54 AM 
That's really a work of art! Are you modeling 1:20.3 exclusively now? No im still doing 1:22 and 1:24 scale. The HLW flat that I used is a 1:24 scale so the work car is something between 1;22 and 1;24. 1:20 scale is just way too big for my layout. Plus 1:22 and 1:24 stuff is so much cheaper.


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