# shorties



## bcer960 (Dec 27, 2007)

I started these cars on July 1st. I have wanted to make them for awhile, and finally gort around to it. 










They have full interiors




















They go well with my other shorty trains











Ray


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Ray, 
Those are way cool! Appeal to my warped sense. I need to make a few for my one cylinder shay to pull.


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## Dwayne (Jun 10, 2010)

Any chance you could post photos of your other shorty trains?


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## Bob Baxter (Jan 3, 2008)

Brilliant! I haven't been inspired to whip up something like those creations in a long time. What is the origin of the roofs on the trolleys? Love what you've done!


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Yes, lets see the rest, those are really good looking models.


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## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

They look great... no small.. no... uh short! But they are GREAT! 
Yes please; some more pictures of the rest?


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## cjwalas (Jan 2, 2008)

Great idea! Great modeling! Great job! Makes me want to get back to my own shorty project. Very inspiring stuff, Ray. MORE PHOTOS PLEASE!!! 
Chris


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## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

Those are great. I love short cars. Vic they would look good on your pizza


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## CCSII (Jan 3, 2008)

So how come all the shorty cars and engines but the forklift is full length?


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## bcer960 (Dec 27, 2007)

So here's the pics of my shorties. 


















































































A quick note as to how I got into this. In 1990 I my father had started a garden railway. He lived about 4 hours from me and when I would come up for a visit, "Garden Railway" magazine would be on the bed. At that time it was little more than a newspaper, 5-10 pages at best, black and white photos. Anyway some one had an artical where they were making 50' bachmann coaches and so had all these ends leftover. He made some shorty coaches out of them and called it the "Pig Point Line". I was only 20 at the time and couldn't afford to get into this hobby, but bachmann kits were only $18.00. So I bought and made the tank car first. The coaches last. The refer car has batteries, Locolink RC, sound and a speaker in it. The steam engine was the first engine I ever owned and started life as a Lehmann Porter. I took off the saddle tank and shorten it 1". My dad thought I was nuts to wreck the nice little engine. I had Robert Dustin make the number plate for me.
I made a rule that none of my shorties could not be more than 5" long, not including couplers. This was based on the porter and caboose, the caboose being the longest car.These cars are all shorter than an eggliner. When it came time for the passenger train I chose the MDC Big Hustler. This engine is slightly longer than the 5" rule, but looks nice. I never finished the decaling the passenger train, always on my to do list. In all honesty, the passenger train has never run. I named them the "Stoney Creek Short Line" Big name little cars. I also built the Stoney Creek Critter. It is too loing to be called a shorty, but is cute anyway










The next thing I bought was a U25-B, so I went from shorties to the largest engine availlable at the time. But by then I was hooked. The shorty freight train is a show favorite and has several actual miles on it. As for why the forklift is full size... I it would accentuate the short cars having full size loads on them and the LGB flat car met my 5" criteria. 
The roofs for the shorty interurban and baggage car are rejects from my Interurbans and baggage cars that I am/have made. Look up "http://www.mylargescale.com/Communi...fault.aspx" or "http://www.mylargescale.com/Communi...fault.aspx" in this forum and I have a couple of pics and an explaination of how I made the roofs.

Ray


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Great stuff Ray 

I love'm 

Randy


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## Dwayne (Jun 10, 2010)

Very cool. Interesting history on how you got started.


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## CCSII (Jan 3, 2008)

Great work. In the arts and crafts (this is both) consistency is important and you have hit it a mile.


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## Chrisp (Jan 3, 2008)

These are awesome! I like short cars too - I just finished making a coupla mining cars from cowbells (see http://www.7-8ths.info/index.php?topic=16681574.msg37241#new) that at 4" would qualify as shorties.


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## bcer960 (Dec 27, 2007)

Those are too cool, what a great idea. 

Ray


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Great!! Who says short cars have no business? Your short passenger cars are fantastic. They remind me of a kit sold by Walthers many years ago. They may still have it in their "O" scale catalog. I can't remember what they called it, but they did give it a name.


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## bcer960 (Dec 27, 2007)

Dan, 

I remember the Walther's heavy weight passenger shorties, and have to this day been waiting to find a really good deal on an Aristo heavy weight coach and observation. They would need to have the 3 wheel bogies. I just can't justify $100.00 or more per car to shorten it. 

Ray


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Ray, 
I can't blame you there.


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## Trains West (Oct 4, 2008)

http://www.walthers.com/exec/page/press/1999/piker


 http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/WALTHERS-PIK...0433037851


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

The walthers re-release of the RTR Piker and Oskar made no sense, as they lacked the original reason for the old models. A cheap and easy way to "try" a Walthers pax car kit. 

I guess the RTR ones were a cheap and easy way to find out how to open the box on the new fulllsize cars?


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Pretty nifty! The hopper car is a hoot.


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