TP&W Caboose 529: Part III (Finale)

Part 1
Part 2

Time to finally finish this project, which I started over a year ago. My progress on this car has stalled as I have been contemplating how to model the windows. The original double-hung side windows on the prototype were replaced at some point with sealed windows that are slightly smaller than the original window openings. My initial thought for modeling them was to glaze the full window openings on the car prior to painting and mask off the glass areas. However, I feared that the paint might bleed under the masking tape and ruin the windows, so I decided to paint the car first and install the windows later. At the same time I painted the car, I also painted some white label stock to be used later to make the replacement window frames but left the details of how to do that for later. Well, later is now.

Nothing fancy here, just plain white labels from Target painted red.

I tried a few other ideas for making the windows before settling on this method. First, I made a brass template of the window area. I eyeballed the dimensions from prototype photos; the template is 1/4" tall and 3/16" wide. I rounded the corners with a file.

Next, I attached the template to the painted labels using a small bit of double-sided tape. Then I carefully traced around the template with my hobby knife. Being right-handed, I found it easiest to go clockwise around the template. After finishing each window, I moved the template to a new location and repeated the process.

I definitely got better at this with practice. Note the improvement from my earlier attempts on the left to the later ones on the right. I learned to use a very light touch with the knife, especially on the first pass around the template. I found I needed to make at least 3 passes around the template for each window.

I cut out each window frame, leaving about 1/8" or so of label around the perimeter, and removed the label from the backing. Then I carefully colored the cut edge black with an ultra-fine-tipped Sharpie so you wouldn't see the white label material around the window. 

Next I stuck the label onto a piece of 0.005" clear styrene. Using my knife and a steel straightedge, I carefully trimmed around the window until it fit snugly into the window opening on the car. I found it easiest to trim the window to the correct width first, then trim the top, and finally trim the bottom. 

For an adhesive, I applied Microscale Kristal Klear around the inside of the window opening with a toothpick, then carefully set the window in place.

One down, three to go.

All windows installed!

The underframe has been patiently waiting since last fall for the body to be completed. I sprayed the underframe black with the ladders, handrails, and brake wheels in place, then came back later and brush-painted the brake wheels and corner handrails white. Right as I was about to mount the body on the underframe, I noticed that I had neglected the white safety stripes on the steps.

I felt I had a 0% chance of neatly brush-painting the white safety stripes, so I went back to the same labels I used for the window frames. While I did brush-paint the bottom steps, I used thin strips of the labels for the remaining stripes. 

Safety stripes complete. I think the end result was definitely worth delaying completion of the model for about an hour. 

Time to check coupler height. Looks great on this end...

...but way too low on the other end. Luckily for me, the bad end is the rear of the car, so I didn't bother trying to fix it. Stay tuned to see if this comes back to bite me later.

It took some force to snap the body onto the underframe, but I'm pleased to report that I didn't break anything in the process. Let's hope I never need to access the car interior, again, though.

Here's the other side of the finished car. I'm excited to finally see this caboose on the layout.

Walthers Tank Car Repair

This 65' LPG tank car and I go way back. This is a Walthers kit that I assembled in the summer of 1999 while building my first layout. Technically it is too modern for my 1970s-era layout - if you read the fine print on the side of the car there is a reference to testing conducted in 1989 - but I'm not bothered by that. It will look just fine for now.

Note that there is no coupler on one end of the car. The original press-fit coupler box cover fell off at some point and the coupler fell out too. I thought I saved the missing parts, but I sure can't find them now. To get this car back in service, I'm going to fabricate a replacement coupler box cover. I fully expect to find the missing piece as soon as I complete this project.

Step 1 was to remove the one remaining coupler box cover and measure it. Note the raised lip on the top of the cover.

I cut a piece of 0.040" styrene for the new cover and a piece of 0.005" styrene for the raised lip, then laminated them together with styrene cement.

While waiting for the glue to dry, I converted the stock coupler box to be screw-mounted. In order to work on the bottom of the car without damaging the details on the top of the tank, I rested the inverted car on two Accurail boxes, which were just narrow enough to fit between the end grab irons and the center handrails around the dome. I drilled out the hole in the boss on the coupler box with a #50 drill, cut off the pin on the box cover, drilled a #43 hole through the cover, and mounted the cover with a 2-56 screw. This is when I noticed that the car didn't have stirrups. 

The stirrups are separate pieces that fit into the small slots on the corners of the end platform. Luckily I still had the extra parts that I didn't use when I assembled it over 20 years ago. (No, the missing coupler box cover wasn't with them.) The tabs on the stirrups were too big to fit into the slots, so I had to both trim them shorter and file them thinner to get them to fit. I also scraped the paint out of the slots so the styrene cement would bond well. 

This car was already equipped with metal wheels, but they were scale 33"-diameter wheels and this car should have 36" wheels. After installing 36" wheels, I checked the coupler height. It was close, but the coupler wanted to droop a bit. I decided to add shims of 0.005" styrene to the coupler box covers to prevent this.

Here are the coupler box covers with the 0.005" styrene shims installed to prevent coupler droop. I have also drilled a #43 clearance hole in the replacement cover. Next step was to paint the replacement cover black.

While waiting for the paint to dry, I turned my attention to the handrails around the dome. When I originally assembled the car, I did not install the stanchions. This was probably for the same reason I didn't install the stirrups; they didn't fit well straight out of the box.

The stanchions were already too long, but by installing the handrails as shown so that they went all the way through the mounting holes down to the tank, now they were way too long. 

I carefully shortened all 4 stanchions until they fit. I found it easiest to work from the top down, deepening the notch by cutting off thin slices from half of the stanchion thickness only until the notch fit under the handrail. Then I trimmed the excess length from the other half of the stanchion and glued the stanchion in place. Once all 4 were installed, I touched up the paint.

Here's the end of the car with the replacement box cover installed.

Coupler height looks good.

Ready to return to service.

TP&W Modern Boxcars

If I remember correctly, I found both of these TP&W boxcars at train shows while I was in college. They are Athearn Blue Box cars custom-decorated by Bev-Bel. In addition to different car numbers, there are also subtle differences in the lettering.

More recently, Athearn and Accurail have both offered models of these cars, but to my eye these newer cars are painted a shade of orange that is too light. The darker orange on the Bev-Bel cars looks more like the few prototype photos I have seen (examples here and here). These two cars were my worst performers on the Illini Railroad Club layout. They had a tendency to come uncoupled from other cars, especially on grades. This performance was likely a consequence of chronically low coupler height, as shown below. I didn't try to fix them back then; they simply got banished from the club layout.

I had one of these cars in the inaugural train on my new layout, and even with no grades, it still came uncoupled from the rest of the train. It's time to fix these cars so I can run them. 

The Easy Way

Probably the most common way to fix low coupler height is to use washers above the trucks to raise the carbody relative to the wheels. I went this route for TP&W 70157.

Prior to installing the washers, I addressed some other low-hanging fruit. Part of the low-coupler problem was that the tops of the coupler boxes weren't sitting flush with the bottom of the weight like they're supposed to be. There were two reasons for this: casting flash on both the car floor and underframe pieces and a bowed weight. These are things that I always check for now when assembling car kits, but I wasn't always so careful in the past.

There were small raised projections and bits of flash on the plastic floor piece that prevented the steel weight from sitting flush with the bottom of the floor. I removed these with a #17 chisel blade.

There were also bits of flash on the top of the underframe piece where you see the small circular indentations on the photo above. I removed these with a #11 blade and filed them smooth with a flat needle file.

As shown above, the steel weight has a curve to it. Because the weight gets sandwiched between the underframe and the floor, the plastic underframe and floor will flex to conform to the shape of the weight. If the weight is bowed and/or twisted badly enough, then the trucks won't sit square to the rails and the car will track poorly.

I carefully flattened the weight by bending it with my fingers, and also checked to make sure it wasn't twisted.

I added a red (0.015") Kadee washer to each truck bolster as shown above, then reinstalled the trucks. I also replaced the original plastic wheels with Walthers metal ones. The Walthers axles seem slightly too short for the Athearn truck frames; I may have to either replace the trucks or use different wheelsets later if the current configuration causes problems.

The finished car compared to the Kadee coupler height gauge. The coupler is very slightly low, but much better than before.

The Hard(er) Way

While the washer method was successful at raising the coupler height, the couplers also don't stick out far enough from the end of the car. For car #70138, I decided to modify the underframe to both fix the coupler height without using washers and move the couplers out farther from the car end.

Because the tops of the stock coupler boxes are flush against the weight, raising the coupler boxes would require notching the steel weight. To avoid doing that, I instead decided to install the weight on top of the floor and fill the cavity between the floor and the underframe with styrene. The weight is 0.055" thick, so it can be replaced with pieces of 0.015" and 0.040" Evergreen styrene laminated together. The coupler height needs to be raised approximately 0.015", so I can cut notches in this piece for the coupler boxes.

Here's the floor with pieces of styrene cut to replace the weight. Using the weight as a guide, I drilled two 7/32" holes to clear the bosses for the truck screws.

I bought these Walthers cushion coupler pockets because these cars say "Cushion Service" on their sides. However, prototype photos of the TP&W cars don't show the couplers sticking out quite as far as the picture on the Walthers package. I will still use the Walthers parts to replace the original Athearn coupler boxes but won't follow the Walthers mounting instructions.

Here's what the Walthers coupler boxes look like. The "tongs" are supposed to fit in the stock coupler box so that the new box projects out from the end of the car.

The Walthers lids are intended to be glued onto the box, but I want them to be removable for maintenance. I drilled out the boss on the box with a #50 drill and made a hole in the lid with a #43 drill. 

With the underframe in place, I marked the sides and ends of the Athearn coupler boxes with a pencil.

Next, I used the pencil marks as a guide to cut a notch in the 0.015" styrene. Then I cemented the piece of 0.040" styrene to the black plastic floor and cemented the 0.015" piece on top of it.

I sawed off the Athearn coupler box from the underframe as shown. The end of modified underframe lines up with the notch. Mounting the Walthers box in this notch puts the coupler end of the Walthers box about even with the platform on the end of the car, which was right where I wanted it.

I cut the "tongs" off the back of the Walthers box and shortened the lid to match. Then I cemented the Walthers box in the notch in the styrene as shown. I also had to notch the end of the black plastic floor slightly to clear the new raised box.

Here's the completed underframe with both new coupler boxes in place.

At this point I mounted the trucks and checked the coupler height. Looking good.

I used double-sided tape to attach the weight to the top of the floor.

After painting the white styrene and brown coupler boxes black, it was time to install the modified floor/underbody assembly into the car body. I also had to notch the ends of the body to clear the raised coupler boxes. I test-fit the floor into the body and marked the location of the coupler box with a knife as shown above.

I notched the body about even with the middle of the row of molded-on bolts.

Here's the finished product. Coupler height is spot-on, and the coupler now sticks out farther from the end so the cars won't couple too close together.

I like how the 70138 turned out, so I will probably go back later and do the same thing to #70157.