How time flies. I finally cleaned and primed my brass boxcar. It is magnificent! Priming it was tough, when the brass comes out of the ultrasonic cleaner it is so beautiful. But after priming the detail blows you away! I'll have to get the CNJ decals from Mr shortpainter now. Fingers crossed! I will try to do a DCC version of this as all my North American stuff is DCC. If I do that then I can do the lighting but I wonder what lighting would have been used on one of these? It looks like just one white light on in either direction. I am guessing that it is best to use a short piece of "light tube" and not just a naked LED shin ing through the hole. Also my North American stuff has AZL or MTL style knuckle couplers. The Rokuhan couplers on the SA002-1 are foreign to me. Can they be replaced with MTL couplers? There is a lot of discussion of couplers regarding this loco but I don't really understand how it works. If I have to run the Boxcar sans couplers (or just the shorty couplers) that is OK, I doubt it pulled anything but another Boxcar in real life. But I would prefer the look with knuckle couplers.
Eric, Pictures? I had asked Rudy to make Boxcab truck side details for the Shorty trucks. They will make the trucks look like the correct trucks. Have you purchased those from his site? Scott
Thank you, I did not know about his website but I found it from your link and bought the decal set. I did not see the truck side details in his shop though.
Eric, Try his Shapeways page:https://www.shapeways.com/shops/the-z-maker Second row down in the middle. Scott
I Know, the A019 Short Shank. I have one of Walt's boxcabs and a shorty here on my workbench. The shell fits over the mechanism after you file down the rectangular nubs a bit. but the stock couplers stick out a lot, so you want the shorter A019 knuckle couplers. I am going to make the MTL 905's fit on mine.
Thanks Robert, A019 it is! I had mine on the track today, I'll post a picture tomorrow. I like the way the little Shorty runs. I notice you have the same (older version) boxcab as I do, he has a new version now with a lower skirt to better hide the Shorty chassis. But I am going to cut the tabs on my shorty completely off and see how low I can get her. I am a bit bothered by the ladders not hanging down close enough to the ground with the Shorty tabs in the body slots. We'll see where I end up. As Kev showed a bit of packing can have the body at any height. Since I goofed and bought a CNW decal set by mistake I decided to go ahead with that in brass, The decals were too nice not to use! And so today I ordered the CNJ decal set, a plastic boxcab body, and the truck covers for both. I really like the CNJ museum loco with the green body, yellow markings and handholds. This evening the mailman delivered a new type of Shorty chassis with different trucks. I used a SA002-1 for the brass boxcab. On it the trucks are a light grey plastic with no detail and will really benefit from the truck covers. But I just got a SA001-1 with my Showcase Miniatures Pacific Electric Trolley (Who killed Roger Rabbit?) kit and it has much more detailing on its trucks. With that Shorty one could almost get away with a "not scale but looks scale" boxcab. Personally I'll want both of mine to look the same so I'll get a SA002-1. And I already ordered two sets of truck covers... Oh yeah, what is that clear paint you make windows with? And do you prefer to use plastic sheet when it is easy, like on this boxcab, or does the "window paint" look better?
I am going to make an underframe sidesill for mine and put MTL 905 couplers on it. I need to make a few shell mods, and patch the headlight in favor of a roof mounted one. And I will laser cut Mylar for windows. I am thinking I want to build the repainted Lackawanna 3001 into the Ingersoll Rand scheme it wears now:
Wow, never seen that Ingersoll Rand scheme, nice! And yes a strip of mylar for the windows will be easiest for me to do here. This is the one I really want and probably the basis for this boxcab molding.
this is a model boxcab [in HO scale] that is supposed to be a close rendition of the ingersoll rand version of the prototype ...just a fyi, that's all
Here is my Northwestern boxcab. I'm afraid painting the chevrons on the ends is a bit beyond my ability... Comparing the stairs on it to the loco's on either side shows what I mean by feeling the boxcab stairs sit too high. BTW, I got very lucky with the shot on the tracks! I was put off by clutter behind the boxcab so I turned on track power and moved a train, then took the shot, then turned off the power and picked up a hot little potato! The Shorty is tough, it still runs fine after being exposed to DCC track current I'll move the decoder install up on my list of chores.
On the subject of DCC. I have another thread for a decoder install on a Shorty. But specific for lighting on this boxcab I measured the holes for the headlights on this brass body at 1.60mm, quite large. And I am concerned about stray light illuminating the cab windows in an unnatural way. My idea is to use a light pipe with the LED at one end and in a tube painted black that can be slipped into the holes before setting the body in place. There appears to be plenty of room for the excess wire in the cab. I won't bother with tail lights, just a yellow LED headlights in the direction of travel.
Mine has ended up being painted in an anonymous color scheme. On Republic Steel it works the steel dispatch yard and on Hakuho runs the log cars on the forest line The Deki 500 will be finished in Chichibu railway livery Kev
I plan on using 0402 LED's placed inside the holes and sealed in place with UV Resin, forming a lens.
Kev I like the height your bodies are sitting at, that looks much better. Good idea about the UV Resin. I got a tube of that a while ago but haven't used it for anything yet.
