thought i show what i've gotten done. picture below shows the wide vision caboose with an MTL 50' modern box to which i added a plug door (pieces of styrene). the next photo shows a 50' flat i made from an MTL gondola with the sides cut off and wood siding added to the deck. the trailers are resin castings i got off "the bay" and modified to single axle trailers. lettering on the flat is CDS dry transfer. the loco is the FT Aunit i bashed out of an MTL F7. not a good photo, but i'll try to do better when i get the B unit finished (just one more paint color to apply and then decals). dave f.
All of them are amazing! I REALLY like the caboose. You had said you started with two of the Marklin cabooses for it, did you change the roof too? It looks different to me. Randy
AD (Amazing David) you done it again. The ribside look awesome. That plug door look like part of the mold, and not something added to the car. That is the caboose that everybody is waiting for, so expect a lot of e-mails. I saw the pictures of how you made the flat car. The question is how did you made the cut so perfect. You cut it exactly at the floor of the gondola. I dont think you have a laser. Also, what color did you used on the wheels. I think I saw someone else paint it with the same color, and keep up the great work.
thanks, i'm glad you like it. whatever i do i know anyone else can do ... so have at it. Rio Grande didn't have a plain ribside box cars (like the hard to find MTL 50' rib side) but they DID have one with a plug door and just that kind of side door and rib sides ... sooooo ...! the flat wasn't hard, just had to be carful. i cut along the inside (bottom) edges of the gondola (with the metal frame removed) and scored the edge(s) with a new blade in an xacto knife. very light pressure, stroke after stroke until it came through. so the floor and sides came off the gondola shell in one solid piece ( with just the ends and sides remaining for the flat). i turned it upside down and gently sanded it smooth. to that the wood siding was added. it really wasn't a tough project, but i needed a longer flat car than MTL makes. i'm sure it can be done with the straight-side gondola too. i just recently did what chris did to his gondola and lowered the trucks to make it look better. now the trouble with making the wide-vision caboose is buying two cabeese and tearing them both up -- with good caboose parts left over!! i bought undecorated caboose(s) from anthony at z scale monster, and it made things a little cheaper. i'm looking for two more so i can make another wide-vision and hope jurg will consider it as a trade for the dome car he found for me. we'll see, he's a tough bargainer. one day soon i'm going to buy a set of Robert's covered hopper cars and make them into ballast hoppers (should be an easy modification). why? because i haven't seen it done yet!! it's a sickness for us, isn't it? dave f.
Dave, Thats some nice work there! It would be cool to convert a F7 into a F3. I notice the B unit seems to be crisper and probably newly tooled (?) About the 50' flat, has anyone converted a Marklin flat car to give it better truck spacing? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6048746800&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1 Hard to see it in this photo.
David, the work is outstanding! I must say that caboose looks mighty fine. I would never guess that is wasn't mass produced by a manufacturer. Very nice!
