Don't forget about the Car Builder's Cyclopedias.

Google books has two editions in PDF for free.

http://books.google.com/books?id=0UJ...ers+cyclopedia

and

http://books.google.com/books?id=S5g...opedia#PPP2,M1

and I found this link also:

http://www.virtualrailroader.com/vol...rbuilders.html or

http://www.raildriver.com/products/cyclopedias.php which includes free software for printing to your scale.

These may not be the exact type or year you are interested in but are a valuable resource.

Google books also has numerous other cyclopedias.

8D

Thanks Bruce and Dave!!

As has been mentioned, and can be seen in Vic's pictures on Page 1 of this thread, brake detail is required if you want any hope of having your car reach the Merit Level.

For some reason, I have had trouble visualizing how to add the brake detail. Maybe it is diagrams such as this that has me waking up at night with 'brake diagram nightmares'.

http://pic.srv5.wapedia.mobi/thumb/a...at=jpg,png,gif

Forum member Russ (Slimrails) has been patient with his explanations he sends me, and I have looked over the various articles in the magazines. The series by Ted Culotta in RMC has also been very helpful.

For those who share my affliction, here is a great link that I believe Russ sent my way.

http://www.steamfreightcars.com/mode...les/brakes.pdf

Here are two other useful links that I have stumbled upon.

This shows a simplified diagram for the KC type brake system.

http://www.tpub.com/content/armytran...55-2030101.htm

This is a link to an actual "Student Workbook" put out by Wabtec, the successor to the Westinghouse Brake Co. There are some nice prototype photos included with the diagrams.

http://techinfo.wabtec.com/DataFiles...ts/TP-2008.pdf

I hope that this proves helpful to all who are working on underframe detailing.

One other useful link that I have found for those scratchbuilding or detailing rolling stock is this Army reference manual: Maintenance of Railway Cars. Enjoy.

http://www.tpub.com/content/armytran...ion/TM-55-203/

Bruce, awesome links!! Provides a ton of information.

Thanks for sharing!!

[:-graduate]

thanks for the links, no matter what I am questioning myself on...when I go to the forum I get the answers I need.

Well, I have started plugging away on this certificate.

When working with structures, I found that having first built some craftsman kits really allowed me to learn construction techniques that proved invaluable when I entered the world of scratchbuilding. Since I had no experience scratchbuilding rolling stock, I decided to approach it the same way – I started by building two craftsman kits. The first was an HO boxcar kit made by Main Line Models, and the second was an HOn3 flatcar kit by Evergreen Hill Designs.

The Main Line Models kit came from an era where staples were provided for grabs and steps. I got rid of those, and used more modern detail items. I made my own jig to drill the holes for the grabs, and did a full brake system from Tichy. Other detail items I added were grabs from Tichy, steps from A-Line, trucks from Proto 2000, door hangers from SS Ltd, chain from A-Line, turnbuckles from Grandt-Line, coupler lift bars from Detail Associates, and Kadee couplers.



The EHD flat car had a laser cut under frame. The decking is done board by board. The trucks are from Rio Grande Models, the wheels are NWSL, and the couplers are Kadee. I did a full brake system from Grandt-Line. Once the basic flat car was done, I added scratchbuilt end racks and made a load of ‘chemical wood’.







I treated both of these builds as learning experiences and will not have them evaluated. I could use them as two of the four pieces of rolling stock that do not have to be evaluated – just written up and described in detail. These also represent two different types of cars – you are required to build at least four different types. I plan on building a gondola, and must build a passenger car of some type. That would give me the four different types, although I will probably have other types included in my final eight pieces of rolling stock.

I will now begin scratchbuilding additional pieces of rolling stock. Most will be HOn3.

I'd like to suggest that you have them evaluated anyway.

When I was assembling my packet for Structures where you also can have items that are not judged, I found it to be useful to have the documentation of these other items in hand whether they got merit awards of not. Some had, and some had just missed, but they were verified as existing by virtue of having been judged at some point...

And, you just might learn something, too....

Bruce, they both look great!!

:up: :up:

Looking forward to your additional cars.

Vic, great looking cars. Getting this AP certificate should not be a problem for you. Really nice work.

Some diagrams and pics to help.


These are pics I have collected to help me when I tackle the Cars Certificate.












Also have two scanned pics from RMC Oct 2006 and July 2007 but not sure about posting.

Hi Guys,

Just catching up on these Achievement threads. Some good info and nice scratch built cars![^] I think I'll have to delay some of the awards while I concentrate on the layout specific awards. I am looking forward to getting started but that's true with a lot of things in my life!!

Hello Fellow Railroaders

This is the first car I have scratch built for the NMRA MB Cars certificate. I just finished it and it has not been judged yet. I have finished 5 of the certificates and this will be the sixth. Most of my modeling has been in HO at our club, the Texas Western Model Railroad club. I decided to go back to O scale as I remember it was a lot of fun building cars and structures in this scale. I'm starting to model the Westside Lumber Co. in ON30, and this is the first car modeled, caboose #1. The Westside removed the brake cylinder when they bought it from the Swyane Lumber Co. around 1940. Westside had both automatic and air brakes on their cars.

Sorry. my pictures didn't post. Is there a how-to on posting pictures.

Joe Batson

Let's try it again.