Hello everyone,
long time no see - yet, I've managed to keep going with model railroading. This year has seen some new life pouring in those old projects.
I've started building a flatcar for my semi-fictional railroad company. And since I've drawn many inspirations from these forums, I'd like to share something in return.
For our next operation session I'd like to contribute a few waggons of my own. In that way I will stick to my intentions, that is to focus on a complete train for the time being.
One better starts small. That's why I've picked the construction of freight waggons, precisely: flatcars. The reasons are natural:
most US freight waggons based on flatcars or were closely related to them. Furthermore they make the easiest waggons to model, apart from disconnects and skeletons.
First order of the day is research: How were flatcars constructed? Which dimensions and particulars come into play? How are they built as models?
The web offers a host of construction reports on waggons and flatcars, you can even find some for my Fn3 scale.
After some looking around, I zeroed in a model of a prototypical length of 26'. The Old Machinist published drawings on pixorails, the image file has such a high resolution that one can print it for almost any scale.
Courtesy to Union Pacific Historical Society I've got the permission to construct my model based on those diagrams.

The drawings are printed on large sheets of paper. Courtesy of Union Pacific Historical Society http://uphs.org
On the web site made by Bernhard Schroter, US-Models of 1900, there are several construction reports on building flatcars and gondolas.
Those are constructed in H0, but with such a perfection that one can learn a lot of hint and tricks that still apply for greater scales.
Many thanks for those reports, they do help a lot when one is beginning and making the first own steps!
And of course, there's still Gerd's Waldbahner-Blog, where he relates how he constructs and continually improves his flatcars built for 5' railways.
There, one can find invaluable hints that really ease the way and avoid a lot of frustation.
You can find the whole story and high-res pictures on my website: https://zamit.eu/en/2020/07/new-cons...ports-flatcars
Next week, construction is up.
long time no see - yet, I've managed to keep going with model railroading. This year has seen some new life pouring in those old projects.
I've started building a flatcar for my semi-fictional railroad company. And since I've drawn many inspirations from these forums, I'd like to share something in return.
For our next operation session I'd like to contribute a few waggons of my own. In that way I will stick to my intentions, that is to focus on a complete train for the time being.
One better starts small. That's why I've picked the construction of freight waggons, precisely: flatcars. The reasons are natural:
most US freight waggons based on flatcars or were closely related to them. Furthermore they make the easiest waggons to model, apart from disconnects and skeletons.
First order of the day is research: How were flatcars constructed? Which dimensions and particulars come into play? How are they built as models?
The web offers a host of construction reports on waggons and flatcars, you can even find some for my Fn3 scale.
After some looking around, I zeroed in a model of a prototypical length of 26'. The Old Machinist published drawings on pixorails, the image file has such a high resolution that one can print it for almost any scale.
Courtesy to Union Pacific Historical Society I've got the permission to construct my model based on those diagrams.

The drawings are printed on large sheets of paper. Courtesy of Union Pacific Historical Society http://uphs.org
On the web site made by Bernhard Schroter, US-Models of 1900, there are several construction reports on building flatcars and gondolas.
Those are constructed in H0, but with such a perfection that one can learn a lot of hint and tricks that still apply for greater scales.
Many thanks for those reports, they do help a lot when one is beginning and making the first own steps!
And of course, there's still Gerd's Waldbahner-Blog, where he relates how he constructs and continually improves his flatcars built for 5' railways.
There, one can find invaluable hints that really ease the way and avoid a lot of frustation.
You can find the whole story and high-res pictures on my website: https://zamit.eu/en/2020/07/new-cons...ports-flatcars
Next week, construction is up.
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