Interurban Freight Trailer - CERA type with square ends

Brand new, but already bruised and tired: the Interurban CERA box car with square ends, in several stages of "weathering"

Economy is booming, a second boxcar was needed

More and more goods are shipped on my Traction Line, so a second boxcar was really needed. It is a again an Interurban CERA standard trailer with rounded ends. Both cars lo nearly identical, but they aren't.

Printed grabs (left) , wire grabs (right)

The newest car, the red one, was printed with solid handrails. The green car has hand mounted grab irons made of 0.3 mm wire.

Floor, with printed truss rods

Printed brake wheel and grabs. 

But as I am a little bit lazy, I tried to print the grabs with the body, in Shapeway's material "Frosted Detail".

The result is not so bad. Level of detail is the equivalent of 1970 plastic models. The handmade grab irons are a little more realistic, but the difference is hard to see, for my aging eyes ....

This means that the goal of a "ready to mount" 3D model is nearly achieved. All you need is to mount a pair of Kadee trucks, screw the furnished drawbars and clip the couplers. A coat of primer, and some paint, and the boxcar is ready to roll.

But now a box motor is badly needed.

Back to the boxcars (4) - couplers and draft gears in action

An interurban freight trailer need to be pulled (or pushed) through severe curves. Here you can see how it works with printed radial drawbars and Roco couplers (type 40270)

(Roco 40270)

Back to the boxcars (3): CERA trailer painted

The rounded end CERA interurban box car painted

Back to the boxcars (2)

I got a first CERA trailer printed. Unpainted, in its white translucent "Frosted Detail" material it is hard to photograph. But it seems well proportioned. The brake wheel (above, on the right) is printed one piece with the body, just slightly over-dimensioned to meet the minimum wall thickness.

"Back to the boxcars 1", see here: 

http://interurban.blogspot.fr/2013/10/back-to-boxcars.html

The frame was printed in "BSF" (Black, Strong, Flexible), including the truss rods, in one single part. This is the first time I printed truss rods. They are a little thicker than prototypical, but this seems acceptable for me. 

The frame is equipped with functional radial coupler bars, printed in BSF also. I clipped european Roco HO couplers (Roco 40270) into the normalized bars, and I obtained a very functional trolley coupler, but not prototypical. With this coupler, I can push the trailer through tight curves, S-curves, turnouts, even with overspeed. Coupled, they form a rigid bar between the two vehicles. Roco couplers are easy to uncouple, to connect they must be well aligned.

Back to the boxcars

CERA interurban boxcar with rounded ends

Awaiting the last adds on my Fort Wayne project, I woke up my old Interurban boxcar drawings who were well advanced but eternally unfinished.

First in the list is the rounded end CERA trailer. The double Camel doors and some under-frame is already done.