Models for Allentown [2] some more Devils, and then an Eldorado

Liberty Bell Limited

Among the models that I bring up to the Allentown Trolley Meet are two more versions of the "Red Devils". When the Cincinnati & Lake Erie closed, the Lehigh Valley Transit bought several units and rebuild them for their "Liberty Bell Limited" service.

The swing entrance doors on the right side were reinstalled, and an identical left side door was build. The cars recieved a second trolley pole in front, the pilot was sheeted and 3rd rail shoes were installed on wooden beams on the ABC trucks. The headlight was raised up to the roof, the dash lights removed and the horns were placed on the left front corner. The cars recieved a striking cream livery with red striping.

Three Devils

CRANDIC Devil

So currently I have three "Devils", but there is a fourth to come. The Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway (Crandic) bought also six "Devils" when the C&LE closed. First they run nearly unaltered, but later some of them recieved  rounded "front spoiler" in replacement of the pilot and the trolley pole was mounted on a higher pole base. The folding doors remained in service. The cars were painted yellow and dark red/brown.

This 3D printed is still in production at Shapeways and will hopefully be delivered before the Meet. Technically, the models are identical to the C&LE cars, they are powered by the same Tomytec TM-TR04 drives

Electromobile to "Eldorado"

Another car for the Trolley show is the "Electromobile" built by Osgood-Bradley for the Altoona & Logan Valley Line in 1929. This were very modern bidirectional cars, close to the Brill "Master Units". Identical cars were delivered to Scranton. In Altoona, the were called "Eldorado Cars", because they often served on the Eldorado line.

The car is powered by a modified Tomytec TM-TR01 drive. Due to the very low ceiling of the car, the upper plastic plate wich holds the contac strips is removed. Otherwise the drive is unaltered. Purists see that the "Electromobile" runs currently on (Tomytec) Brill trucks, because I haven't yet finished the Osgood-Bradley truck frames in N scale. I think that is for the moment a pardonnable sin... I will also bring an HO model of this car to the Allentown Meet.

Electromobile, side view

Models for Allentown [1] C&LE Red Devil

The East Penn Traction Club sponsors the largest trolley model in the USA. The meet 2017 will be held at Allentown Fairgrounds, May 18-20. I will be present at this exhibition with many models, mostly N scale models, easy to transport in aircraft luggage. Here a review of the models in preparation for the show:

The first model is the famous Cincinnati and Lake Erie "Red Devil" Highspeed Interurban Car in two versions: First as delivered with a swing front door, and a second car with a folding door. The swing doors, enabled for high level platforms, were replaced after the plans for a Cincinnati Subway has definetely failed. Then driver operated folding doors were installed.

The N scale one piece body is 89 mm long, including the pilot. The is powered by a Tomytec TM-TR04 drive. This drive has the prototypically small wheels (4.1 mm, about 26 "), but the wheelbase (9.2 mm, about 4 '10") is a little bit too short. You have to make some compromises ... Fortunately this is not too visible, once the ABC truck frames applied.

The car can go around the smallest available N scale curves with 103mm radius.

 

Interurban Box Motor, shunting a consist of 3 trailers

Interurban Box Motor roll out

S scale traction models (1:64)

Some blog readers and traction modelers asked me if I could make models in scale S (1:64) . Firts I declined, but after some research and reflection I transformed my Ohio Electric Wooden Combine into a S scale model.

At this scale, it is no longer possible to print in Shapeways "Frosted Detail". The model is re-engineered and have no floor, but a separate pilote and doorsteps.

The model at Shapeways:
http://shpws.me/vYqH 

C&LE Wooden Freight Motor (2)

Nearly two years are gone since I posted the last message about this project. 

Some ideas need time to mature. The light blue rectangle is a rotating standard NEM coupler socket. Because a freight motor needs functional couplers.

Ohio Electric Combine - painted and glazed

Front and right side view, the car run on Taylor MCB trucks

Weathering makes the car looking a little tired

Rear ad left side view with radial coupler

Making good things better

  A while ago, I made a lot of Cincinnati Wooden Combines in several versions. The overall design of this cars could be considered as very good, but some features were not very practical.

The front and rear platforms with pilot and doorsteps were formerly part of the body. This made it very difficult to glass the car, as the end windows were nearly out of reach. I never offered these cars for sale, because even if they were very beautiful, they were not perfect, in a technical point of view.

I decided to re-engineer the car, and started with the Ohio Electric version. Now, the radial coupler, the doorsteps and the pilot are part of the frame, and the body glides over the frame.

This makes it possible to print the body in Shapeways "Frosted Detail" (FD) and the frame in "Black, Strong & Flexible" (BSF). FD makes a perfect car body nearly without steps in the rounded clerestory roof. The frame in BSF is less detailed, but very strong, this is specially important for the pilot. I consider the detail as "good enough", and as the material is black matte, you do not need to paint, without loss of detail by paint coats. The "Taylor" type truck frames and three different radial drawbars are part of the under body set, all printed in BSF. One drawbar has a normalized NEM 362 mount, ready for Kadee #20 couplers.

I ordered one test set, and I can say it is perfect! The car was quickly mounted and motorized with NWSL Stanton drives, Model 1210 , part #39279-4 Wheelbase 7’(84”), wheel dia. 36”.

Next days, I will paint and glass the car. A complete mounting instruction will follow soon. The kit is now on sell at: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/interurban .

For a complete car kit you need a car body #CCC1101 and an under body set #CCC2101.

All other versions of the Cincinnati built combines - Northern Indiana, Terre Haute, Oneonta & Mohawk Valley - will be re-engineered soon.

The Oneonta & Mohawk Valley Combine painted

Oneonta & Mohawk Valley Combine, H0 scale

The Oneonta & Mohawk Valley Combine has received some coats of paint and weathering.

The cars was hand painted, except the sprayed primer coat. Alco truck frames are mounted. Ready for the East Penn Traction Meet...

The Oneonta Project (5) - Side view

Oneonta & Mohawk Valley Interurban Car (H0 scale)

Side view of the resin printed model with scribed side panels. Most noticeable differences to Cincinnati wooden cars for Indiana traction lines: elliptic arched upper-window sashes, no oval windows, elliptic clerestory windows. 

This car has also a rear swing door instead of folding doors. The door header was positioned lower and going under the letterboard. 

The Oneonta Project (4) - Mr Boeardus would have smiled

In 1908, Master mechanic Boeardus, covered with a trendy clear hat, stands proudly beside his brand new wooden Interurban car No. 63 at the Hartwick barn.

This baggage-passenger Combine was recently delivered by the Cincinnati Car Co. to his employer, the Oneonta & Mohawk Valley Interurban Line in Upstate New York. No rust, no dust on this immaculate electric car.

104 years later, a freshly unboxed scale model of this Combine is awaiting a photo session in my saloon in Paris. There are still some "print flush" to clean, and nothing is yet glued or fixed.

The H0 model is resin printed by i.materialise in Belgium, including the Alco MCB truck frames.

For a very first time I realised fine grooved wooden sides, the effect is exceeding all my expections. The grooves are spaced 0.58 mm, prototypically 2 inch.

Certainly, Mr Boeardus would have been proud of me. I will look if I could find a trendy hat like he had here in Paris.

Turning around the corner with a big 61'6" interurban

Some may be afraid if this big cars could really negociate sharp curves. They can. I tried a 138 mm radius, about 5.5 inch. It works, and there may be always a small reserve. This is a prototypical radius of slightly under 40'.

The only adapation to be done is cutting the 4 upper corner edges of the NWSL Stanton drive with a cutting knife.

Somewhere between Laporte and Goshen ...

My Northern Indiana Interurban Combine, freshly painted in "Traction Orange"... and weathered.

Season Greetings

Stay on the tracks and keep on rolling

The Oneonta Project [3] - modeling grooved wooden side panels

Grooved wooden side panels of Interurban passaenger cars were considered too fine to be realized with 3D resin print.

But now I think that it could be done. The grooved sheeting with prototypical 2" planks greatly improuves the look of this car.

The Oneonta Project [2]

Looking how things are coming together:

Oneonta & Mohawk Valley Interurban Combine

The Oneonta Project

The Oneonta & Mohawk Valley Interurban, in the State of New York, had some wooden combines built by Cinncinati Car Co. They were handsome smaller cousins of the big midwestern Indiana or Ohio cars. This combines were 51'3" long instead of 61'6" and had elliptic window sashes instead of angular sashes. The oval window was also omitted.

To modelise this car, I had to split the entire 3D part list and put all things together in new combinations. Useless to say that it is easier to say than to do.

On part missing, and it is a mess!
But now I have an entire library of all car elements with different styles: Front ends, back ends, side panels with single or paired windows, oval windows, blind side panels, clerestory window elements.

With rectangular or elliptic sashes, folding or swing doors, sliding baggage doors... To be completed with different pilots, roof mats, trolley boards and chimneys.


Amazing! This is a "structural grammar of Interurban cars" and I called this my "Oneonta Project". Any car composed of this basic elements could be created, plus some imaginary ones...

It must be done: painting

I hate painting, I am literally scared of painting. I wanted to buy a airbrush kit, but I'm afraid I would not meet the standards. In the meantime, I tried out brush painting on one car. I went to a shop for art articles here in Paris and bought several green acrylic or vinylic artistic paints and tested them on styrene sheets. One of them gave fascinating results when brush painted: nearly no structure, with an ultra matt aspect.

This paint is Lefranc & Bourgeois "Flashe" Matt Opaque Color. Their tint "Verdaccio" may perhaps well simulate a Pullman Green. This vinylic paint can be thinned with water, I use some drops of alcohol to make the paint smoother. Many shades are available, but their colors could also be mixed. 

 Lefranc & Bourgeois "Verdaccio"

Applied on printed "Prime Gray" resin, with or without a primer coat, it gives excellent results. With this very quickly drying paint, it is possible to do one car in two evenings. 

The airbrush option is not canceled, only delayed, till the day I would have some more courage.

Cincinnati Wooden Combine H0 kit

For those who are tempted by the adventure, the Cincinnati Wooden Combine is now offered for sale als a resin printed kit via i.materialise.

First in his Northern Indiana version.

The car is split in three parts:

1. the carbody with pilot, rear doorsteps and radial coupler.

item # CCC1001

2. The frame with underbody equipment, ready for two NWSL Stanton drives.

item # CCC2001

3. The truck frames. Two models of Baldwin MCB frames are available for this car (Order always a pair ;-) :

with straight outer ends #BDW7901

or with depressed ends #BDW8001

Required NWSL Stanton drives are of type 1210, with 7' wheelbase and 36" wheels.

This car kit is not "ready to run", but "ready to finish" with immediate pleasure. After cleaning of the resin shells, I have made the basic model run in one hour on his NWSL Stanton drives. After this inaugural running, you will unmount the car again and make the final detailaing work.

Only few parts must be added of your own: The truss rods made of .5 mm piano wire. And the curved end window handrails made of .3 copper or brass wire.

You will add also two trolley poles and pole hooks. If you want to operate the radial coupler, it is time also to mount it. 

I have all this tried out myself, and as I am a far better computer designer than field modeler, don't be too afraid. For all this steps I have already published small "howtos" here in the blog. But as they are dispersed, I will put them a little together soon.

Don't hesitate to ask for further information about this model.

Northern Indiana 300 Combine in H0 scale

The Northern Indiana 300 combines had a different window arrangement as the sister cars from Terre Haute or the Ohio Electric combines.

The oval window was situated at the rear and the baggage compartment was a little shorter. For this reason the heater and his chimney was moved a little forward. 

The Northern Indiana Cars had also a slightly different unterbody arrangement, the resistor bank was located in the center axis.

The frame is ready made for two NWSL Stanton drives 1210 (item #39278-4). 

Baldwin MCB truck frames for this drives were resin printed in the same "Prime Gray" material by i.materialise in Belgium.