Baldwin Westinghouse Class B

The deadline of the 2015 East Penn Traction Meet in May is approaching. Will this last project be ready in time, or not? We will see...

The decision to build this engine was long to take. A year ago, I considered to buy a brass kit from MRR Warehouse, but endless complications about the motorization led me to abandon this project.

Placing motors into this tiny engines with offset hoods was any time a big challenge for many modelers.

Some month later and still frustrated, I decided to start with the motorization and only in a second term build a engin body around. Some 3D sketches were drawn and proved that NWSL Stanton drives could match, when nibbling even the last millimeter. Exhausted, no further engineering was done for months.

But recently, John Richards, conductor at the Iowa Traction asked me if I would be able and interested in drawing a 3D model of a Baldwin-Westinghouse Steeple Cab. This time I simply could not refuse ...

Iowa Traction # 54

Sergent H0 knuckle couplers for Interurban operations

Some modelers advised me to try out  Sergent H0 knuckle couplers.

http://www.sergentengineering.com

I am not disappointed at all, they are not jackknifing, prototypical and finally easy to install. Mounting the tiny cast parts is a little challenge of surgery, but not so difficult in the end.

They are mounted on self made drawbars, 3D printed like the rest of the underframe. I will made this drawbars soon available for all my models.

Interurban Box Motor, shunting a consist of 3 trailers

Additional work on the Interurban Box Motor

Some last details like frame bolts were added to the model of the C&LE Box Motor #622.

Some parts were adjusted to ensure printability.

The light blue part is the radial coupler head, designed for normalized NEM couplers. 

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"

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.

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.

Ohio Electric boxcar moves to the paint shop

With handrails and truss rods, before the prime coat

After the prime coat

It is time to choose the right green color

H0 underframe for Ohio Interurban freight trailers

The underframe is prepared for Kadee trucks and self made radial couplers. The bogie and coupler supports are printed with the frame. Screw holes are pre positioned. Queen posts and truss rod supports are printed also, the four rods must be added made from brass wire, holes are in place as rod anchors.

Unfortunately, I made a small error in the drawing and the bogie pedestal on the right (under the truck) is missing its rounded center piece. This time, I added it in styrene. The new version would be improved.

A 10x12 brake cylinder is positioned near the center. According to Charlie Pitts, a cylinder with an auxiliar reservoir would be more suitable. I will add this part also in the updated version.

Once the last improvements made, this underframe could be used for any version of 38' Ohio boxcars with arched roofs or railraod roofs.

Resin Print of Ohio Electric Box Car

Quicker than expected i.materialise shipped the resin print of the Ohio Electric Freight Trailer. Here is the car directly out of the shipping box, disposed on Kadee trucks.  The "kit" is split in two  parts, the carbody and the underframe with bogie pedestals and a brake cylinder.

The car parts

Left : With End doors. On the right : without

Evi M. made the quality check

CERA freight trailer diagram

CERA interurban box car

Facing a freight boom on their interurban railways in the mid-20ies, Master Mechanics of leading midwestern companies designed a standardized box car.

This car is still known as the CERA trailer, named after the Central Electric Railway Association. Even standardized, this car was built in several variants. Here is the drawing of the two basic versions, with square ends or rounded ends.

Download pdf-file (scale 1:72)

C&LE wooden freight motor

C&LE freight motor, rendering of a future H0 resin print model

Motive power is needed, work is in progress.

Ohio Electric Box Car diagram

In the early times, the Ohio Interurban box cars wear the dark green livery with gold lettering of the Ohio Electric Railway. They had end train doors and small side windows.

With the help of Steven Greenup, I draw a new blueprint of this car, based on diagrams of Fritz Hardendorf and some rare photographs.

You can dowload this datafile here :

download pdf diagram

Sometimes it is expected to miss, but it works

Today, I built a styrene frame for my resin printed interurban boxcar. This is a "beta" car, the final chassis will be printed also.

I screwed the bogies and built a radial coupler from a cannibalized Kadee coupler. Then I attached another improvized radial coupler to my big Suydam Niles. This couplers are neither well finished nor well adjusted.

To my entire surprise, it works.

Not only in pull operation, but also pushing the trailer with excessive high speed through my sharp S-curves.

Two short videos :

 

Haps and mishaps with H0 Kadee arch bar trucks

I purchased some pairs of H0 Kadee #501 arch bar trucks for my Interurban box cars. This bogies have a real fine look. But on trial runs on my small street running layout they derailed on sharp S-curves and some switch frogs.

This was a great deception because I counted much on this trucks for my projects. You may say that I must avoid sharp S-curves, but what is a trolley freight operation without sharp S-curves?

Finally, by "try and error", I found the reason. The Kadee truck with their real three piece articulation needs a wheel staying well in the rail and who doesn't mount.

Kadee with simple plastic wheels

The solution is simple : change the Kadee wheels with one of the cheapest Bachman (or so) plastic wheels on steel axles of same size found in my scrap box. Now they are going through all curves.

The surplus Kadee wheels can be reused in a rigid bogie like the Tichy Train Group plastic arch bar truck. Nothing is lost, everything is transformed.

C&LE box car in HO

C&LE boxcar in HO

A trial to find out the "tuscan red" who matches. The trailer is still missing the final trucks, couplers and the underframe. The grooves of the sheeting will be smaller for the next print.

Now, I need some ideas for the decals.

(update, better photo uploaded)