Back in the old Ohio Electric days ...

Ohio Electric wooden Boxcar with clerestory roof

HO scale wooden boxcar, laser cut body and frame, 3D printed roof, Kadee #501 trucks, Sergent couplers

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 

Glazing plan for the Ohio Electric Combine

Glazing is a thankless job. To help a little, I made a glazing plan for the Ohio Electric Combine - and tested it myself...

For glueing, I use MicroKristalKlear from Microscale.

The plan is donwloadable as a pdf file and will be moved to the Model blog "interurbanmodels.blogspot.com", for further use.

Sorry folks, for the Millimeters. I have no measuring tools for small dimensions others than in Millimeters...

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.

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

Truss Rods for the Ohio Electric Box Car

The four truss rods under this car cannot be printed with the resin shell or the resin printed underframe.

You can make them by bending small wire and glueing them into the prepared holes. The truss rod supports are printed solid with the frame.

Bending, fixing and glueing the wires is a little tricky.

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

Ohio Electric boxcar is going 3D

Ohio Electric Interurban Freight Trailer, H0 scale

 Preparation is under way to make the 3D file "water proof" for resin printing.

The "kit" will be composed of two parts, the body and a floor ready for Kadee trucks and home build radial couplers. Some basic underbody parts as the brake cylinder are modeled.

The parts marked fluo green in the second image must be added, same as brake wheel and handlers.

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

Boxcar archeology (1) - the C&LE trailers

Cincinnati and Lake Erie boxcar #3352 - © Steven Greenup Collection

Tens of years ago, I studied history. I learned that not only glamorous objects have to tell what was and what happened, but those in the backyards, hidden and forgotten, were of great importance. Interurban freight cars were of this. Electric interurbans railways were primarily passenger carriers. The freight business came lately. And only in the Midwestern area freight grew to a major business for interurban lines, and this only for 20 years.

Remnants of a Cincinnati and Lake Erie boxcar  - © Photo Steven Greenup

Freight was carried mainly in box motor cars, hauling box trailers. If the big box motors were relatively well documented and photographed, the trailers were not. So I start what I tell "boxcar archeology". Searching remnants and documents, and bringing them together for a bigger picture. With a help and encouragement from attentive blog readers, Steven Greenup from Ohio, and Charlie Pitts from Boston.

This freight trailers were probably not welcomed by the contemporary citizen during their active lifetime, when they rumbled through the streets. But once stored for demolition, some early enthusiasts took photos or made drawings, as the famous Fritz Hardendorf.

Some car bodies were sold and reused as farm barns. Made mainly from wood, only very few survived more than 30 years. Just enough time for some enthusiasts to shot photos and to take some notes.


Cincinnati and Lake Erie boxcar #3353 - 0-scale model - © Photo and model Charlie Pitts

I will start the "boxcar archeology" with this specific cars of the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad and their sister cars with clerestory roofs. Not to forget their original version, when owned by the legendary Ohio Electric Railways. But all this details are for the next blog message ...


Cincinnati and Lake Erie boxcar - 3D rendering

Ohio Electric

The Ohio Electric Railway Company, formed in 1907, was a consolidation of 14 smaller interurban railways and one of the largest interurban systems.

It connected Toledo, Lima, Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati, providing passenger and express freight service to scores of small towns in western Ohio.

Beside my special interest for the Indiana traction lines, I am doing much research on the Ohio network, as both were connected and tried a last modernisation campaign in the 1930s.

A list of Interurban Railways in Ohio is here .