R660 82' Trinity mech reefer

[Raeder]

Hi all,

I decided I wanted one, so I built it. Actually, I got really lucky and found some good plans for it, so I built it, and I'll take what I learned on this one and build five more, like it but better.


On another note, reefer white isn't actually white. It has yellow in it. I didn't figure this out till after I was shooting it on the model.


Not cool. It'll take a lot of graffiti to cover this error up. I figure I'll just live with it on this model, but I'll be shooting a different white on the next one, that's for sure. Something more along the lines of the color of the reefer unit.


That where things are for now. What do you think?

Kevin

[Raeder]

The refrigerator unit is an A-line casting. Other than that, the trucks, couplers, coupler boxes, and wheels, the unit is scratchbuilt.

Kevin

[sd50f]

Kevin.

Is there a chance you'll share your plans with the rest of the class?

timothy dineen

[Freightrain]

You have my FULL attention on this build, I took pics of this type of car, and have been foaming at the mouth ever since, hoping someone would come out with it, but nothing yet.

Will you share the plans with the rest of the class as Tim stated?

Also, now that you are building this car, one of the manufacturers will come out with one here shortly, you watch. LOL

[Raeder]

You all want the "secret" plans, huh? I'm kinda surprised nobody thought of looking for these yet. They're out there in about five or six different places. Odd places, but they make sense, from a customers point of view. Here's where I found them.

The BNSF website:
www.bnsf.com/tools/equipment/index.html
(This is where I found the Trinity reefer plans)

Follow the link, select the car you want to look at, and look at the diagram. There's most of the dimensions for you right there!

What also helps is knowing who built the car, and since this is a Trinity car, I went to their website, and looked it up.

Trinity Railcar website:
www.trinityrailcar.com/railcars/index.html

Select the type of car you want to look at, then select the specific version you want, and download the PDF file for that car.

National Steel Car is a favorite of mine, and I spend a lot of time looking over their cars.

National Steel Car (NSC):
www.steelcar.com/

When you enter the site and work your way through all the videos, (make sure you allow pop ups on this site) you'll want the Railcar Show Room. Then click on the Specs link in the upper right, followed by the drawing. Note that you can slide left and right through the various types of cars they build, such as moving from the low capacity gondolas to the high capacity gondolas. Really a very useful site with lots of info and pictures of their cars.

I've checked other railroad websites, and they don't have nearly as much info on the cars they use as BNSF, but if someone finds a site with more info, post it here!

The other thing that has made life so much easier is that I look at the model on my computer screen, and zoom in or out until one of the dimensions the have measured for you matches to a scale rule. A 55"line on screen matches 55" on your scale rule. Check the other lines, and if they match also, then you have a scale drawing. At that point, then you can measure any other line on the drawing, and find out the scale size of any component of the drawing. Aren't plans wonderful?

Another handy tip, you can double the zoom and take a measurement, then divide by two. Useful for small measurements where you can't quite see what size something is.

Hopefully this will help you guys who scratchbuild freightcars. Sorry, not such luck on locomotives, but at least you'll have something to tow with your nice locomotive now!

Kevin

[icghogger]

Thanks for the link info, Kevin, and GREAT WORK on your reefer build!!

[sd50f]

Hello again.

Well, I must have missed those plans when looking over those sites. I'll have to go take another look. Thanks for the info!

timothy dineen

[kcs1967]

Kevin
Great links, nice stuff going on here.

[Raeder]

Hi all,

Much progress has been made on the Trinity reefer. I have glued the remaining assemblies together and the decals have been added. I also purchased every sheet of grafitti decals that Microscale still makes and tied into them to produce this car. Here are the pictures.


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Kevin

[Freightrain]

Cool, your R660 is the first one I've seen in HO scale, and the links are very helpful. CSX doesn't have dimensional data like BNSF has.

What did you use for the fuel tank on the end platform?

[riss2509]

Man that is awesome! If ya ever want to sell a couple in BNSF, drop me a message!!!

[Raeder]

Hi Glenn,

The fuel tank is actually some tube I capped with some sheet plastic end pieces, then chucked in a drill and filed to shape as it was turned by the drill. Worked out really nicely, I must say. I've never done anything like that before, but once I saw the result, it looked good.

Kevin

[poweredby251]

Looks like there's some tallented taggers on your layout. Especially the one who stood on his head and sprayed the upside down 'Ramsi'..............

[Raeder]

Hi John,

Well, the taggers are prolific, if nothing else. Talent on graffiti always being a question...what I was aiming for was to change the way the decals look, so there is some variation, and it doesn't look like the same crew hit every other car with the same graffiti. That was one of the few decals that was semi-still legible and made sense if installed upside-down. It almost looks like it says "Is War", so I did that instead of putting it on right side up. Yeah, one of the letters is backwards, but taggers do that kind of thing, so I didn't think it was out of place.

Kevin

[Raeder]

I received this model back from AP judging here this past week. 87.5 points required, and they awarded me 107! Wow, my jaw bounced when it hit the floor after they told me that.

There were a few additions including a brake system, an underframe, and some black paint over all that. Nice stuff, for the most part. The only things they really marked me down for was the fact that the entire brake system was installed backwards, and there were no door unlocking handles.

As far as the brakes are concerned, I had no photos to work off of, so I did what I could from the side shots I had. I didn't notice it until most of the system was in, and at that point, I wasn't pulling it back off!

The handles were deliberately not installed, because this car travels to the club and back in a box, on a bus, and I'm certain those handles wouldn't last. No point in detailing something that nicely if it is just going to break off.

Kevin

[kcs1967]

Congratulations, I believe with a score of 107, you have nothing to worry about, beautiful Reefer, now you have that extra validation, it is awesome.

[RunningExtra]

Excellent job Kevin, wondering how I missed the original thread back in March!

[Raeder]

Thanks you guys! Yeah, it was nice getting the feedback from the AP committee. The car is pretty close to being finished, but I may tie into the panel lines on the side, if I get bored or something random like that.

[dmfoamer]

How did you model the plug door. Outstanding model. Very jealous. Thank goodness not my era

[Raeder]

Actually, if you look closely, the plug door isn't there. The framing is there, but the door itself...isn't. I realized once the framing was on, you wouldn't be able to see or notice that the door itself wasn't actually modeled. At that point, things became really easy! Put the door frame on, then put on the inner framing and it is done. By them time things are painted and decaled, the car is so busy nobody notices that the door doesn't actually exist.