# Anyone Creating Interesting HO Cars?



## HOfabricator4$sless (Jun 20, 2019)

Thurs 7-11-19 3:20 p.m.

I always enjoy hearing about model railroader's creations - for example, cars. This gets me thinking about what I might want to make.

I picked up a sorry, gray, junk (AHM?) covered hopper at a train show many years ago - no trucks, crumbling decals, cut in two in the middle and shortened. After awhile, I got kind of tired looking at in my repair box - it was hopeless.

Putting some original AHM trucks underneath it was not a problem. But what else could I do?

I started by painting the car bright blue. That was an improvement. I also had some decals kicking around so I applied a few. That also helped, but it still looked like a cut-down AHM covered hopper car. Big deal.

Then I had an idea. I decided to create a "drunken painter" car.
I found a seated plastic HO figure with his hand raised in the air. I used a discarded air horn as a bottle and glued it in the figure's upraised hand. Then I searched around and found a die cast bucket. I painted the top of the bucket white and glued it lying on it's side on top of the car. I also used some white paint to create a puddle of paint around the can. Next, I painted the feet on the HO figure with white paint. Finally, I painted white HO footprints in a staggering pattern around the top of the car.

I have a friend in Denver who is really good at creating stuff like this.

I still have this car somewhere in all my stuff. I just wish I was more creative.


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

I retrofitted some Tyco cars with new wheels and couplers. I left the plastic trucks... for now. but I was also considering options. perhaps I'll have a beer and think about it.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

i made some truss rod flatcars a few years ago, with three different methods... stick built for the first few, then cnc machined frames, with a home built cnc setup, then a 3d printed pla frame with a home built printer .. in all cases i used kadee no5 couplers, tichy archbar trucks, and intermountain wheels .. in HO scale twenty eight to thirty two feet long [prototype]


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## Dennis461 (Jan 5, 2018)

*once again*

:ttiwwop:


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

I 3D printed parts of a shunter in O-scale -- the model files itself I found online and then modified -- at shapeways. I intended a custom build but then I wasn't thrilled with the plastic and it was pricey -- and my project petered out.

Then I printed my own variation of a diesel engine -- the actual prime mover, also o-scale. I made that available to the public and someone printed it exactly 1 time. Of course there's a fee to do that but I received a whopping $0 myself.

Anyway this thread got me to thinking perhaps HO is the way to go here because it's well, half the size right... and so, perhaps much cheaper.

I hadn't really thought about a car or anything ... and I can also re-scale that prime mover to HO (although it was done as "art" not from a design so to speak so it just resembles one) -- that'd be easy.

But a car could be explored...


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

Severn said:


> Anyway this thread got me to thinking perhaps HO is the way to go here because it's well, half the size right... and so, perhaps much cheaper.





half the length, width, and height ...
one eighth of the 3d plastic used , definitely brings the cost , and the time down ..


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

well where i left it, i was using tinkercad which is free and surprisingly usable after some initial fumbling about even though its oriented towards being simple. but i'd thought then if i did any more -- i'd have to get autocad, they have one or more than are subscription based -- which while I don't like it overall, it does provide an entry point but I think would give one a more scale/measurement based system. [which seemed hard or i wasn't smart enough on tinkercad]

anyway I never took any steps there.

But I did notice there's more small scale stuff on at least shapeways in their hi-res plastic for the reasons you site.

Although to be fair its been months since I even looked...


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

Here it is btw -- printed to my knowledge 2 times. once by me.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/PGGQE59EC/prime-mover-1-1-48-scale

I could scale it down, that's an option -- easy to do. In fact now that I think about it I think I had one in the works with some slight mods ... so I could possibly maybe get that all together.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

HOfabricator has the right spirit for our hobby...be
creative.

Dollying up cars is a fun chore.

One of the easiest cars that you can work on is
the 'lowly' flat car.

I had a couple that were just 'existing' with no
apparent purpose so I spend a few hours building
'loads' for them.

Here's how one evolved. My new printer had 
some interesting plastic packing materials. I thought
one looked like a huge orange painted machine.

















So I built a shipping crate for it.









And this is how it turned out.









You can use what would otherwise be worthless
trash to represent various flat car loads.

I don't have a pic of another flat which carried a defunct
HO loco motor in a crate. It represents a huge
power plant generator.

Don


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## HOfabricator4$sless (Jun 20, 2019)

Sat 7-13-19 10:01 p.m.

Don R:

I think the lowly Tyco flat car is a good platform for experimentation. The only beef I have is that some modelers glue a load on the flat car. Then when it is time to change the load, the car may be damaged removing the old load.

I think your idea for the crate was very creative and makes a good impression.

Keep up the good work.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

My own take on that particular Tyco flatcar is that they could have made it heavier. I have ripped the beds off of some of these and replaced the original weight with some cut steel sheet (I believe it was 1-1/16" wide?) that is the full length of the recessed slot, and it brought the weight up by another ounce or so. You could easily feel the difference between the original and modified cars, and it almost reached NMRA specs without a load. Then I put a new deck of balsa over the top that has been scored like boards. I finish with Kadee full metal trucks. You have to add some sprue material to fill the original truck holes, then drill for the #2 screw. This flatcar also has a ledge at almost the perfect height to body-mount the couplers.

My personal favorite starts with the Tyco 2-bay operating hoppers. I wanted an older look based around the transition from wood hoppers and found an idea that I liked. This car uses the original style trap doors with the pull chains, and the sunken center works well to hide the clamshell doors in this hopper. I removed the center three ribs on each side and replaced with two ribs, giving the wider span between them and allowing the crank wheels to be centered in front of the clamshells. All of the ladder rungs, hand rails, and stirrups were also replaced with metal parts, and this was refitting with Kadee all-metal trucks and couplers. I hope some day I'll get around to lettering the cars.










Here's a shot of one of the cars in progress of rebuilding the sides. I make the new ribs myself using a dental pick to push out the rivets.


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## HOfabricator4$sless (Jun 20, 2019)

7-16-19 8:53 p.m.

I enjoyed reading your descriptive information (methods) as well as your attention to detail (rivet details and careful construction). It is nice to know that the hobby is alive and well. 

Do you have any other projects planned?


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Not much planned at the moment, but there have been others recently. I've been hand-laying my own turnouts, and I do dual-gauge with HOn3, so I made a test turnout to see if I could incorporate a common-rail change in the siding of the turnout. Was a great success!

Not sure if you saw my long thread under this group, but I also did a presentation on building the points for a scale track, then went on to build it into a diorama and made the scales work with an arduino-type computer chip. I need to do more work on the setup, but it did a good job of weighing the cars in both actual ounces and HO scale tons. You can see the whole set of pics from my website.

The next thing I want to tackle is building a DCC loco decoder from an ESP32 (the same chip I used for the scales). I have the schematic pretty much worked out, I just need to design the circuit boards.


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## Murv2 (Nov 5, 2017)

This is the only car I built completely from scratch. It's pulled by a Tyco General. The doors are too thick and the car just a touch too wide but otherwise it works for me.


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## Murv2 (Nov 5, 2017)

And since we're talking about flatcar loads this is one I cobbled together from scrap wood and tissue paper. I didn't glue it down and it shifts sometimes.


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

At the last train show I attended, I bought a long UP flat car. Can't give the exact length at the moment, it's downstairs and I'm upstairs. I've been thinking about using an old diesel locomotive shell and making a wrecked diesel load out of it.


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## HOfabricator4$sless (Jun 20, 2019)

Fri 7-19-19 9:02 p.m.

Dear Flyboy2610:

I would like to tempt you with an alternative to your "wrecked diesel load" project. 

My reason for doing this is that I have memories of a "car smash" which was put on as a fund raising event when I was in high school (a buck a whack).

As I have aged, I have seen so much destruction in the world. I like to think of myself as a builder not a destroyer. 

I repair airtools for mechanics and auto body technicians. I have seen many new auto body parts in various kinds of packaging with the manufacturer's logo on the container / crate, etc. I actually found some discarded Ferrari packaging in the dealer dumpster up in Denver about ten years ago.

I have also seen many kits for cars and locos.

So why not create a load for your flat car which consists of repair parts for a diesel instead. You could put the Electromotive Diesel (EMD) logo on the cab, parts, crates, canopy-covered parts. Cabs or body panels could be painted with primer. I am not sure if the railroad shops or the EMD shops did the final painting. Some of the parts might have final paint.

When I drove through Pueblo, Colorado many years ago, I saw two smashed-up locos in the railroad yard on the south side of town. The diesels were probably towed back to the yard. My guess is that those locos where repaired and the remains where cut up for scrap with an acetylene torch. So I wonder if wrecked locos really end up on flat cars. I guess that some do for a short period when they are transferred back to one of the back shops for repair. I think I have seen wrecked steam locos which were transferred back on flat cars for repairs after being loaded on to the car with a 200-Ton crane.

You decide what is in your best interest. Enjoy.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Lo and behold, here are a couple of photos of that very thing....you should try posting pics sometime....they truly are worth a thousand words....


https://www.modeltrainforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=502496&stc=1&d=1563595820

https://www.modeltrainforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=502498&stc=1&d=1563595820


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

that's some really good photos ..


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Thank you....and so easy to do, and find, as well.....


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## ogaugeguy (Feb 3, 2012)

Hey everybody, for those who haven't done so yet, may I respectfully suggest that in addition to describing your creative efforts that you post pictures of them too so we can see how they turned out. Just a suggestion, folks.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

ogaugeguy said:


> Hey everybody, for those who haven't done so yet, may I respectfully suggest that in addition to describing your creative efforts that you post pictures of them too so we can see how they turned out. Just a suggestion, folks.



I didn't post any photos of what I did, because they are already on here for anyone to see .. And they have much more detail in their respective threads... much more than just part of a line


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Maybe some don't post photos because they don't know how, and they are afraid to admit it? 

Never let that be the case.....there are lots of folks here who will be more than willing to help you, myself included! :thumbsup:


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

here is a sample of the pla done for the 28-30 foot truss rod flatcars ... the stl is on thingiverse ..
add tichy archbar trucks, kadee no5s, intermountain metal wheels, and a bit of painting / weathering ..


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Hey that looks familiar!  Someone posted it on thingiverse now?

Oh wait, kadee #5? that's not my HOn3 model then, must be someone else's model designed from the same framework.

Assuming this link works, here's my model on tinkercad. I should post pics of the current version one of these days. https://www.tinkercad.com/things/9SY6Gx3hlzO


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

should look pretty much the same ... modeled after truss rod frames of 100+ years ago .. set for coupler heights for regular HO though, and glue together trucks from tichy [archbar] ..
I don't think there is much diiference, still use a similar frame setup, I did these with a stick glue together first of all, then a cnc build, finally these .. all use a seperate deck, because nothing looks like wood except wood, lol .. the decks i use are [relatively low power ] led burned balsa sheet ... couldn't find thin enough sticks or pieces in the pile...


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

I want to be able to run some of my flats empty, so my pattern was designed around getting a couple sheets of lead on top of it. I hollowed out the top of the frame so a 1/16" sheet could be placed at the top, and then cut a larger piece for the bed. I have a small pizza-cutter type wheel I used to impress lines across the lead to create my 'boards' for the bed, and then hit it with a coat of light-brown spray paint. I'm using a 'wood' color filament in my 3D printer which is what I've used for whiskey barrels in other projects. It makes a good color to work over, and doesn't take much to give it an old-wood look (at least at 3' away )










This is how it ends up without any weathering to give it a real wood look.










I have some parts from Tichy to make the brake staff, plus some turnbuckles for the truss rods. A little paint work and it could be a pretty nice car. As it sits it weighs around 2.8oz and I believe the target should be 3.2 (remember this is HOn3), however this car already has some good weight to it and flinging it around the track with my finger shows that it can stay on the rails pretty well.

Unfortunately the Micro-Trains trucks cost more than the rest of the car combined, and I have some Kadees that are also pricey. Honestly though I can build the whole car for around $12 and whip out a fleet in no time. I'm hoping some day to use this model as the base for some cattle cars (printed with a separate roof to allow adding weights inside).


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

for weight I use No 7 1/2 lead shot glued into the underneath spaces in the frame ...with the metal wheels it's a little light, but close, just going by handed weights ..
not as nice underneath, but very seldom upside down ...


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