# The chop shop!



## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

I had some older heavyweight passenger cars that ran fine on our 18"R track, but I wanted something shorter anyways. With all five cars, it makes for a long train on our small layout. So I decided to go ahead and hack them up.

First was to determine where the cut mark would be. The coach cars are easy since just about anywhere along the side will work. The rivets make perfect cut lines.










Next was the undercarriage. I just took the cut body pieces and marked the carriage. I made my initial cut longer so I could have some wiggle room to sand in case I didnt make a straight line.










Here I just loosely put the pieces together and you can see I chopped out a good section of car length.


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## concretepumper (Jan 2, 2011)

Right on! I love making shortys!


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

I used a precut block of oak to true up the cuts and starting with 150 grit paper worked my way up to 600 grit to smooth everything out.

To glue the carriage and body I dabbed a little model glue on the face of the cuts and let it get tacky. I then smashed the pieces together and let it dry. I had some small plastic scraps that I glued to the inside of the body and carriage to help brace them.










Here is the first one done. I'm going to repaint these a two tone grey for the UP theme we have, but I want to get all five cars done first. I'm hoping that the paint will hide what little evidence there is that these were cut down.










I'll post up the rest as they get done. I've already decided that I will swap out the 3 axle trucks for 2 axle. The 3 axle ones still track fine on the short cars, but look kinda goofy for such a short car. And I might look into converting to body mounted couplers but with the trucks so far back from the end, I think it might cause issues to have the body mounts.


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

Go dawg... shortys rule! 

I know that it's just more work, but you might consider taking down half of each center pillar so that they all are the same size. Good idea on the hardwood truing block. I use machined steel blocks on a thick plate glass surface to keep everything true. 

Greg


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

cdawg,
Excellent work! :thumbsup:
You be the king of the cuts :laugh: :laugh:
Bob


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

choo choo said:


> Go dawg... shortys rule!
> 
> I know that it's just more work, but you might consider taking down half of each center pillar so that they all are the same size. Good idea on the hardwood truing block. I use machined steel blocks on a thick plate glass surface to keep everything true.
> 
> Greg


I'm going to on the next two coaches. I just finished the baggage car and it didnt come out as well. But I had a hard time finding a place to cut that wouldnt be so obvious, and it came out, well, obvious.  I dont think the RPO car will be any better.

I have the galss plate, but no steel blocks. The oak is so dense it didnt affect it much on the sand paper, so I'll continue using that.



raleets said:


> cdawg,
> Excellent work! :thumbsup:
> You be the king of the cuts :laugh: :laugh:
> Bob


Actually, Choo Choo is the king of cuts. Everything you see is from his advice and threads which were inspiration for my little project. I can take no credit for the idea or techniques. So here's a big :thumbsup::thumbsup: to Greg!


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

OK, then you be the prince of the cuts :laugh:, and choo choo is still the king! 
How's that?
Bob


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

OH you shorty guys are killing me!! I can build long cars fast enought to keep up! 
I know you guys send me your cut out peices and I'll use those to make mine longer!


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## Massey (Apr 16, 2011)

This is great! There is another forum I go to that is sponsered by a large publication (we all know the one) and they always seem to shun anything other then exactl prototype models. This is what the hobby is all about doing what you want to have fun. I get tired of rivit counters, this is* MY[B/] railroad, In MY fictional town, with the equipment I want to run. 

I had some one come visit my layout and was assigned the N&W 610 excursion train, at 10 am and once again at 3PM. He said he didnt want to run that train because 610 was never used as an excursion train, 611 would have been the right train but it too never passed an intermodal yard durring an excursion run. I told him that this is not Roanoke, the 610 was saved from scrapping by the South Massey Railway Museum and only reciently put into service. It is to run once around the layout, stop at the turn table where it is to be turned (while another switcher gets the coaches ready for the next run at 3, and park at the round house till the next run. Once he was done with that he could run a freight if he wanted. Well after that I got a lesson in N&W history and how it was documented that the 610 was destroyed and also if I am going to run a locomotive that was scrapped in the 60's I should have a layout in the time when that engine was run.... It went on till I kindly asked him to leave, he was ruining my first operating session. I took the throttle of that engine as we began the session and it was alot of fun. My load of containers was delayed by a local that derailed, and the 3 PM excursion didnt leave till 4 PM and a few virtual customers were not happy but all and all we had a good time once the "lessons" were over.

Massey*


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

The guys over at that other unnamed forum get a little testy at times.


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## MacDaddy55 (Aug 19, 2008)

Hey Cabledawg, How bout that "Yankee Ingenuity", props to you for making use of "King Choo Choo's Theory of Heavyweight Passenger Half Life":laugh: What are you going to do with the mid sections....might I suggest a Track side Diner "Eat At Dawgs"..."Dawgs Diner"!?  Good thinking and those look cool!:thumbsup:


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## Massey (Apr 16, 2011)

They remind me of the G scale pass cars that are shortened just because if they were scale they would be like 5 feet long... Ok maybe not 5 feet but you get the idea.

Massey


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Cabledawg take the cut out pieces and put some ends on them and one of the three axle wheel sets under them. Now you have some VERY short cars. I always wanted to do some car bashing and never got around to it. Maybe now I'll get with it. Good work. The shorties look great. Pete


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

I really wanted to make some single truck cars like the Walthers Oscar and Piker set, but I dont have leftover or spare ends for these cars 

I'm saving the scraps for now and my wife loves the idea of a train diner. SO if anyone comes across some scrap cars or bodies for Athearn BB passenger cars, let me know cuz I'll put them to good use :thumbsup:

Massey, I know exactly what you mean with the prototype vs fun layout. I run what the kids like to see (hence the reason we have the passenger cars to begin with) not what was in production or use for any given time frame or location. In fact these cars will get repainted to UP two tone grey and run behind a F7A&B combo in the UP yellow and grey theme, so not prototypical at all.

Its just like when I design layouts for folks; some folks just want to run trains while other want realistic traits such as runarounds and switching leads on the yard tracks. Its personal preference and the "rivet counters" can go suck an egg!


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

cdawg,
LOVE your attitude about "rivet counters" since I'm also in the antique auto hobby and many of them are all crazy-nuts about what's "correct", right down to the last washer. :thumbsdown:.....my old Buicks are 98%+ the way they left the factory but the other 2% is MINE and, like you said, they can go "suck an egg".
'Nuff said 
Bob


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Dawg you have to make ends for the cutout pieces. Just stick some balsa in there and carve it to fit. Pete


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

Dood, I totally forgot about balsa wood! That's what the old Piker/Oscar sets were originally sold as; practice kits for carving/sanding the roof lines on the old kit cars. I'll get some blocks next time I go to town :thumbsup:


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

Here's the baggage car and the RPO and another shot of the finished coach.

You can see the cut line pretty well on the baggage car. Its smooth, but the line is still visible. Also I wished I had done just one door instead of both.










The RPO car actually came out pretty good. If you look up close you can still see the cut line, but its along the sliding door and the roof line transitions well.










I still think the first coach came out the best, but I have two more to finish.


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## novice (Feb 2, 2011)

Wow, excellent job - you do very good work - I'm jealous


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## Bman (Aug 24, 2010)

Awesome job, all those cars look great!!


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

Thanks guys! I've been cutting an average of 3" out of each one. That's a scale 21'


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Some of those are almost undetectable. It certainly does look like the key issue is choosing where to cut. Lookin' good.


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

The cool thing is that they still track well even with those huge 3 axle trucks. I thought about just cutting the innermost axle out, but in a trial run with just the inner axles pulled, the cars would jump the points on most of my turnouts, so I'll leave them intact for now. Also I kept most of the weights for these. There are two pieces for each car and they overlap. The bottom piece gets about 3/4" cut off, but that's maybe an ounce if even that. SO these cars still weigh almost as much as they did at full length.

I'm really happy with the way theses are coming out and they look awesome behind the 0-6-0 we have. Originally the steamer was supposed to be our passenger train, but the full lenght cars didnt look good behind a little engine so the F7's had been pulling them.


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Dawg those cars really look great. If I didn't know you had cut them I would not have guessed. Great work. Pete


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