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April 16, 2013
Some news after the Chicago Show. I had a good time at the show and it is always good to see people. The Chicago show is becoming some what of and international event and many people from out side of the US come. It's good to see these people and catch up with them. On Sunday morning I took Louis Barteg to the train station in Joliet where be boarded to go home. He comes on the train from Alton, Illinois and one of us takes him back to Joliet so he can go home. As a result I missed most of the morning on Sunday and did not get to say good by to many of the people who were driving home on Sunday. Sorry I missed you but we will catch up.
I have been doing a lot of pattern work lately and I'm pleased with the way the patterns are coming out. In the last update I showed the start of the CB&Q and C&NW caboose trucks. Here are some photos of the finished trucks. These trucks have 18 castings in each truck. The parts are located with mortise and tenon joints just like the prototype trucks. There is a new section O Scale products devoted to just trucks.
In addition to the caboose trucks I have done a Fox Truck and a 5' wheel base Arch Bar truck.
The fox truck has 9 castings in it. The castings have pins to locate the parts for easy assembly. The journals are sprung for equalization. These trucks were developed in Joliet, Illinois. Soon after, the company was combined with the Shoen Pressed Steel Co. of Pittsburgh and it became Pressed Steel Car Co. in McKee's Rocks just down the river from Pittsburgh. In 1901 they were the leader in the steel car business and some months they made 100 cars a day. The Fox Truck was used on many of their cars. The 5' wheel base Arch Bar truck was used by the C&NW on all their cars from 1900 to 1912. I used a C&NW drawing to do these trucks. This truck is unusual because the bottom cord of the arch bar slopes down to the journal box and is not horizontal as you normally see. This was the result of putting a 5 X 9 journal box in a truck designed for a 4-1/4 X 8 journal box. The 5 X 9 journal box is bigger and was required because the capacity of the cars went from 60,000 lbs. To 80,000 lbs. This truck was used on a lot of other railroads as well.
The frame less tank cars that were used on the narrow gauge were originally standard gauge cars on these trucks. The trucks have 8 castings each. There was a cast plaque on the end of the bolster with patent information. It says "Patented Aug 24 1897" and you can read that on the model.
I should mention that all the brass castings used in my models are cast in the US and I produce the wax parts. This cuts lead time down on getting castings, no waiting months for the boat to arrive.
Detail parts is another area I have made some progress. I made a pattern for the posts on the platform railings of the caboose models. These parts have the washer at the bottom and are tapered like the prototypes. The long parts on the end of the sprue are for the end posts. You bend them as needed. The castings are not cheep so I will not include them in the kits as it would raise the price of the kit.
I am offering some of the other kit parts as separate items for the scratch builders. The Williamson Priese bolster was an early steel bolster design. It used flat plate, pressings, and "Z" bars in construction. The bolster was widely used and appears in Kirkmans' Science of Railways series which is where I got the dimensional date. The C&NW used this bolster on all their cars from 1900 to 1912. The CB&Q used this bolster also on many of their 80,000 lbs. capacity cars from the same era. This is the part used on the CB&Q box car models. The Brake Staff Stirrup is a part that I made for the Northern Pacific box car. It's a casting that was used a lot so I decided to offer it a a separate item.
I have the pattern for the HO Big Four caboose frame and will send some wax out this week for casting. The next step is to use the brass parts to make a spin casting mold. I am working on drawings for the C&NW and CB&Q caboose trucks in HO. They will be a ridged side frame but will be equalized. The ridged side frame will be only one casting which will keep the cost down.
The seasonal construction work is starting to pick up so I expect to get called soon. That will slow things down a little for the summer but I will keep working on drawings. Talk to you all soon.
Glenn Guerra
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