7mm American O scale Southern Pacific Motive Power and Rolling Stock

[Stephen]

I decided to have a play about last night with the Archer rivet details, and start the ’conversion’ of one of the Intermountain box cars to a B-50-24 ‘Overnight’ box car.

The standard process was followed by wetting in warm water, applying, dabbing dry, then using Microsol to help set. I left them 12 hours and whipped out a Halfords grey primer can this morning and have it a few dusting. The result…..hmmm well I’m not that impressed at the moment.

I’ll happily put blame on the mediocre results on the user rather than the product, but would be interested to see what peoples thoughts are? Should a second primer coat get rid of the visible ‘silvering‘ lines? Should I aim to make the slice of the transfer thinner?

any thoughts, helps, tips appreciate!

cheers,
Stephen

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The silvering usually occurs when decals are laid on matt or semi-matt surfaces.

I usually spray the car side with a thinned gloss varnish (acrylic in my case) where I'm going to place the decals. Then apply the decals - in some areas you can just make out the carrier film edge.



The carrier film should disappear once primed, painted and weathered.



This car's lettering was made up of several manufacturers decal sheets which have varying thickness of carrier film depending on their age (Champ and Walthers have the heavier carrier film which can still be visible).



For this car I applied the decals in a sequence as some needed weathering and painting over before applying newer inscriptions and this was the first step.



With the Archer rivet or texture decals (and any other decals) my process is:

• Prime
• Thin gloss varnish coat
• Texture decals (rivets or otherwise)
• Brush thin gloss varnish over the rivet or texture decal I've applied to seal (usually about 1-2mm over the carrier film edge)
• Prime
• Paint road colour
• Thin gloss varinsh coat again
• Road scheme decals
• Satin or matt varnish to seal
• Weather

Just to add I primarily use acrylic primers, varnishes and paints.

Hope it helps

 

[Stephen]

Thanks Dave - much appreciated run down of your process.

Looks like I need to have a quick trip to Halfords to obtain some gloss spray varnish / black gloss rattle cans.

Frustratingly, I have a decent airbrush, but just don't have the space currently to have it set up.....

Cheers,

Stephen

 

[Stephen]

Another request for help from the experts on here!

Does anyone know who makes a part for the door lock/handle in o scale for a Youngstown improved door like the one highlighted in the photo?
I’ve been in contact with the good folks at Des Plaines Hobbies, and they have sometching similar in s scale, but not o scale.

Part of the problem trying to a set of these is actually knowing what they are technically called!

Any thoughts or help would always be appreciated.

cheers,

Stephen

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Tricky - some door hardware is available from Protocraft.

However Sarah Griessenboeck (Grießenböck) an Austrian P48 modeller has door hardware available as a free file to download and print on a 3D printer on her website the Train Kitchen. Might not be what you want though.

Downloads

Various Detail Parts

 

[JasonD]

Stephen, everything seems to be called a door latch. Some of them are mounted bottom centre like your pic, some in the corner, some higher on the door side. Dave has good suggestions and here's a link to some 2-railers on O Gauge RR mag (...yes predominantly 3-rail):

BOXCAR DOOR HARDWARE???

I have a few Seaboard PS1 boxcars that I had to make new doors for. I bought some PSC Youngstown and Superior door hardware, but realized some/most of the SAL PS1 cars used something completely different: I've had a...

ogrforum.ogaugerr.com

Jason

 

[Stephen]

I was looking through eBay a few weeks ago to see what else SP was about and came across these two box cars for sale sans trucks and couplings. I decided to take a punt on them, and they were duly delivered fTom the states at the weekend.

First thought was to find Atlas Trucks to complete them, but then I pondered over whether they could be adapted to take IM trucks. As others have pointed out, Atlas changed the design of the chassis when they took the moulds from IM, but thankfully I had a bag of IM spares @JasonD gave to me. Included in the spares was an IM AAR 1937 Box car underframe, so I’ve started to hack it about to fit onto the Atlas chassis, which has also required a bit of fettling.

still needs a bit more work, and then I’ll have a look at the coupling side of things. At least the frame continues under the trucks now.

The overnight box car has many differences from what the true B-50-24 box cars, but I can live with that on this one, seeing as its a ‘quick hit’ to strengthen the SP rake.

If anyone has any spare IM underframes they no longer need, let me know!
cheers,

Stephen

 

[JasonD]

Stephen don't know if you've seen it but, re: Dave's mention of Sarah Griessenböck on the Fb group 2-Rail O Scale & Proto:48 Model Railroading,
Sarah has delved deeply into many of her modelling topics and is worth a read, this year May-ish to July was door-handle details.

BTW, I'm visiting an old friend tomorrow and this morning he innocently asked if my car was big enough for his Peco F/B track and points stack now he's downsized. Maybe I should take it to MIOG in Crewe next March? Jeepers, that's 4 months away...!
Jason

 

[Stephen]

Stephen don't know if you've seen it but, re: Dave's mention of Sarah Griessenböck on the Fb group 2-Rail O Scale & Proto:48 Model Railroading,
Sarah has delved deeply into many of her modelling topics and is worth a read, this year May-ish to July was door-handle details.

I’ve had a look at Sarah’s posts, and there is so much info - really great resource. I just need to find someone who can do some of the printing for me…..

Yet another open question to everyone - where is a good source of modelling screws? I need some more of the cross head screws that fix IM bogies to the bodies, seeing as a few of the kits I’ve purchased no longer have them.
additinally, in the photo below, I need a similar screw as to the one with the Atlas truck (right hand one) but with a longer thread.

alas my local hardwear store, doesn’t stock anything that small, any other suggestions, and ideally does anyone know the exact size (width) of the IM and Atlas screws?

Cheers,

Stephen

 

[JasonD]

A favour please Stephen, yes I could unscrew some trucks, but give us the length of the thread and the rough width so we know if they'll bite in the plastic mounting hole (not the clearance hole on the truck).

 

[Stephen]

A favour please Stephen, yes I could unscrew some trucks, but give us the length of the thread and the rough width so we know if they'll bite in the plastic mounting hole (not the clearance hole on the truck).

So.......using a set of vernier calipers, the IM screw is 2mm thread width and 10mm in thread length. The Atlas screw is nearer 2.5mm in width and I reckon I'll need 10mm in thread length to bite into the metal chassis on the Atlas underframe......

Not knowing the first thing about screw sizes, but having a look online, would the IM screws be classed as M2mm x 10mm?

 

[mickoo]

Those are not metric screws, they're self tappers which are a whole new ball game when looking for the right size, one which I never got to grips with in 35 years using them so always grabbed a handful and used the ones that fitted when I got to the job.

 

[Stephen]

Those are not metric screws, they're self tappers which are a whole new ball game when looking for the right size, one which I never got to drips with in 35 years using them so always grabbed a handful and used the ones that fitted when I got to the job.

I really should have stuck to OO gauge RTR......! Oh well guess that's half the fun of this game.

I was going to take a punt on these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01KXTUDWW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AIF4G7PLKBOZY&psc=1

See if they match, or are near enough to the IM ones.

 

[richard carr]

Those are referred to as polyfix screws for plastic, you can find suitable replacements here

https://www.accu.co.uk/172-plastite

I have bought quite few different types from them now plastic screws and normal metric screws

Richard

 

[Rob R]

Those are not metric screws, they're self tappers which are a whole new ball game when looking for the right size, one which I never got to drips with in 35 years using them so always grabbed a handful and used the ones that fitted when I got to the job.

Self tappers I can cope with. It is when they mix metric and american threads on the same machine...
I suspect that if the Intermountain weren't self tappers they would be a US thread like the closely related Pacific Car Shops used on their S scale kits.

 

[mickoo]

If it has a pointed end it's a self tapper, wood screws are self tappers for example, if it has a flat end then it's a machine screw with a tightly defined measurable/repeatable thread.

Self tapper threads are not as accurate as machined threads, they don't need to be, their design function is a one shot arrangement, not a life time of removal or nut adding/removing, they are effectively a very crude helix form of fitting.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think self tappers were a wartime emergency solution/fixing arrangement that didn't need precision taps, dies or machined threads to make a repair, some distant cranial nagging has me believe they were called zip fasteners by the US forces.

 

[Stephen]

So….bit of a subjective post here…..

The Sunset Brass 2-8-2 as per the photo below has been offered to me from a guy in the states for about a grand (sterling)…..I’m tempted, but what are peoples thoughts on this being a good price for a Sunset Brass loco?

it is one of the older versions, so more detailed than the newer stuff. Last reported sale on Brass Trains was circa $995….

There was a weathered version for sale on EBay in the last week which I bid on and went for a lot less…..but I’m wondering whether that was due to it having some parts requiring repair.

Anyway, thoughts of those who know a bit more about brass than me would be appreciated!
Cheers,

Stephen

 

[Scale7JB]

There was a guy on Facebook recently selling off all of his P48 SP steam locos at (relatively) silly prices. I’ll if I can find one of his ads..

JB.

 

[Scale7JB]

Found him.

For example he was after offers of $12000 for all of this lot.

Ma be worth looking him up to see if he has anything left.



JB.

 

[JasonD]

Oh no, all these years I've thought the problem would inevitably be shelf-space too, but ... BUT yes, you're right, what about all that dusting??