AT&SF Drop Bottom Gondola

[Schraddel]

Hello,

i was lucky to got further three Westerfield kits. This time 3 drop bottom gondolas of Santa Fe origin.

First the content of one of the boxes.


Further unwrapped.
The parts are clean and straight. No match to the former "Warp 10" kits out of the brittle resin i had built earlier, see accordingly thread.


2 Andrews trucks, 2 Kadee whisker scale head couplers and a Tichy brake gear were attached by me.




At first RTFM, here in form of the enclosed instruction sheets. Also much interesting information about the prototype can be found there.

This was only the unboxing article.


Lutz

[cnrglen]

Those look like great kits. I built a westerfield CN gondola a number of years ago but the body wasn't molded in one piece. Instead it was a 'flat' kit.

[Schraddel]

Hello,


Then the work started by cutting the parts out of the webbing.


First done and deburred.


but there are many more to do.


When you have all the traverse crossmembers cleaned, you can start building this somewhat dinosaur skeleton.




Test fitting. You have to do some refinishing until it fits properly.


Lutz

[LiveSteamer]

Looking good. Tichy train group correct?

[tompm]

Nice job!

[Schraddel]

Hello,

you are right Tom. Until now it was nice, but going further it became tiring:

There are dusig ("thousands") of these little rings to be cut out and to be neaten.


Then to be threaded onto a stick of 1.2 mm brass wire. But not all together, this will be simple. No, you have to thread two rings in every section. And in areas where your sausage fingers don't reach. Therefor the usage of tweezers; or Pingzette we say here. The "Ping" is the sound you will hear when a tiny part is slipping out of the tweezers on it's way into the dark universe.


It is a somewhat boring work.


These rings are rollers and part of the locking mechanism for the bottom doors. Here they were aligned and glued.


Lutz

[Schraddel]

Hello,

no the tedious routine to mount ever the same parts ist not really over.


There was a small stripe included in the kit. It has rivets on both sides. Wondered what to to with this stripe.


The answer was; cut it into equal little pieces:


Then complete with these pieces all the traversers unterneath.


Next is the brake. This gon was choosen to get equipped with a AB brake gear. It will be a mixture of the resin parts of the kit and Tichy parts. The brake wheel is by Kadee.


Preparing the main parts like brake cylinder, triple valve, air reservoir and levers.


Lutz

[Schraddel]

Hello,


Fitting the first parts of the brake equipment. Brake cylinder with clevis by Tichy. The hops were bent out of 0.3mm bronze wire.


Triple valve and air reservoir.


The frame monted lever followed. The lever guidance was made out of the flat brass profile deliveres with the kit. For not only trusting a pure CA gluement, the ends of the guidance was drilled and pinned by the means of short wire pieces. This also imitates bolts.


Now starting the real rigging. At first the bus pipe was made out of 0.8mm brass wire and mounted.






In this order the pipe rigging it was made:
1. pipes beween triple valve and air reservoir, 2 of them
2. pipe between triple valve and the rear of the brake cylinder
3. Pipe between bus pipe and triple valve

The rod rigging:
- brake cylinder clevis and lever (this lever is floating)
- rod between the two levers, both in the middle position
- rod between the full floating lever and B-end, alle rods ends on the model beneath the truck bolsters
- rode between the other lever and A-end
- rod for the hand brake between B-End and the chain on the brake cylinder
- a tiny chain between end of the rod and brake cylinder lever closes the gap


The last piece of the brake were the winding mechanism, the brake wheel, relief valve, tube therefor and a lenghth of chain leading to the lever under the end sill.


Lutz

[LiveSteamer]

Looking great. The amount of detail is amazing.

[Schraddel]

Hello,









Next steps are grab irons and footsteps. Within the kit were Tichy grab irons. I made the work simple for me. Drill the mounting hole through. Then insert the grab irons and glue them. Later when the glue has cured, cut the inner ends flush.





This was also within the kit box. I believe this were extra parts initially not delivered with the kit. The instruction sheet says, manufacture them by glueing out of the brass stripe included in the kit.

These gondolas have particular extra long steps and for this theses parts a very delicate and prone to break. Only glueing is far too touchy. So this little etched parts are the right ones. The first were cut ouf and bend to shape.





More bending and soldering.




The reinforcing ribs were mounted on the corners. and the steps glued onto. Then i drilled with a 0.5mm bit through the steps and ribs into the body. Into the bore pieces of 0.5mm brass wire was inserted as reinforce for the steps. This will give more strength.




All underbody details are mounted now.


Lutz

[Schraddel]

Hello,




Time to mount this gon onto it's trucks.

Don't worry, there are two more of this gondolas to built.

Lutz

[LiveSteamer]

Looking great Lutz!!!!!!

[cnrglen]

Great job on the detail and build. You've created a real showpiece.

[Amalynn]

Excellent work! Resin kits always seem so much more involved but look so good when they are done.