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Vat Car Part 1 Building the Flatcar |
| Vat cars were a popular subject for standard gauge model railroaders in the bygone decades. The round vats and the bracing are interesting details, which makes this type of car an easy fit for narrow gauge modeling. |
| Parts List
Bachmann On30 Stockcar |
| Diassemble Car
Remove the trucks, couplers, pull the underframe from the body casting, and pry off the roof, but leave the walkway and grab irons on the roof. Carefully remove the doors, door tracks, and stirrups from the body. |
| Car Modifications
Use plastic nippers and cut the vertical posts on the sides where they attach to the floor. Then saw down the sides between the ladder and the end. Remove the sides. Saw off the ends by laying the saw on the body floor and cutting the end off flush with the floor. What is left looks like a flatcar.
Photo 1 Turn the body upside down and cut off the end sill, smooth up the cut, and glue in the body extenders (Photo 1). The 9" side is the same height as the body and the 6" side adds to the length. Leave the body upside down to work on the underframe. |
| Couplers and Trucks
Saw the cast in coupler pocket off level with the sills. Saw the bolsters out of the underframe by cutting across the width on each side of the bolster. Trim the underframe remnants and the trussrod locator hole off and file the bolster smooth. Cut the mounting lugs from the car floor. On the two end underframe pieces, remove the intermediate sills but leave stubs on the center sills. Do not cut the outer sills. On the center section of the underframe, trim the centersills back to clear the trucks, bevel the intermediate sills, and glue the trussrods to the intermediate sills. Do not cut the outersills. Fit all five of these pieces into the body casting (Photo 1).
Photo 2 Truck Modifications (Photo 2). Remove the wheelsets. Cut off the simulated bolt castings on top of the sideframes and then use a coarse saw to saw off the cast ring on the top of the truck bolster. File smooth. Reinsert wheelsets. Test fit onto the underframe to see that the wheels turn and the trucks swivel. Once the fit is good, remove everything from the body casting and glue in the underframe and bolster parts. Mount Couplers. The coupler pocket lid sets flat on the underframe and the lip overlaps the end buffer block and is centered. |
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Building the Body
Photo 3 Now that all of the styrene components are dried, sand the body sides smooth. Cut out the plywood side overlays--make sure the grain of the plywood is going lengthwise of the car--and glue on with Duco Cement. Trim the wood even with the end sills. Add the corner braces using styrene cement. The cement will melt the styrene enough to hold to the wood. Let this dry and then sand the top of the car smooth. Add the floorboards using Duco Cement; make sure they are parallel with the molded in floorboards. Then lightly file or sand the corner braces to create a rounded corner. |
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Conclusion
Photo 4 The car is now ready for the vats (Photo 4), which will be constructed next issue, and then the roof and final details will be added. |
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Many thanks to my sponsers: Granite Creek Enterprises Kadee Quality Products Co. Kappler Mill & Lumber Co. Northeastern Scale Lumber Co. |
