List,

Thought I'd report where I am on my attempt to make more accurately
sized car specialties. My current adventure<g> is modeling sill steps
for Harriman SP box cars. I purchased a selection of shim steel from
Small Parts, took all the pieces from .002" through .007", lightly
sanded one side for a little "tooth" for paint to adhere to, then
sprayed flat gray paint on them. I put the thicknesses in cut out
numbers from masking tape (no artist, but legible) so I could easily
identify them later. After air drying a few days I baked them in 170
degree oven for 15 minutes and let cool with the door slightly open.

THEN I took the .005" thick steel sheet, clamped the Optivisor on my
brow and used a digital caliper and sharp knife to make marks .01722"
(or so) from one end, that being 1-1/2" in HO. Cut the strip from the
end with a pair of scissors, trying to be oh-so-careful to keep on the
scribed line. Fat chance. At least one end of the strip, about
1-1/2" actual, was the correct width.

SO, I took a couple of pin vises, put a #91 drill in one and a #84
drill in the other, used a t-pin as a punch and pilot drilled with the
#91, followed with the #84. So far, so good.

I got out SP Freight Cars, Vol. 4, Box Cars, and RPC 17 with the
article on the USRA 50 ton SS box car. Tony's book has a drawing of
an OSL B-50-5 from Railway Age Gazette, so I measured the sill step
and got another measurement (truck wheel base) that I knew from the
drawing, and a simple calculation gave me the actual dimensions of the
sill step. Bent the sill step from the strip, ignoring for the moment
that the Harriman box cars had sill steps bolted to the side of the
side sill, and drilled (or tried to) the hole for the other mounting
bolt. Finally got that hole drilled but when I cut the step from the
rest of the steel strip it broke at the hole. Okay, so now what.

It was dinner time and I'd established to my satisfaction that my
hands, eyesight, skills and tools (in decreasing order of where the
problem lies) wouldn't allow me to do really truly actual scale
dimension sill steps. Tomorrow I'm going back to the basement and am
going to see what happens when I use a part of the strip of steel shim
stock that is closer to .025" wide. It is 2.177" HO instead of the
prototype 1.5" but the appearance will, I think, still be better than
A-Line or what comes in the resin kit. Will I do this on the cars I
plan to put on my soon-to-be-started layout? No way, no how. This
one is for the display case, but I just had to try.

I'll post a follow-up in a few days to let everyone know how the next
one comes out. And, I've got an idea on making the steps with the
quarter twist so they bolt to the side sill, but I'll try that next.

Time stopped in November 1941
Walter M. Clark
Pullman, Washington, USA

Walter M. Clark wrote

My current adventure<g> is modeling sill steps for Harriman
SP box cars.

Many of Al's kits use similar methods using flat brass 'wire'.
Personally I'd like to see someone do an etched sheet of strip
brass in several scale widths, each piece 3-4" long. It would
be generic material, thinner than the Detail Associates flat
strips, easier to bend and twist, for many applications. Easy
to cut too, because the cuts are not lengthwise -- as you said
it's really hard to cut shim material so narrowly.

Tim O'Connor

Tim,

here in the UK we have a number of suppliers of thin metal strip (brass,
steel, nickel silver, phosphor bronze) in various thicknesses and widths
for modelling - what sort of sizes are you after?? (The main supplier I
thinking of, Eileen's Emporuim, don't yet have a website, otherwise I'd
post a link).

In addition, I know I have lots of thin brass strip from waste sections
of etched brass kits, if I find something which might be useful I'd be
happy to post some over.

Regards,
Alan
London, UK

Tim suggested:

Many of Al's kits use similar methods using flat brass 'wire'.
Personally I'd like to see someone do an etched sheet of strip
brass in several scale widths, each piece 3-4" long. It would
be generic material, thinner than the Detail Associates flat
strips, easier to bend and twist, for many applications. Easy
to cut too, because the cuts are not lengthwise -- as you said
it's really hard to cut shim material so narrowly.

Such a material is already available. I use brass strip material from Russ
Simpson for making the special steps and for making lateral walk supports on
resin kits rather than mess with the resin parts. Simpson's material is 1/2
hard brass (and thus easy to bend and cut) and available in the following HO
sizes:
#255 - 1/2x2
#254 - 1/2x3
#926 - 1/2x4
#332 - 3/4x3
#927 - 3/4x4

For the 1x2 I have in front of me, there are 10 each 4" long pieces per
package for $5.00. The pieces have a slight twist in them from shearing but
that is easy to fix since the material is 1/2 hard brass.

The problem is that Russ Simpson doesn't have a website and doesn't
advertise. But I purchase them from the Swedler brothers at Coronado Scale
Models who have been advertising the Gazette since the very first issue;
Stan Swedler is also a member of this chat list. Coronado Scale Models
doesn't have a web address either but you can e-mail them at
coronadoscalemod@... or call them at (602) 254-9656. They don't always
have these items in stock since Simpson isn't good at filling orders in a
timely manner but they can probably get them from Simpson more easily and in
a more timely manner than we can.

Jack Burgess
www.yosemitevalleyrr.com

Thanks Alan. I hope lots of scrap too -- mostly brass & stainless
steel. The material I like best for this sort of use is phosphor bronze.
If you've seen any of the Railyard kits then you've seen the wonderful
stuff that can be made from this material, including scale size angles,
channels and Z bar.

Tim O'Connor

Tim,

I assume what you're thinking of is a flat etched stirrup step with
etched "fold points" that could be easily fashioned to shape?

If that's the case, it sounds like an ideal product for Alkem Scale
Models to produce . . . Bernie has just issued the cinder conveyor as a
separate kit, so he needs something to do . . .

Marty