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Post by healey36 on Jun 21, 2024 14:11:37 GMT
I've had a rusty/battered four-wheel Flyer 3013 sand car in the under-the-workbench parts box for years. Rather than "restore" it or gut it for parts, I've decided I want to make a stakeless flat car out of it...we'll call it a 301X. A pretty simple exercise, but I want to make a load for it as well, which will be a bit more complicated. First step was to remove the body from the frame. Pretty easy, just straighten up eight tabs and lift it off. Unlike the Lionel 902, the brake-wheel and stanchion on the 3013 is attached to the body only and doesn't pass through the frame. I'll save the body in case I decide at some point to reassemble the car. Next step was to remove the the bits from the frame. Wheels, axles, and journals are easy enough. The wheels and axles come out with just a minor flex of the frame. I used the Dremel and a wire wheel to polish off the coating of rust and shine them up a bit, then set them aside. The journals are each attached with a pair of tabs...just bend the bottom one straight and they are easily removed. I have an old can of Brasso that I used to shine them up. That and a buffing wheel on the Dremel has them looking pretty smart.  The tab/slot couplers are a different matter. Both are missing their tabs, whether they broke off sometime in the last 90 years or someone purposely removed them, not sure (although I don't know why someone would purposely remove them). I couldn't find replacements (didn't try too hard, I'll admit). No worries, slot-only will work as long as the next car in the string still has its tab(s). The other thing is these are riveted in, so you'd have to drill them out and re-rivet them to get them back on. Initially I intended to repaint the frame, but the original paint is in nice shape with just a few scratches so I'm going to leave that be. I used the Dremel and wire-wheel to polish up the couplers in place as best as I could. The last step in this initial phase was to drill one additional hole for possible use in mounting the load. Easy enough; once that was done, I polished the frame with a bit of Turtle Wax polishing compound, then a bit of Meguiar's cleaning wax. Once that was done, I reinstalled the journals, wheels, and axles.  Now I gotta work on the load. More pics to follow. |
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oace
Full Member
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Post by oace on Jun 21, 2024 19:32:17 GMT
So healey36 : what will be the load ? A diverted, unusual, improbable object?  OACE |
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Post by healey36 on Jun 21, 2024 21:08:51 GMT
So healey36 : what will be the load ? A diverted, unusual, improbable object? OACE I started working on it this afternoon; got it assembled and a base coat of paint applied. Now I gotta try to find the other colors I'll need. I think you'll approve.
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Post by healey36 on Jun 23, 2024 11:31:53 GMT
I have a couple 3D-print kits for a little French FT-17 tank...thought one might make a neat load for the vacant flat car:  It's 1/56-scale, so a bit small, but it looks okay. The flat finish doesn't quite go with the glossy finish of the tinplate flatcar. I might build the other one and paint it a simpler scheme with a gloss overspray. I have a couple of other things that might work as well...stand by. |
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oace
Full Member
Posts: 183
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Post by oace on Jun 23, 2024 11:54:06 GMT
Yes ! This is WWI RENAULT FT-17, built from 1917...   OACE |
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Post by healey36 on Jun 23, 2024 12:22:54 GMT
The Americans built a bunch of them under license from Renault up until 1920 or so. I think the American version was called the M1917.
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oace
Full Member
Posts: 183
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Post by oace on Jun 23, 2024 18:05:49 GMT
The Americans built a bunch of them under license from Renault up until 1920 or so. I think the American version was called the M1917. Aw, yes : I also read that ! Incredible... The FT-17 reminds me an anecdote from my GrandFather (1895-1998) who fought all the war from Sept 1914 to the end, that he related me in the early 80s... I write it in English below, which is a good exercise for me. Let Grand'Pa Eugene speak : "The Renault tanks came for the first time to our regiment in 1917. I was named as Tank Conductor... But do not think I was in one of the tanks going to the assault, not at all : I was marching in front of them, handling a large and high flag in order to guide them to the target ! In case of problem - that is to say an obstacle of any sort intended to hinder the progress of tanks - I had to stop and wave the flag as a warning signal." "At the start of the attack, all was well : I walked in front, and the squad of Renault tanks followed me. But of course les Boches (the Germans) started firing cannons to bombard us. Outside and in front, with my flag, I was not bragging, you guess it !" "While the fire intensified, the cohort of tanks arrived in front of a deep anti-tank ditch. Then I shook my flag and screamed to warn of danger, but all the tanks had closed their traps and hatches to protect themselves, so they could not see me obviously ! In reality, I think that they easily imagined that I was already dead, killed by the grapeshot..." "So I saw the tanks, one after the other, fell into the ditch, a trap from which they obviously could not escape. One of them fall at 45° angle in a section where the ditch was less deep, and inexplicably stopped there, constituting a makeshift shelter, a precarious protection under which I immediately slipped and cowered until the end of the infernal bombing." "When calm returned - sort of ! - I slammed my foot under the floor of the tank - Hey Guys! - then I got out from under it. Then I saw that nearly nothing subsisted from the tank itself except its mere floor, who ultimately protected me... Another shell, and it would have been over !" "Of the initial company (75 mens + the squad of tanks to cover us), only remained 7 infantrymen survivors and one FT-17 tank in working order. We were reassigned to another company." OACE
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Post by healey36 on Jun 28, 2024 12:58:55 GMT
Single-stack load for the flat car:  Printed/assembled the HL container from an image provided on-line. Need to touch up the exposed cardstock edges. Double-stack next?  |
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Post by af3020 on Jun 28, 2024 22:09:54 GMT
Double stack? Sure, why not? In fact, the Atlas 20' containers are a perfect fit. (Note, I didn't want to tear apart my gondola so I just set things up so you could see the possibilities).   |
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Post by healey36 on Jun 28, 2024 22:39:54 GMT
Hey, that gondola (sand car) is in way better shape than mine was, and I notice it's a variation with an expanded wheel-base. I presume that's a later version(?)
Nice looking containers, though.
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Post by af3020 on Jun 29, 2024 2:11:02 GMT
No, the frame types overlapped with your frame having a start build date later than mine. Your frame was used from 1932-1937 and the frame on my car was 1930-1933.
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Post by healey36 on Jun 29, 2024 13:45:15 GMT
That's interesting, as all of the 30XX freights I have are the shorter wheel-base (I hadn't realized the longer wheel-base version was out there). Did they make a 3012 box car on the longer wheel-base frame?
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Post by af3020 on Jun 30, 2024 12:19:57 GMT
I think what you are asking is did Flyer make the enameled version of the 3012 with the longer wheel base and I don't have a definite answer. My GUESS is they did. The reason for the uncertainty is I don't recall seeing this combination but then it isn't something I've really focused on. What I do know is in 1931 (the date for the set that has my gondola) Flyer has illustrations of train sets with a car listed as 3012 but it is the old litho sided boxcar with the usual reporting marks of 1115 or 1112 which have been punched to have external ladders. The same is true for the litho gondolas. The thing to remember is 1931 was the depths of the Great Depression (it still hadn't hit rock bottom) and Flyer appears to have been stuck with an oversupply of earlier production which they "upgraded" and sold before they transitioned to the enameled car bodies.
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Post by healey36 on Jun 30, 2024 17:03:16 GMT
Sorry, I was wondering if they made this specific version of the 3012 on the long-wheelbase frame?  I have a number of these, but they are all on the short-wheelbase frame. I was just curious. I don't have many of the earlier lithographed freight cars for comparison.  |
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Post by af3020 on Jul 1, 2024 3:23:42 GMT
Healey36, I think we're talking past one another. What I was trying to say was when Flyer introduced the new frame with the wide wheel base they still had older litho car bodies which they applied to those frames and called the "new" car the 3012. Once they ran out of the old stock they replaced it with the enameled bodies. In my earlier post I said my guess was that they would have made enameled bodies with the wide wheel base frame...and it turns out they did. I did some rummaging around on the web and I found this auction picture which confirms they did make the enameled body with the wide wheel base frame. The "leftover" 3012 boxcar with a litho body is in the upper left and the "new" enameled body 3012 boxcar with the wide wheel base frame is in the middle of the second row.  |
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