Old-time
Four Bay Hopper Project
click on images for larger view
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The Ultimate Hopper Car was rolled out of the shop August 9th. There was no one around, no ribbons being cut or no bottles of Champaign being broken, just me. Almost a complete year has gone by from making the drawing to the car rolling out the shop. My best estimate is that between 600 to 700 hours of labor has gone into this car. That should make it the most expensive car in my train set so far. At $25 per hour and 650 hours plus another $600.00 for trucks, couplers, and material. That is a grand total of $16,850.00 - but who’s counting when you are having a good time.
One can not always predict how much time and material a project will take. Several times, I thought, well maybe that is enough work on this thing. Then, I would look at it and think, I came this far and put so much work into it would be a shame to quit now.
I think there are a lot of projects going on in the hobby where guys are thinking the same things. How much more time and money can I afford to sink into this thing. Whether it or any project is worth all the time is has to be judged on the completed project.
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Take a look at the pictures and come to your own conclusion. Taking pictures of a black car is very difficult so don’t be to critical on the photographer, me. Painting the car black was also a long and difficult decision. Black is difficult to paint because it shows any difference in surface texture. Especially difficult is painting back behind things and through braces and protruding parts.
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For the most part I tried to paint the parts before they were assembled. Usually I would spray on another coat of paint after the assembly was completed, After the details were installed, such as ladders, I went back with a small paint brush and touched up the mini bolts. Getting paint on the threads of a 2-56 mini bolt is pretty much like putting lock tight on it. The paint came from spray cans. I find that is the easiest way to go. It is consistent and relatively inexpensive.
Painting being one of the most important parts of the job has to be planed into the total picture of construction. All the parts were primed almost as soon as possible. Steel will rust almost over night. Tip is to use green 409 to clean the parts as soon as they are completed. Rinse them in water dry them off and paint them with primer. Even the oil in you skin will leave a rusty finger print in steel.
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The upper short ribs were lost wax casting made from a pattern machined from aluminum. The brake wheel and chain lever were lost wax casting purchased a long time ago at a train meet. The brake wheel housing was cast here out of aluminum as well as the air reservoir tank. The brake cylinder and rods were machined on the lathe. The brake valve was machined from aluminum and some small mini bolts were added for detail.
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The chain, I am happy to say, came from Lowe’s. It’s clock chain. The few things already made.
All the parts for the hopper door locks were machined on the cnc mill out of brass. I made a square broach out of air hardening tool steel. This was used to broach the square hole in the door lock.
The car it self was mainly constructed from 18 gauge paint lock steel. Some of the smaller sheet metal parts were made from 24 gauge paint lock. If the part had to be welded I used regular steel of the same gauge.
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One additional die was made and that was for the outside top corner connectors. That die is not shown here. It was basically a male/female forming die. Since the quantities were small I made them from some scrap aluminum blocks. The actual parts were made from .035 steel.
Most of the rivets were 3/32” copper. Towards the end they were getting
hard to find. I tried brass and found they were too hard. I ended up with
a few aluminum rivets. They were ok. Also I use some 1/16” aluminum
rivets. McMaster Carr is a good place to start looking if interested.
I haven’t tried to count the parts or the rivets, yet anyway. There
are hundreds. There are a lot more than one would think. Did I end up
with a complete set of plans? Not really. So many changes were made as
construction went on that now one would have to reverse engineer the completed
car. When the day comes that I get really bored I may do that.
The significance of the building of this car was several fold, first the challenge to see if I could do it. The other motive was mastering the Auto-cad and CNC mill. It was quite an educational experience. Most things that come my way in the shop now are a piece of cake. With out a goal of doing a project, I would still not have much of an idea how to use the CNC mill in all of its different functions.
In conclusion it was
quite a project, although it doesn’t look like it. It was probably
the most complicated model attempted so far. So what is in store for the
future? I have several Ideas. Will it be something totally different,
you bet. Keep looking back into the construction section of this web page.
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