The GnATTERbox

Hello, All;

Another longish post, this time to replace the images of rolling stock that are now long gone. (My tipcars are on a separate thread).

Firstly, to explain, I worked 20 years for a model shop, as a professional builder, though near the end I was more of a kit designer for them. This will explain the access to lasers, etc. I'd started designing kits in 1985 for On30 (they're still available from Keith Wiseman, in fact!), graduated up to G scale cars, ran my own 1:20.3 and 7/8n2 kit company on the side, and finally gave up on the professional work to instead manage a gas station for a buddy.

Heywood 3 x 6 "Top" wagons. I actually sold some of these as kits in the early days of the forum, and they were a fun kit, but Smallbrook can fill your needs now. Laser cut wood, white metal frame/weight, and laser cut plexiglas pedestals and couplers. Wheelsets are Grandt Line On3 26", regauged to 16.5mm. Also, these are 1:22.5 scale, so they are true "Gn15".

With early test for a "top" body:




Underside view showing spin-cast weight (I still have the spin caster in my living room, I'm wierd ):


Unpainted:




With stacked "tops", per Heywood"


The same frame was adapted, and I built an Eaton Hall four wheel brake:



Another frame converted to a simple derrick car. The derrick is brass rod and tube, the winch is styrene bits. The design was taken from a derrick used on a Mack truck, back in the day. I still need to make some form of 'hold-down' to keep the thing from tipping when in use. Instead of string or such, the cables are thin wire, fixed in place:

I do like these Heywood style wagons Jeff, Congratulations!

For the travelling derrick, have you considered 4 x swivellling arms mounted on the solebars just inboard the end stocks, with screw-down jacks fitted at the ends? These would provide all round stabilisation for the derrick.

Mick

JeffSaxton wrote:Hello,

Heywood 3 x 6 "Top" wagons. I actually sold some of these as kits in the early days of the forum, and they were a fun kit, but Smallbrook can fill your needs now. Laser cut wood, white metal frame/weight, and laser cut plexiglas pedestals and couplers. Wheelsets are Grandt Line On3 26", regauged to 16.5mm. Also, these are 1:22.5 scale, so they are true "Gn15"

I still have one somewhere Jeff.

MickT wrote:I do like these Heywood style wagons Jeff, Congratulations!

For the travelling derrick, have you considered 4 x swivellling arms mounted on the solebars just inboard the end stocks, with screw-down jacks fitted at the ends? These would provide all round stabilisation for the derrick.

Mick

Ya'mean a bit like these..................!!!







It all got waaaay top heavy [although it should of worked]? But I consoled myself with the notion that this would be transferred to "yard crane" duies and I'd replace it with something more akin to what you posted Jeff'.

That's it exactly!

I see what you mean about yours being a bit top heavy but even so, it's a fabulous model>

Mick

MickT wrote:I do like these Heywood style wagons Jeff, Congratulations!

For the travelling derrick, have you considered 4 x swivellling arms mounted on the solebars just inboard the end stocks, with screw-down jacks fitted at the ends? These would provide all round stabilisation for the derrick.

Thanks, Mick!

In US usage, there is a far simpler answer. Small cranes sold by Fairmont and Kalamazoo for trackwork used a simple rail tong type of thing, one on each corner, that clamped the rail head. You made them tight by a screw wheel on top of the assembly. I'm going to have to find my pictures someplace.

An even simpler method is a chain wrapped from one corner, under the rails, then up to the opposite corner. You make it tight by twisting the chain between the rails, then driving a stake through a link and into the ground.