Wednesday, 20 November 2013

Tank-car loading platforms - one down, two to go...

Back in this post I mentioned that I had some TrainCat tank-car loading platforms on order for the Kerr McGee Refinery at Wynnewood.  The kits arrived a few weeks back, but today was my first chance to tackle building them.

TrainCat describes these kits as being "a quick one evening kit", and that is probably true if you've had experience with similar kits before.  But this was the first brass kit of any sort that I've assembled, and I found the job to be a lot more fiddly than I had expected.  All up, it took me about 4 hours from Go to Whoa which I guess does meet the "one evening" description, and I'm sure that I will reduce that substantially when I do the next two kits.

The quality of the kits and instructions is very good, although I did have one piece break when I folded it over.  I glued the parts together and they seemed fine, until the glue joint failed when I accidentally put too much pressure on it during final assembly.

Here's the assembled kit sitting on my work map.  You can see that the access platform on the far side is missing one of the handrails.





















I'll repair the damaged platform in a day or two, after the rest of the glue has set properly.

Time to get back to work. Thanks for looking.

Regards,
Ron
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7 comments:

  1. nscalestation21 November 2013 at 12:21

    That looks really good Ron. I've done a few folded brass kits and they are a bit fiddly. I've had better luck soldering them than using CA.

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    1. Ron McF21 November 2013 at 13:50

      Thanks Brad.

      There were times when I wished that I had used solder on this kit, but I went with TrainCat's recommendations for this first outing with brass kits. (I probably saved my fingers a lot of grief.)

      Ron

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  2. Rod Warren21 November 2013 at 21:43

    Hi Ron
    This is looking very good. Cannot wait to see them at the next ops session. What colour will they be once completed and installed on the GC&SF.
    Rod.

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    1. Ron McF22 November 2013 at 09:10

      Thanks Rod.
      I don't know what colour to paint them as I haven't been able to find any photos from the '50s. I might have to post a question on some of the forums.
      Ron

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  3. Steven Johnson25 April 2014 at 09:17

    Looks great Ron! I was just thinking about that kit I had in stock for my Philadelphia Quartz plant the other day. Seeing your assembled model inspired me to get my kit out tonight. I only got as far as cutting out all the pieces, but that's a start.

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    1. Ron McF25 April 2014 at 12:44

      Hi Steven.

      Thanks for the comments, here and against the other post. These are the first etched metal kits I've assembled, and they proved to be more fiddly than I had expected (although not 'difficult' as such). However, TrainCat's engineering is excellent, and the black paint hides most of my sloppy workmanship.

      I still have to add piping, etc. but that will have to wait now as my train room is now storing furniture until our new house is built.

      Good luck with your kit, and be sure to post some pictures to share with us.

      Regards,
      Ron

      Delete
  4. Lafayette Irrigation26 November 2022 at 00:00

    Hello matee great blog

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