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Climax log wagons

7K views 20 replies 7 participants last post by  ChopperCharles 
#1 · (Edited)
I have a Shay and a Climax (On30) and I bought these castings to build a couple of wagons, not cheap and not real good, so I'm attempting to make my own.
I started with 1 x 3/16" fms.



Marked the centre, then split it with a 4" angle grinder with a skinny cut off disk.



Next it went into the mill to bring it down to 3/8"



I marked where the "pole" went and drilled a series of 1/8" holes with a centre drill (there's no flex in them like a normal drill)



I had the depth set so it didn't go right through, the holes were then joined with an end mill to make a nice 1/8" square slot for the pole.



Another slot milled for the couplers.



I didn't want to make the pole slot any longer because I need some solid metal to drill and tap for the trucks to mount to.



Cut a couple of bits of hardwood 1/8" square for the pole on my radial arm saw, and yes I still have all my fingers. :laugh:



I might have to make a longer pole, this is full lenght, and you don't get many short pine logs. Cut a couple of bolsters for the logs to sit on.

 
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#3 ·
Nice skills!
But I think your mistaken about the scale, that's not HOn3.
HOn3 uses N scale trucks not HO trucks.;)
Looks like to me you have made some sweet looking HO scale log cars!
On30 uses HO trucks and is O scale.
 
#8 ·
I agree BK most skeleton cars I've seen are junk compared to what they cost. I did something similar by using flat stock but without that gorgeous mill you got. I didn't concentrate on the bottom detail too much since I planned on keeping the logs on. I would like to make several more with the detail so I could have some empty sitting around the mill area. The advantage with this plan is you have plenty of bottom weight & no matter how many logs you got your never top heavy which is a problem with log cars. Looking forward to seeing your progress.
 
#9 ·
I've lost a few photos lately, camera keeps telling me the card needs formatting. :mad:

I used an epoxy glue to fit the plates to the wagon to locate the pole, also drilled both for the pins, I think the original were clamped with the plate.



I fitted a coupler to one end and took it for a few laps of my layout at various speeds forward and backwards, it passed with flying colours. :D:D
Photos of the test lost :mad:, I'm going to need a few of these so I'm doing a "run" of 5 wagons for now. Steel (especially mild steel) is not nice to mill it has impurities and hard spots in it, I buggared an end mill on the first wagon.
So I'm doing these in brass.



It's a much nicer metal to work and I set the mill up once and do 10 pieces. ;)



These 10 are shorter then the first (that was the width of the piece of brass I had) so there will be no pole adjustment, I'll probably run a couple of different lenght poles.



This is what I cut the brass with, it cuts nice and square and just a rub on the wire wheel to remove the small burr, it's older then me. :eek:

 
#11 ·
Since my last post the mailman has been, ;) I now have my Climax (thanks Mike).





Wagon looks the part too.



This little effort took half an hour, I've gone to new PB and been figuring it out, trying to. :confused:
 
#15 ·
That machine you cut the brass with looks antique. :thumbsup:
Do you know the year of it?

Oh, nice work on the wagons too. :D:thumbsup:
 
#17 ·
Early 1900 as far as I can make out, it was driven with a flat belt then, it does a top job, took 20 minutes to cut that piece of 3" round, but it's a good square cut and there's no clean up like a cutting wheel.:cool:
 
#20 ·
Couplers fitted,



Just have to trim the screws to size now.



New trucks fitted, this is the steel wagon and the pole is adjustable.



5 finished, ran outa trucks.



I had to load it and try, :laugh:, both engines pulled 5 loaded wagons easily.

 
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