By Nick Muff, MMR and John O’Connell
Inspiration
for this project came from an article in the GN Goat Group IO by Dan
Bolyard….A paraphrase of his article helps explain the creative
solution to a very challenging problem:
In
1948 heavy rains wiped out 9 bridges on the Mansfield and Douglas
Branches in Washington leaving 61 box cars stranded. The cars were in
great demand in Waterville to ship grain out to make room for the
incoming harvest. One solution was to lift the cars off their trucks
and haul the cars by highway truck. But Freel & Sons, an Omak, WA
house mover,
came forward with a more expedient solution. The house mover said he
could haul an empty box car without removing the trucks by securing a
car on track mounted on logs on an improvised trailer. His truck was
a three axle 165 HP 1948 rig and his crew could load and secure a car
in 30 minutes! He then could cover the 30 miles to Coulee City in
three hours!
After
studying the photos in the GN Goat, I was having trouble making the
transition from inspiration to modeling. I met with Nick Muff, MMR,
who translated the photos into a scale diagram using AutoSketch 10
Software. Nick grew up around steel fabrication and was able to not
only render a plan but fill any gaps from his own experience.
The Truck
[1]
Sylvan Scale Models 1940 – 1958 White Super Power Tandem Day Cab
(V-155)
[2]
Dulled, dirty, washed out green or grey
The
Trailer
The
trailer is made up of the forward frame support, the tongue, the rear
log support and the logs. The overall effect is meant to appear as
hastily constructed unfinished welded steel. The paint used for all
components of the trailer was Vallejo Model Color acrylic in Natural
Steel 70.864.
The Forward
Frame
With
the daunting challenge of structural integrity without compromising
visual realism, the fact that this is a static model reduces the
challenge.
We
chose Evergreen I-Beam 275 5/32” (0.156) (4.00 mm). For rigidity,
bent two short coat hanger pieces into 90 degrees and glued into the
inside channels of the I-beams formed into a U shape with Gorilla
Super Glue Gel. For additional rigidity, a thin piece of sheet
styrene plastic was fashioned to cover the bottom of the U and
provide a base for the trailer tongue. The sheet styrene is meant to
appear to be sheet steel and just cover the bottom of the frame and
extend forward 4 scale feet for tongue support.
[3]
Top: the frame (scale 5’ long, 7’ wide). Middle: .45 mm sheet
styrene. Bottom: 5/32” I-Beam
The
tongue
The
tongue was fashioned from three + pieces of I-Beam (4 1/2 scale feet)
glued together around a short piece of wire. A hole was drilled in
the front of the tongue so a small wire could be glued in place to
protrude just enough to engage the fifth wheel of the truck. Finally,
the tongue was glued to the thin styrene support at the front of the
forward frame.
[4]
Completed forward frame and tongue awaiting priming and painting.
The imperfections and gaps can be filled with Bondo and masked with
paint.
The Rear
Log Support….
Parts
from Herpa Trailer kit 5514 were used for the rear wheels and support
for the logs.
[5]
The Herpa frame was cut down and a single axle with four wheels was
used. The frame was glued to a piece of 0.45mm plastic scrap roughly
6 scale feet long by 7 feet across.
[6]
Rear Log Support prior to assembly
[7]
Underside of Rear Log Support with wheels glued in place and ready to
paint
Finally,
a rear plate was fashioned using 0.045 scrap styrene approximately 1
½ by 7 scale feet. For the taillight, a 6” lens (Details West
LN-241) was set on a piece of tape and painted using Tamiya Clear Red
X-27 and the glued on the rear plate. A 1950 WA state commercial
license plate image was lifted off the web, greatly reduced then
printed and attached to the rear plate.
‘
[8]
The rear of the trailer includes a scale Washington state license
plate and brake light.
The Logs
The
logs were shaped using ¼” dowels 7 inches long, mounted in a power
drill and tapered slightly over an inverted belt sander, then scraped
with a fine saw blade to rough the surface. The final length is 6
inches. Side by side, the tapered ends have to fit inside the forward
frame and provide a level contact for the cross ties. If the trial
fit looks good, glue two pieces of thin bass wood across the bottom
of the logs for stability.
The
logs will be set on the rear support and appear through-bolted (Kadee
#439 Nut, Washer & Bolt) to improve visual appeal.
The Track
Six
by 8” lumber was used for the cross ties supporting the Code 70
rail. I chose to omit every third cross tie and use a piece of Micro
Engineering track to set the spacing. The ties were cut to 7 scale
feet in length. Two ties at each end were tapped down using green 3M
tape and the rails were glued in place. Once dry, the fragile
assembly was carefully turned over and the remaining cross ties were
glued in place.
[9]
Preparing the track
After
all the cross ties were glued in place and allowed to dry overnight,
the finished track was test fit on the trailer. Note the rails are
longer at the rear than the front. They will be trimmed later to
avoid an excessive gap during loading or unloading.
[10]
Track glued in place on the trailer
Finishing
Touches
Before
the track is glued to the logs, a brake line and rear taillight
electrical wire are run from the truck chassis, along the log on the
right and disappear under the Rear Log Support. To do this, N scale
spikes are inserted and glued into #60 holes that run along the side.
The wires are guided to the bottom to avoid contact with the chains
that will restrain the box car when it is underway. Chain attachment
points are installed ahead and behind the box car doors. At this
point you need to have a reasonably good sense of the position of the
track on the logs and the position of the car on the track to know
where the chain restraint points should be located. HO scale spikes
are used to simulate chain restraints. Atlas HO/N round headed spikes
were used. String the smallest gauge wire you can handle from
underneath the rear log support and glue in place. Drill two holes in
the rear of the truck cab to simulate the brake line and electrical
line disappearing into the truck cab.

‘[11]
Mounting the logs on the rear wheel assembly
[12]
Chain Attachment Points; Brake Line and Taillight Wire Supports;
Bottom: Installed.
[13]
The forward end of the trailer mounted on the tractor.
A
bollard for attaching chain to the car’s coupler was simply
fashioned from the same I-beam material used throughout and glued on
the tongue just ahead of the end of the track.
Determine
final position of track on the logs so bolts can be seen between the
cross ties; glue in place.
[14]
Truck and Trailer ready for the boxcar and the trip to Coulee City
At
this point, a decision needs to be made to glue the box car to the
track and install the restraining chains and the wheel blocks or not,
which would simulate an empty rig returning for another box car. In
the later scenario. The project is finished.
My
intent to model my imagined loading scene as described below. Once
glued in place on the trailer, the truck wheels were blocked with 6”
x 8” untreated lumber, and chains were draped through the open
doors and secured in an alignment that would allow the chains to act
as spring lines to avoid forward or backward movement. The forward
coupler was locked and chain secured around it and the steel bollard
on the tongue.
The Scene
A
disused siding was altered by cutting the rail and extending the rail
over an expedient crib wall. An approach to the stub siding for the
truck and trailer was excavated by bulldozer and a compacted gravel
roadway used to provide access to the stub track. The operating plan
was for a 44 ton switcher to push a box car onto the trailer. The
switcher used a flat car as an idler to avoid the weight of the
switcher on the end of the stub over the crib wall.
The
only points of precision: the height of the stub rail must match the
height of the rail on the trailer and the skill of the truck driver
to quickly align the trailer with the stub in order to stay on
a-three-round-trips a day schedule.
[15]
The completed loading scene.
9. Postscript,
Musings From John.
My
model is not faithful to the prototype. I didn’t have the modeling
skills to fashion the forward frame and tongue properly. Perhaps 3D
printing or laser cut sheet material would have helped but I chose to
use I beams.
There
is a treasure trove of inspiration in Dan Bolyard’s website
bigbendrailroadhistory.com