The open freight car project

Prototype & Model

The open freight car project was a natural successor of the boxcar building projects. It is seemingly simpler as it requires less surface of scribed sidewalls and no roof. Without roof there is no problem with the roof fixation to the body too. The coupler placement is harder, though. If we do not put freight into the car there is no possibility to hide the coupler fixation inside. On the frame bottom there is not too much space either. Thus this car will not be equipped with short coupler, just with a fixation pin.

With the open car I did not even try to find a factory model to rebuild. It was clear already at the beginning that the scratchbuilding is the only way. I had enough experience in the different technologies gained when building the boxcars. Thus this was a bit easier.

After finishing the standard short Class Jkⁿ open freight car model, I started with the long version, the Class Jk^h. This was built using an upgraded technology. As the wheelbase of this car is rather long, one set of the bearing supports has been constructed with crosswise tilting feature. This allows better tracking on uneven rails.

Almost two years after building the first open freight car model I started again a similar job. This is also a short Jkⁿ Class car, but the hand-braked version. Thus a brakeman's cab and platform was added and the full brake rigging was constructed. This car was almost fully built from nickel silver, I prefer this material recently.

The Prototype

Histroric background
Pictures

The Model
Model building Drawings Pictures

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