In
one of the photos of Buena Vista (taken from the Colorado Midland
mainline east of town) I saw what looked like a flanger in the C&S
yards. This was
after the Romley layout I built in Parker (Part 5) had either been
dismantled or was stored but I
was still planning my 1/4" scale Buena Vista Romley layout. I kept busy
building rolling stock. The flanger was one of those distinctly
Chalk Creek items I watched for; spying it in the yard was what
compelled me to build the model. I also found the drawing of a similar
Denver & Rio Grande flanger by J.C. Benson
in the Mar/April 1980 "Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette".
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| Completed On3 Model of C&S 016 - Poole |
There
wasn't and still isn't any kit for C&S Flangers (there were 2
standard gauge cars as well) in any scale so far as I know. If I wanted
the car I had to scratch build it and that meant the usual challenges
with such projects. The biggest issues were detailed plans and how to
come up with viable hardware pertaining to the plow and mechanism. I
solved the second problem by using a Durango Press kit of a Rio Grande
Southern Flanger (01 as I recall). The first problem took a little more
diligence. I started with the drawing mentioned above and using the few
photos available redrew the differences as far as I needed in a new
drawing.
Is the model strictly
accurate? No. Some things had to be presumed and some things I know now
were not clear then. Overall, however, I believe the model is
convincing. It does not look like either the R.G.S. model from which I
borrowed parts or the drawing which I used as a starting point. It looks
like a Colorado & Southern flanger.
As
built by the D.L.& G. in the mid 1880s, all 4 cars used what we
call the B Type Union Pacific Swing Beam
truck. That was much the standard of the South Park freight roster at
the time the flangers were built. When 015 became the Leadville flanger
in 1936 it was re-equipped with ASF 4 foot archbar trucks used
on the 1902 Type 1 coal cars. By 1936 these would have been surplus as
many cars were scrapped at that time. I purchased the Swing Beam trucks
from Coronado Scale Models.
Note that there are no brake beams on the
front truck as there was no means of
connecting to the brake linkage behind the plow. Also note that there is
a brake cylinder used to actuate the
blade from the locomotive. Therefore, the cars had 2 air lines and 2 glad
hands on each end. None of the prototype
photos of 016 suggest it had the tool box on the front deck
like 014 and probably 013. Other detail
differences might be square
targets on the "older" cars - 015 & 016
The
following photo essay may be helpful, in a general sense, on how to
develop just about any.wood framed or wooden railroad car.
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| Commercial scale lumber was cut for frame parts |
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| Wood frame parts assembled in a plastic jig |
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| Perspective view showing more end construction |
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| Single needle beam with 2 truss rods |
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| Weights added before floor boards were installed |
|
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| Form-up of the train air line with other detail |
|
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| The train air line ran exterior of the frame |
|
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| Plow installed. Grandt Line couplers |
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| Plastic "square" to plumb handrail stanchions |
|
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| Special jig to form the side steps from brass strips |
|
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| Four sill steps ready to install |
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| Top detail of the nearly complete model |
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| Bottom detail |
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| Sheet brass cut for plow wings and final details, paint, lettering and weathering. |
In
O scale the car is just over 4" long. This packed a rich amount of
detail into a very confined space. The car won Second Place in M.O.W at
the 9th National Narrow Gauge convention at Durango, CO in 1989. It was
also part of the consist of a train that won first Place at the 12th
National Narrow Gauge convention at Colorado Springs, CO in 1992.
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| Spike from RGS Ridgeway yard |
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