Planned future stock

This final page in the rolling stock section details further stock which I am planning to build. As previously mentioned this layout will be totally freelance which allows me to select car types as used by any narrow gauge railroad, and also adapt car types which were used only on the standard gauge.

As I am aiming for at least 13 cars for full operation there will be scope for me to 'invent' several car types - I know that in reality any given line would have mostly one type of car decided by the requirements of its main business, however I am using modellers licence to justify a more varied selection.

During the 1930s the Baltimore and Ohio developed an all steel boxcar on which the sides and roof were formed from the same sheet of metal - done so as to eliminate the joint between sides and roof which was prone to leaking. To the best of my knowledge no narrow gauge line ever had a boxcar constructed by this method...but my line will. I will freelance a car using the basic dimensions of the Chivers boxcar but using the construction techniques from the standard gauge wagontop cars.

The sides and roof on my cars will be a single outer styrene 'wrapper' over bulkheads within the body - the doors will not open so all this will be hidden. The ribs will, unlike the prototype, be added afterwards.

For this car there are two ways I could proceed, and I have not yet decided which would be easier

One method would be to build the sides from a cutdown Bachmann HO steel gondola. The ends would then need scratch building as they would be wider than the HO body.

On the other hand I may decide that cutting down a body is more effort than it is worth when it does not provide the wagon ends, in that case I will scratch build the whole thing using styrene and microstrip.

This car loosely follows the design of the stockcars used on the Colorado 3' gauge lines, with elements of cars from different lines freely mixed. Due to the shorter body it has only two diagonally braced panels each side of the door rather than the 3' gauge standard of three.

Other stock which I hope to build but have not yet drawn plans for;

Pickle Car : On the standard gauge these cars had either separate round tanks or a single rectangular tank. I will model the round tank version. On the standard gauge the cars usually had four tanks, due to the shorter proportions the narrow gauge car will have either two or three depending upon size.

Hopper Car : Using an extended wheelbase I think it should be possible to build a centre unloading hopper car. I could build this as either an all wood, an all steel or a composite(wood sides with steel framing) body.