It’s a bit anachronistic for my 1915 modeling era, since the D&RGW’s peak years for transporting oil and related products to and from the San Juan oil fields was 1920s-1950s, but oil was discovered in the San Juan Basin in 1896, and I wanted to build an old wooden oil derrick on the D,D&S, so I’m going to need to ship some oil pipeline.
- One of the more interesting modifications to freight cars was what the D&RGW did for transporting pipe to the oil fields. Since the pipe was usually longer than a standard gondola, they removed the gondola ends, and let the pipe hang out in both directions. Steel plates were then bolted on to the ends of the sides, as can be seen in this picture, to protect and reinforce those boards.
- The weight of the pipes called for some extra weight bearing boards across the floor of the gondola (just partially visible in this picture). The other modification for the transportation of the overlong pipes involved creating what was called an “idler” flatcar. Two of these flatcars accompanied each pipe gondola, one on each end, in order for the oversized load in the gondola to keep from hitting other cars in the train. This photo also shows the section of used rail that was clamped under the edges of each side of the flatcar for extra strength.
The following pictures show my completed models of a pipe gondola and two idler flats.
- The oil pipes were made from plastic drinking straws, spray painted flat black, and weathered with rust colored weathering powders. The grab irons on the side of the gondola are staples, and you can see the rail clamped under the idler flat just under the letters “C&S”. There are 24 individually applied Grandt Line Products nut-bolt-washer castings on each side of the gondola….48 tiny holes to drill, and 48 tiny castings to glue in place.
- And, here’s a close-up of the end of the gondola, showing the steel reinforcing plates. Rivet detail is embossed in thin plastic with a pounce wheel before the plastic is painted and glued on. On all of these flat cars I have been covering the plastic floors with real basswood. When you are modeling wood, nothing in the world looks as good as real wood. To give you an idea of size, the stakes that support the side boards are 1/16th of an inch square.
- The end of the idler flat with a good view of the attachment for the reinforcing rail. This car is riding on another project, which I will be writing up soon. I’m taking a short section of the track I will use on the actual layout, and making a photo track. In my earlier posts, I had been using Peco Code 100 On30 track; this is Micro Engineering Code 83 On30 track. There are some subtle differences. The rail height on the Peco track is .10 inches; on the ME track it is .83 inches, which is closer to prototype. Also, the tie size and spacing on the ME track is more accurate for narrow gauge lines. I’ve laid this track on a homosote product made by California Roadbed Co. that accurately models the roadbed profile. I’ll be doing ballast and scenery on this little stretch of railroad, too.
You wrote, “There are some subtle differences. The rail height on the Peco track is .10 inches; on the ME track it is .83 inches…” I think you mean .083 inch.
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