Luckily my order to Ozark arrived just in time to be dealt with immediately (they only ship on Mondays and Fridays, apparently) so the bits for the RPO are on their way.
Meanwhile work has just started on the outside-braced boxcar. But first I needed to work out how large the bracing actually is; the drawing suggests about 3x3 inches and I managed to get some 3.2x3.2mm styrene strip which should be about right. However, on looking through all my pictures of OB boxcars found they all had horizontal planks whereas my Bachmann sides are vertically planked. This means an overlay - though this will help to tie together all the small sections I was planning to use. Allowing for the square styrene strips and overlays means I'm adding 8mm to the car width, and the prototype was only 7ft wide, which is already less than a Bachmann car. I figure on compromising slightly and have taken 10mm out of the car floors, so the finished vehicle will be very slightly narrower than its companions, but about the same width as a flat car.
Meanwhile work has just started on the outside-braced boxcar. But first I needed to work out how large the bracing actually is; the drawing suggests about 3x3 inches and I managed to get some 3.2x3.2mm styrene strip which should be about right. However, on looking through all my pictures of OB boxcars found they all had horizontal planks whereas my Bachmann sides are vertically planked. This means an overlay - though this will help to tie together all the small sections I was planning to use. Allowing for the square styrene strips and overlays means I'm adding 8mm to the car width, and the prototype was only 7ft wide, which is already less than a Bachmann car. I figure on compromising slightly and have taken 10mm out of the car floors, so the finished vehicle will be very slightly narrower than its companions, but about the same width as a flat car.
