Coffee stirrer cars......

[tac foley]

For those many of of you who frequent St*b*cks or C*sta coffee bars and throw away those little wooden stirrers, hold your hosses!

Depending on what your preferred modelling scale might be, they might just be 'zackly what you are looking for to replicate that old and tired wood siding look that dominates the Old West and Colorado narrow gauge scene. Well, with a bit of imagination, that is.

Here's a free-lance MoW car I've put together, using a few bits from Ozark Miniatures and Phil's Narrow Gauge. The base running gear is a Bachmann Spectrum flat car.

Apologies for not having gotten a grasp of posting images - no doubt it will come to me eventually.

tac

 

[Madman]

Wow, that's nice !!

 

[fridge]

Excellent job-and for those who don't drink that much coffee you can buy the raw material very cheaply on the internet. ( Boxes of 1000 pieces). Just search for coffee stirrers. Also useful are wooden tongue depressers for wider bits of wood. (large scale buildings, etc,).

 

[GAP]

Excellent job-and for those who don't drink that much coffee you can buy the raw material very cheaply on the internet. ( Boxes of 1000 pieces). Just search for coffee stirrers. Also useful are wooden tongue depressers for wider bits of wood. (large scale buildings, etc,).

Here Downunder I buy them from a $2 (Pound shop) in all shapes and sizes, if I had to drink coffee to get my raw materials I would never sleep.
They are almost to scale for flat car planks but who measures that stuff anyway?
If challenged about scale I just say it is prototypical because this is the prototype as most of my designs originate in my imagination and that is an area best left unexplored.

 

[tac foley]

Well, I have to admit that I have a couple of of 'tame' families who loot these things for me on an almost daily basis, so the passage of money never actually enters into the equation [Thanks Neil and famb!]. Not that I'm mean, y'unnerstan'.

Just to keep you all here, this 16mm scale drover's caboose is my latest venture. Using a set of Accucraft's fine arch-bar trucks, a gift from a good friend on Vancouver Island, and a few bits and pieces from Ozark again, this is a not-exactly right model of the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes van.



If anybody is interested, I can show how to make cheap ladders and 'checker-plate' footboards/steps.

While I've been away I've made a good few other cars, including a SAR ballast car from the WHR and the SAR brake van, too.

Let me know - I really don't want to clog up the site with my stuff unless asked to do so.

tac
Ottawa Valley Garden Railway Society [www.ovgrs.org]
POCRR Eastern Sub

 

[penylanpip]

For goodness sake, man, clog away!
Your 'stuff' is streets ahead of what many of us can hope to achieve and great fun to see.

 

[korm kormsen]

yes, please! clog it!

even if the colour of our stirrer cars is similar, i'm afraid, i could learn a thing or two from you...

 

[tac foley]

Dettlef, old floon!! Good to see you over here!!!! Between us we'll sew up the 'making something from nothing' side of model railroading for sure!

Best

tac

PS - thank you all for your kind words, remember the old Irish saying - 'Is stróc é ceann de na ceann is fiú thosaíonn míle suas an asal.'

 

[trammayo]

Dettlef, old floon!! Good to see you over here!!!! Between us we'll sew up the 'making something from nothing' side of model railroading for sure!

Best

tac

PS - thank you all for your kind words, remember the old Irish saying - 'Is stróc é ceann de na ceann is fiú thosaíonn míle suas an asal.'

A thousand kicks where?

 

[tac foley]

I'm not sayin' - this is a family website.

tac
OVGRS
POCRR

 

[GAP]

Well, I have to admit that I have a couple of of 'tame' families who loot these things for me on an almost daily basis, so the passage of money never actually enters into the equation [Thanks Neil and famb!]. Not that I'm mean, y'unnerstan'.

Just to keep you all here, this 16mm scale drover's caboose is my latest venture. Using a set of Accucraft's fine arch-bar trucks, a gift from a good friend on Vancouver Island, and a few bits and pieces from Ozark again, this is a not-exactly right model of the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes van.

View attachment 221687

If anybody is interested, I can show how to make cheap ladders and 'checker-plate' footboards/steps.

While I've been away I've made a good few other cars, including a SAR ballast car from the WHR and the SAR brake van, too.

Let me know - I really don't want to clog up the site with my stuff unless asked to do so.

tac
Ottawa Valley Garden Railway Society [www.ovgrs.org]
POCRR Eastern Sub

Ladders and checker plate please.

 

[tac foley]

Later - I'm off to play trains today at our Ramsey Mereside location where we have recently constructed a rather large 45mm track complex. We are hosting two 'Little Miracle' kids' parties today with our 7.25" gauge steamers, and me and Broos and Pete [maybe David, too] will be providing a sideshow with small[er] steam and sparkies.

Watch this space!

tac
OVGRS
POCRR

PS - this is my granddaughter with my other 'Harlech Castle'....

 

[ge_rik]

Cracking good job on the coffee stirrer wagons, Tac. You must select your stirrers carefully - some of mine have some interesting kinks. That Harlech Castle looks like a nice piece of kit as well.

Rik

 

[tac foley]

Thanks, Rik. Luckily I'm able to use pieces down to half an inch in length, so there isn't much waste at all.

The somewhat-larger than the Roundhouse 'Harlech Castle' is electric, but drives to the jackshaft like the original. With all three batteries on board, and Dallee sound, it weighs an astonishing 520# - each wheel-set weight 42# and the frames are half-inch plate everywhere, and will haul everything on the FLR with people in.

You can see it on tac's trains fenland light railway harlech castle.

And no, it's not built using coffee stirrers.

tac

 

[tac foley]

Okay - watch carefully on how to make 16mm scale or thereabouts, ladders that LOOK like ladders.

First, obtain a length of KS Metals brass channel of the suitable dimensions - since it's you making it, and not me, that can be anything from 1/8th to 1/4 inch wide.

Next, a slack handful of ordinary steel pins, like the ones used for dress-making.

Lastly, a length of 3/32" brass or alloy tubing from the KS Metal bin.

1. Cut two lengths of channel - these will be the ladder rails/sides.

2. Drill holes, a step-width apart, in each ladder side - the number depends on how high the ladder is going to be.

3. Cut the pins down to LESS than half the width of the ladder treads.

4. Cut the tubing into suitable lengths to act as the treads/steps.

5. Insert the pins through the rails - with the channel facing INWARDS and place a tread over it, securing with a drop of ACC. It doesn't hurt to use a similar drop on the head of the pin, either.

5. Do as many as you need, and then do the same process all over for the second side, remembering that the treads are already there.

6. Let it set up over-night.

Here's the process in a not-too-good image.....





End result -



You might solder it all instead, but when you are old and cranky like me, heating things up and forgetting them can be risky.

tac

 

[tac foley]

aaaaaaaaand, making cheap tread plates out or more or less nothing.

Yes, I KNOW that Rob Bushill makes some great brass treadplate, but this is just in case you forgot to get some at the show, right?

1. Find some of that fine aluminium mesh that's used for carbody repairment.

2. and a length of quality masking tape like Green Frog, Revell or Tamiya.

3. Cut a piece of masking tape of about the size you need for the treadplate, and VERY firmly press it down onto the mesh.

3. Turn it over, mesh side, and seal the edges with ACC or similar gluement.

4. Cut to size when dried.





Paint to suit.

tac

 

[PhilP]

Both very clever!

Now does the 'treadplate' wear? - wondered if the adhesive and / or the tape might break-down over time??

 

[tac foley]

Well, unless you have 16mm feets tramping all over it, quite a while, seeing as how it's sealed all round and painted, too. Put it this way, I have cars I made in the middle 1980s with this little trick on them.

They look just fine.

tac

 

[PhilP]

Well, unless you have 16mm feets tramping all over it, quite a while, seeing as how it's sealed all round and painted, too. Put it this way, I have cars I made in the middle 1980s with this little trick on them.

They look just fine.

tac

Thanks for coming back on this.. A good fix.
PhilP.

 

[KeithT]

Just back to the coffee stirrers, I use grandchildren to harvest ice lolly and choc ice sticks. They tend to be slightly broader.
It's amazing how many 4 grandchildren can amass in a few weeks!