Walther's Tank

[ScaleCraft]

At least part of it. Wood tank, seems to have a wrapper, Mobilgas, reddish color (more towards maroon).

Whoever put the frame together is...unskilled.
Probably a big Weller gun.

Solder globs everywhere.
Stirup steps, flat brass bar, normal square shape, with tabs pointing in opposite directions, soldered on...and NO trucks I can come up with will clear those steps.

Unsolder, re-bend on end to tabs both point in same direction, resolder closer to end beam...trucks clear now.
Somebody experimented with underbody detail.....no idea who much useless solder I heated of and filed.

Re-attached dome platforms, working on frame paint, then mix something to touch up body a bit.

Dome was off, had been glued on, but look.....there is a boss underneath dome with a hole....and oh, a hole through the wood tank.
Tapped the dome boss 2-56, used 2-56 ready rod, drilled a #44 hole in center frame rail....nutted it down...dome won't go anywhere now.

Who mounts dummy knuckles with a flathead screw?

Just cleaning up boxes of old projects so the cars are together and at least usable.

[ScaleCraft]

Thought it was done "enough" to put on the shelf...but, no.

So....once I got the globs of solder in the ends of the frame bolsters ground down to clear the sideframes....put it on a piece of track...and it won't roll. In fact, end wheels move in opposite directions.
The angle braces from the kingpin area to the end corners rub on the flanges. Okay, reduce in thickness. Still no go.

Coupler gauge, dummy couplers in cast-in Walthers end boxes are dead on. There is NO WAY with a standard freight truck wheel to retain coupler height and allow car to roll.

Shim trucks, re-drill kingpins, works, but couplers are halfway up the gauge.

They designed these to fail?

[ScaleCraft]

I had tried several styles of trucks, including two types of Walthers, looking for axle spacing and diameter differences....even with Tennite wheelsets.

I suppose much smaller diameter wheelsets would work.....but I have exactly zero smaller sets.

Couple will shim down with longer screws and a washer or two, but, geez.

[Dennis Holler]

Here are some Walthers projects lol First a couple of the early 3560 style Blue box Crestlne kits. First one was Texaco next was a Shell car.






Rebuild these early brass/bronze frames. I like these much better than the later 3800 series Walthers tank cars.


I shoulda used smaller materila for the grab irons.... Maybe next time lol.

These obviously have the scale wheels and they just barely clear the bolsters and angle brace in the end platform. Tinplate flanges won't clear. These probably need a thin washer or two as it is. The are nice and solid though I like em I worked on a few of them and rebuilt the frames a few years ago then got bored and in the box they went lol. Tanks are smoothed and have a few coats of Poly clear sanded down so they don't show grain like an ocean lol. I supposed the two reasons I was stalling is, I think I wanted to add brake rigging and I was going back and forth on rivets lol.

[Dennis Holler]

And a few other current and future Walthers tank projects.....

I was digging this old Philgas tanker but It ended up being stripped down like the ones above. Pretty sure Philgas shouldn't be on a three dome tank anyhow....

This Texaco is a recent pickup. I might try and reattach the bands clean it up and call it good

This one might win crappiest tank lol but it is all there-ish...

Aside from just being horible with a soldering gun, I've realized I really dislke the Walthers soft lead like castings they used for a lot of these early cars... I have a couple of the PRR cabooses that I am not sure I want to even mess with lol. These tank car frames at least I can add enough brass to stiffen them up a bit. Just not sure I want to buy a bunch of Archer rivet decals to show rivets....

[Dennis Holler]

I'm thinking I should add a spacer block to these cradles for the tanks. Anyone else add those?

[Dennis Holler]

Thisis how I cheated to make sure the trucks cleared the steps. Not sure I like it now lol, may go back and change it up some. It's only a little solder lmao.

I know, I know, the big ole pin head messes up the fine scale quality of these tank car frames... I used the brads to rivet the running board to the end frame before I it it with the torch. Ame on teh center beam although it is the stock three pieces. Wish you could still get the shallow channel section like they used on these cars lol.

[bob turner]

I have sccess to a really good shear and brake, if that helps.

Could I twist your arm to move the apostrophe to after the "s"? Or just delete it?

[ScaleCraft]

I have sccess to a really good shear and brake, if that helps.

Could I twist your arm to move the apostrophe to after the "s"? Or just delete it?

Hey! At least he got all the wheels on the rails!

[Dennis Holler]

Hey I am always tempted to purposly set one wheel set off just because you know

[bob turner]

For some, it is relatively important to get names right. I have friends who are maybe a bit picky - a David who dislikes "Dave", or my Latina students who dislike "Hispanic." So I make the effort for their sake.
But having a wheel off the track is offensive on a much lower plane.

Note the spelling on all those boxes - "Walthers." That was Bill's last name, not "Walther."

[Dennis Holler]

You know, oddly enough it took me a while to realize it was the thread title you were after... I was trying to figure out what I had said lmao.