Conductor Railway Hobbies

LLC

Waﬄe Box Car Product Reference

Guide 2 Rail O Scale

Made In The USA

Contents

Contents I

0.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

0.2 Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

0.3 Assembling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

0.4 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

0.1 Introduction

Figure 0.1: Walthers Waﬄe Box Car

2 CONTENTS

Many years ago WM. K. Walthers introduced the ”Waﬄe

Side” Box Car in O Scale and subsequently my Grandfather

purchased and built this kit. Fortunately, his model is still in

my collection. There were two prominent features that made

this ABS plastic mold injection kit so appealing. Obviously, the

detailed waﬄes on the car sides gave it a unique modern box

car look of the 70 ton capacity. The second feature was the

extended couplers (also known as a longer draft because of the

length of freight cars ever increasing) on a real working center

beam simulated draft gear utilizing springs in the car center in

the center beam on the underside of ﬂoor. Operationally, it was

one of the more interesting with respect to slack one would see

in the prototype when starting the train, switching or stretching

the slack out and implemented in a model.

The box car kit is relatively rare to come across and may be

considered a collectible item today. I always have said that if you

are going to build a model, choose something that is unique, rare

or totally unavailable. One of the goals of Conductor Railway

Hobbies is to reproduce the old kits for preservation purposes.

After all, another master model builder designed, developed and

manufactured these kits years ago. So that is exactly what we

are trying to do with the Waﬄe Box Car utilizing 3D Printing

technology where the goal is to perhaps improve upon the original,

but also make these very aﬀordable for the beginner model builder

in O Scale. Faithfully reproducing this kit may not be absolutely

perfect and might deviate slightly from the original prototype

as did the original kit from Walthers, but it leaves the model

builder with the opportunity to make modiﬁcation on a solid

base or framework. So today we can print oﬀ the parts to build

0.1. INTRODUCTION 3

as many of these models as we want.

Additionally, the kit is designed to challenge the beginner,

to think through the process from start to ﬁnish and make some

decisions that can only be from their own personal preference.

The recommended instructions in this document are for guidance

more than anything else. Step by step may not always be the

optimal way of doing the construction but one thing for sure you

do not need to paint if the welding job is not entirely completed

for certain phases.

0.2 Components

Bill of Materials Parts List

1. 2 each of 3 types of Center Beams

2. 2 each of 3 types of Coupler Pocket Covers

2 independent coupler pockets use with beams without

pockets

4. 2 Floor Pieces and 1 biscuit to join ﬂoor pieces

5. 2 Right Car Sides

6. 2 Left Car Sides

7. 1 Car End with brake Plate

8. 1 Car End without brake plate

9. 2 Car Doors

10. 2 Bottom Door Rails

11. 2 Top Door Rails

12. 2 Back Panel Car Side Joiner Car Door backing

13. 2 Inside Roof Support Panels

14. 2 Roof Proﬁles (Low or High) 11 pieces for laminating

15. 4 Ladders

0.2. COMPONENTS 5

16. 2 Car End Platforms

17. 1 AB Brake Set (Air Tank, Cylinder and Regulator)

18. 4 Piece of Trim for Coupler Pockets on Center Beam

19. 4 brackets for uncoupling hardware

20. 2 Spring Spacers to insert into center beam

21. 8 plates to mount center beam in place

22. 1 plate to cover the spring installation center of car

23. 2 piece of steel nail ﬂoor for lamination

24. 1 piece of plastic to join roof panels

25. 2 scrape PLA wafers with drill holes for testing

6 CONTENTS

0.3 Assembling

The ﬁrst thing you will note upon inspection of the parts is that

most are ”as is” coming oﬀ the printer build plate. Therefore,

some amount of work will entail removing any of the brim around

the the perimeter of the part or support material required by

the printer process. Some lite ﬁling or sanding maybe required

to clean up the ﬂash after removing the brim. In some cases

where tolerances are very tight may also require some sanding

or polishing of moving parts.

The ﬂoor, sides and inner roof parts come in 2 pieces each

where the car sides are a left and a right that will be held together

by the car doors and door back panel support. The ﬂoor and

inner roof parts are identical and would be interchangeable since

there is no right or left requirement.

The left car side has the door latch detail.

0.3. ASSEMBLING 7

Figure 0.2: Left Side of the Box Car

Note the brim and support material that easily comes oﬀ of

the part.

8 CONTENTS

Figure 0.3: Right Side of the Box Car

The ﬂoor while ﬂat on the top side has a clearly deﬁne

location of the bolster pin hole. The detail is on the underside

0.3. ASSEMBLING 9

frame of the car. We are leaving the mounting of trucks up to

the modeler because of the various preferences for ways to mount

plus the fact that it also depends on the brand of truck to be

used on the model. The ﬂoor part shows as follows.

10 CONTENTS

Figure 0.4: Box Car Floor Part

Note the channel built into the center of the ﬂoor accom-

modates the center beam where this design allows for the slack

0.3. ASSEMBLING 11

action or draft gear simulation and a coupler pocket that hosts

the telescoping of the coupler when coupled with shorter or

longer cars. The center beam parts are shown below.

12 CONTENTS

Figure 0.5: Center Beam Part

The ﬁrst assembly step is to join the 2 ﬂoor parts. Notice the

ends of the ﬂoor have a slot. Like a furniture maker, a biscuit

0.3. ASSEMBLING 13

piece is use to strengthen the joint. Fit the biscuit to the slots

before applying glue to make sure the ends butt ﬁrmly together.

Next place the ﬂoors on some parchment paper ﬂat on the bench,

apply glue to the slot and the biscuit and cement them together.

Be careful handling the ﬂoor parts as the under ﬂoor detail

maybe somewhat easy to break if handled to rough. Once

the body is assembled the under ﬂoor detail has a little more

protection.

Now is the time to start thinking about the trucks and sizing

it up for coupler height. For demo purposes I have a set of 100

ton trucks in the photos because I did not have a set of 70 ton.

These highly detailed trucks probably came from Korea. A set

of Atlas 70 ton trucks will likely run and look just as good.

The center beams have a cut out to allow the bolster screw or

pin to freely pass and is elongated for the draft action. Coupler

pockets are not drilled or tapped. We leave that up to the

modeler because it may depend on the choice of coupler that is

desired. The center beam ﬁt to the ﬂoor is a very close tolerance

and thus before assembling the 2 ﬂoor parts, gentle sanding and

polishing the surfaces may be required for a smooth movement.

After making sure the center beam action is nice and smooth,

set them aside for installation later on. The sprung action of

the center beam only needs to be very minimal. The car body,

in particular the car ends must be assembled ﬁrst so when you

start to see your clearances around the coupler pocket draw area

of the car.

If you know ahead of time what the desired mount for the

trucks will be, the bolster may need to be drilled and tapped.

Doing so will cause some ﬂash that may hang the action of the

14 CONTENTS

center beam. Make sure the under side of the bolster and the

ﬂoor is clean.

The most diﬃcult part of this model will be to analyze the

relationship between the center beam, the ﬂoor bolster and

perhaps the car ends with the desired pair of trucks to determine

exactly where the height of the coupler will fall. In the design of

this kit, it is impossible to know the exact truck a modeler will

put under this car. Therefore, we tried to take some measure to

accommodate and make this easier for the beginner craftsman.

The ﬂoor bolster is printed deliberately slightly high on the

assumption that it is easier to remove material than to add or

use washers. If one were to use the Atlas 70 or 100 ton truck,

the design of the Atlas bolster will put the coupler high because

the car body would ride way high. It is unlikely one would

want to try to modify the Atlas truck. If a truck that has a ﬂat

bolster is to be mounted, that may be very close to the desired

coupler height. The high end brass trucks out of Asia would

have the more prototypical bolster proﬁle as perhaps the old

plastic Weaver trucks had with the ﬂat bolster.

In an eﬀort to make this part of the assembly easier, we

have included additional center beams with oﬀset proﬁles at the

coupler pocket. The standard 1 piece beam has no oﬀset on

the pocket. The 2nd beam has the pocket oﬀset to lower the

coupler position. The 3rd beam does not have a coupler pocket

but goes with a separate pocket with a tongue for gluing into

the beam which gives a proﬁle that falls in between the other 2

type of beams. For photos, see the appendix at the end of this

document with 2 types of trucks for reference purposes only.

0.3. ASSEMBLING 15

Figure 0.6: Floor Glued up with center beam

Note the space between the ends of the center beams in the

center of the ﬂoor channel. This is where the springs will be

16 CONTENTS

installed for the draft gear action.

Figure 0.7: Floor resting on the trucks

0.3. ASSEMBLING 17

Figure 0.8: Center Beam Part

The next step is to build the car sides. The blank or back

panel car side serves 2 purposes. It joins the car sides and is the

18 CONTENTS

back piece for the car doors. It also has several mount points

for the bottom car door rail. And, when the side is glued to the

ﬂoor, it serves to guide its positioning. On this particular model,

the design is such that the doors do not open. However, that is

not to say that you could innovate and make them open or put

them in an open position. By default the sides, back panel and

door are glued up as one piece.

0.3. ASSEMBLING 19

Figure 0.9: Back Panel for car doors and joining car sides

The back panel proﬁle for the door in FreeCAD follows:

20 CONTENTS

Figure 0.10: Back Panel Proﬁle

The angular side view of the back panel illustrates the slot

on one side that takes the right car side and is a glued joint.

0.3. ASSEMBLING 21

Figure 0.11: Back Panel Slot for joining car sides

The doors do not have to be mounted at this time. Using

parchment paper once again the sides can be glued up on a ﬂat

22 CONTENTS

surface and set aside for further assembly later.

Next, while this is optional, 2 pieces of steel nailed ﬂooring

can be laminated on the top side bed of the car ﬂoor. Shown

in the next photo is the the part glued over the middle of the

ﬂoor joint. When we get to the construction of the roof, one has

the option of gluing the roof down solid or leaving it set in place

for access to the inside of the car if some load detail would be

desirable or access the nut of the bolster screw if use to mount

the trucks. The space for a nut is recessed in the ﬂoor whereby a

nut can be placed and ﬂooring laminated over to lock it in place.

Be sure to use the proper length screw in not of lift the ﬂooring.

0.3. ASSEMBLING 23

Figure 0.12: Car Flooring

Now we have a look at the ends of the car.

24 CONTENTS

Figure 0.13: Car Ends front and back

The inside of the car ends will have a slot that is located

under the brim and support plastic from the printer build plate

0.3. ASSEMBLING 25

once removed. This slot is for ﬁtting the ﬂoor into the car end

part.

Figure 0.14: Front View of Car Ends

26 CONTENTS

Figure 0.15: Front View of Car End Proﬁle

0.3. ASSEMBLING 27

Figure 0.16: Side Angle Front View of Car End Slot Location

for ﬂoor

28 CONTENTS

Figure 0.17: Back side View of Car End Slot Location Proﬁle

Before doing any further assembly work, consider ﬁnalizing

your decision on the trucks and how you want to mount them. It

0.3. ASSEMBLING 29

is much easier to do the drilling and tapping now before the ends

and sides are glued into place. Along with this kit is some scrape

PLA plastic that you can use to make test drill holes and how

to get the feel for making the holes and tapping. You can also

test your glues such as CA or or Duco cement for plastic models

before starting assembly. We recommend a very sharp drill bit

and when drilling go easy so as to not heat the bit causing the

PLA to gum up the bit. If it gums up you may not get the clean

hole or the exact size you would expect if the PLA melts.

At this point, we would also recommend to the beginning

modeler to think about priming and painting the car. Masking

oﬀ the center of the underside of the ﬂoor where the center beam

movement takes place is to prevent any sticky action it may

cause on the draft gear action. In particular you would not want

to prime any parts that still need to be glued if you expect to

have a good bond on the joints.

Now is also the time to start experimenting with the spring

in the center of the car for the center beam action. The distance

the center beam moves only needs to be slight and the spring

tension does not necessary need to be to soft or to hard. We

intentionally make this part a little challenging for the modeler.

The overall combined travel distance of the center beam must be

taken into consideration. Long heavy trains would necessarily

see the slight movement and cushion that the springs provide.

And remember as well you may have some spring in the coupler

pocket unless you do like some modelers that glue the couple

in the pocket to prevent any telescoping. Telescoping may be

desired on tight curves but no matter to much on wide radius

track.

30 CONTENTS

The ﬁrst approach to assembling the car body is to mount

the car ends to the ﬂoor. It is important at this step to make it

square meaning a 90 degree while letting the glue set. I typically

use a small plastic vice for a gentle clamp to hold parts in place

while the glue dries.

0.3. ASSEMBLING 31

Figure 0.18: Vice used to attach the car side to the car ﬂoor

32 CONTENTS

Figure 0.19: Vice used to attach the car side to the car ﬂoor

In the above photos, it is not necessary to have the car doors

glued in place. What this photo illustrates after both car ends

0.3. ASSEMBLING 33

have been assembled is placing the car side to the car ﬂoor and

only putting a bead of glue at the center of car side on the

bottom edge of the door back panel. Gluing all the way across

can be done in steps, ﬁrst left then right followed by gluing the

car sides to the car ends.

To get things square when you attach the end to the ﬂoor, I

usually clamp the car end in the vice with parchment paper so

as to not get glue on the vice and the ﬂoor lays ﬂat on top of the

vice using a small weigh to hold it in place until the glue dries.

Next, I will show you one caveat to be careful when ﬁtting

the car sides in the above step that if not done accurately will

impact the way the roof support ﬁts to the top of the car body.

The following photo shows the problem.

34 CONTENTS

Figure 0.20: Car Side to high, roof platform warped upward

The inner roof support is riding high because the car side

was glued to high to the car end. The inner roof needs to lay

0.3. ASSEMBLING 35

ﬂat on the top edge of the car side. In the next photo you can

see that the right side is ﬂush and the left side is high.

36 CONTENTS

Figure 0.21: Top of rooﬁng panel should be ﬂush to top edge of

the car end

When this is the case and you go to glue down or laminate

the roof caps aka ends, they will not lay perfectly ﬂat causing a

0.3. ASSEMBLING 37

gap when you look at the car from the end. This is a common

mistake perhaps in clamping so check to make sure the corners

on where the car sides meet the ends are adjusted correctly. You

can also do a quick visual check by looking at the under side of

the car at the bolster depth in relation to the car side. The skirt

of the car side should hide the bolster end by about 2mm.

38 CONTENTS

Figure 0.22: Under side of roof panels

0.3. ASSEMBLING 39

Figure 0.23: Under side of roof panels

The underside of the roof panels are structured such that

when they are ﬂipped over and laid onto the to top side of the

40 CONTENTS

car, the hold the car square so when you pick it up the sides

do not buckle inward. In addition since PLA sometimes has a

tendency to warp slightly, the cross members printing into the

roof should maintain a ﬂat proﬁle.

0.3. ASSEMBLING 41

Figure 0.24: Panels laid on top of car ﬂat

42 CONTENTS

Figure 0.25: Inner roof proﬁle ready for laminating the sheet

metal rooﬁng segments

As can be observed, there is a slight gap at the center once

0.3. ASSEMBLING 43

the roof panels are laid on top of the car to check out how they ﬁt

before gluing them together. Using a piece of parchment paper,

turn the roof panels over onto the paper to a ﬂat surface and

glue the plastic piece on top to hold them together as illustrated

in the following photos.

44 CONTENTS

Figure 0.26: Making the 2 roof panels into one piece

0.3. ASSEMBLING 45

Figure 0.27: Making the 2 roof panels into one piece

46 CONTENTS

Figure 0.28: Making the 2 roof panels into one piece

The ﬁnal step in preparing the roof is to layout the detailed

”x” pieces of which there are 9 not including the 2 ends. Once

0.3. ASSEMBLING 47

again use parchment paper to glue them edge to edge. Before

gluing, some sanding smooth the edges is required so that you

will have a good joint without gaps. You can sand rough spots

at your own discretion.

48 CONTENTS

Figure 0.29: Roof detail parts

0.3. ASSEMBLING 49

Figure 0.30: Glue up roof detail parts edge to edge

50 CONTENTS

Figure 0.31: Glue up roof detail parts edge to edge

If you so choose to use the ﬂat roof end caps as pictured in

Figure 0.38 you will need to trim the underside so it sits ﬂat

0.3. ASSEMBLING 51

when you go to glue this to the inside roof panels.

Figure 0.32: Trim bottom vertical printer support

52 CONTENTS

Figure 0.33: Trim gently with a cutting disk

0.3. ASSEMBLING 53

Figure 0.34: Make underside smooth before gluing

Now you should be ready to glue the detailed roof piece onto

the ﬂat 1 piece inner support panel as a lamination. Fit the

54 CONTENTS

roof support from ﬁgure 0.28 into the top of the box car but do

not glue in place. It should ﬁt like a glove. Next, place the roof

detail on top and make sure it centers and can be square at the

corners. Once the roof details are glued to the main roof support

you have 1 piece. Pictures can best show before and after.

0.3. ASSEMBLING 55

Figure 0.35: Roof Assembly

56 CONTENTS

Figure 0.36: Roof Assembly

0.3. ASSEMBLING 57

Figure 0.37: Roof Assembly

58 CONTENTS

Figure 0.38: Roof Assembly

0.3. ASSEMBLING 59

Figure 0.39: Roof Assembly

60 CONTENTS

Figure 0.40: Roof Assembly

At this stage you may choose to glue the roof assembly to

the car body or leave it for open access to the inside of the car.

0.3. ASSEMBLING 61

Before doing any of the ﬁnal assembly of the smaller detail

parts to the car body, it will be appropriate to now do the

assembly of the center beam to the center sill on the under side

of the ﬂoor.The spring spacers supplied may or may not have to

be used. It all depends on the type of spring one chooses to use.

A single spring like that out of a ink pen may give you the right

compression tension however this is one of those preferences a

modeler has to determine on their own. I like to use the spacers

and make or cut my own shorter springs just because I feel like

that gives me more control over the action of this mechanism.

Using 2 short springs with the spacers allows for independent

movement of each half of the center beams. Do not be afraid

to experiment with diﬀerent springs. Once the decision is made

regarding the springs you can ﬁnish the assembly of the center

beam. On the original Walthers car the spacers were used so

that each center beam compressed independent of one another.

The slots for the bolster pin or screw are design to accommodate

the movement of the beam in the sill. The modeler may also to

choose not to use springs at all and simply glue the center beam

in permanently.

From this point on it is a matter of putting on the details of

the car. Gluing the doors, the door rails, ladders, etc to ﬁnish

out the model.

62 CONTENTS

Figure 0.41: Detail Parts

0.3. ASSEMBLING 63

Figure 0.42: Door Rail Detail Parts

64 CONTENTS

Figure 0.43: Door Rail Detail Parts

Notice an example of the brim on the top rail part that needs

to be carefully removed.

0.3. ASSEMBLING 65

Figure 0.44: Details

66 CONTENTS

Figure 0.45: Paint and Decal

Most of the photo in this guide are very close up shots of

the model parts and as a result one can see the lines, threads

0.3. ASSEMBLING 67

and artifacts as they are when coming oﬀ the printer. The next

photos contrast the change in the model surface and texture

when starting to lay down the paint. A good heavy coat of

primer or several lite coats will ﬁll in the tiny line work and help

show you where some additional clean up work might need to be

done. Thus, one car side that has been primed against one that

has no paint I think illustrates how the paint starts to smooth

the car sides out. The car sides are printed ﬂat on the build

plate instead of on edge vertically. In that the sides are fairly

thin we had better success and fewer defective prints by doing

them ﬂat. If we perhaps went with a thicker width on the car

sides and we printed vertically, on would see a very smooth side.

68 CONTENTS

Figure 0.46: Top Car Side Primed in Flat Gray, Bottom Side

Unpainted

0.3. ASSEMBLING 69

Figure 0.47: Top Car Side Primed in Flat Gray, Bottom Side

Unpainted

70 CONTENTS

Figure 0.48: Top Car Side Primed in Flat Gray, Bottom Side

Unpainted

0.3. ASSEMBLING 71

Figure 0.49: Primed looking at it from a diﬀerent angle

72 CONTENTS

0.4 Appendix

Figure 0.50: Sample High End Brass 100 Ton Truck

0.4. APPENDIX 73

Figure 0.51: Sample High End Brass 100 Ton Truck

74 CONTENTS

Figure 0.52: Atlas Truck Bolster Proﬁle

0.4. APPENDIX 75

Figure 0.53: Brass Truck with Atlas side-by-side comparison

76 CONTENTS

Figure 0.54: Center Coupler Pocket Proﬁles on the Center Beam

0.4. APPENDIX 77

Figure 0.55: Additional photo proﬁles