it was recently pointed out to me that
I've been slacking on doing model railroad projects recently and as I
scroll back yeah I have it's been a couple of months it's time to rectify
that I'm gonna do one of these tank car kits today these are as you can see
eight thousand gallon riveted style tank cars from proto 2000 these things have
been out of production for quite some time they were on sale and I got them a
couple of decades ago for 10 bucks apiece actually I probably got the four
of them for a little bit better price than that – these ones are SHPX which
at the time was called shippers car line incorporation the SHPX numbers er umm
lettering still exists but the name has changed in recent decades so let's crack
one of these out of the bulk pack and figure out which one I guess it doesn't
matter which one of them so these kits actually prefer 2000 freight cars in
general were sort of made in the 90s early 2000s this was from the life-like
company which sold the their business their model railroading business to
Walthers in 2005 I think so these aren't available anymore
and Walters seems to have not carried on this particular car model or at least
looking at their webpages they're all out of stock and out of production so
where's the there we go there's everything out of a box so we got some
weights we've got the car body itself that's not
a fairly sharp pad printing getting close enough to read that yeah so built
date of that November 1928 which means that this car in the 1970s when my
railroad is supposedly set is going to be actually beyond the end of its life
in reality I'm going to pretend that there's still a few of them running
around the world but because I've actually got a few of these riveted tank
cars just because I like the look of him and it's my railroad I get to make the
rules and these proto 2000 cars they were life like previous to the product
of 2,000 wine showing up in the mid-90s waif-like was known for making cheap
Train Set kind of stuff they really brought their game up when they put out
the product 8000 series the details are just really impressive on them they go
together well they run like proper models not like toys first introduced in
1921 the type 21 cars remained in use through the 1950s and 60s beginning in
the 1930s the brake systems are updated to the new safer EB brake standard which
is what these are let's see what else is in the kit I know I'm bouncing around
here I've done one of these for a while and I'm just I'm just actually kind of
having fun with it so there's the carb body weights the reason we want to add
weight is to make these track better make a car track better these are very
lightweight car some grab irons and some ladders and it looks like a little hatch
here this is the a lot of the brake rigging nice that is the grab iron that runs around
the outside of there the grab rail I should say as a single molding Wow in
the bottom of the car ah that's what that piece was that's the hatch that
goes in the bottom a clean old hatch and then the they Center being an under
frame of the car has even those coupler setting Springs and they've printed the
car number on the under frame is that that is the brake pipe and more under
frame detail and even more grabs the brake wheel coupler pocket covers
stirrup steps there is the dome with printing on it craziness the brake tank
also with printing on it that'll be the pressure information that's just nuts
the level of detail that they put on there wow that's some excellent pad
printing I am assuming this pad printing maybe screen printing and then we've got
the wheels and trucks and couplers for tools I'll be using a fresh exacto blade
and we'll be using a razor blade probably we're using a pair of flush
cutters that actually meet flush at the end as opposed to these cheap ones here
that aren't meeting flush for cutting stuff off the sprues I may also be using
the set of nail clippers to cut stuff off the sprues to getting close and I'll
be using a variety of tweezers probably a minimum that set and one of these
reverse acting sets just to grab onto stuff and the glue to viewer is testers
plastic cement so the first thing the instructions say is to glue the dome
caps to the dome and basically put everything on top of the dome
just picking the part numbers off the screw and going for it so there's are
the pieces that go in the domes from dome caps some curve grabs to go on top
of there get this cover number 27 off here so it's usually better to make multiple
light passes than one really heavy pass to get these off partly so you don't
stick yourself in the finger with your knife but part we see you don't distort
the part that looks like there's some flashing on the back of that but I don't
think it matters now then there's a grab iron that goes onto that and because
these things are so tiny they give you too since those holes go right through they
could actually put a drop of glue on from the back and that should wick into
the hole the other thing that does this puts a bit of glue on there so that
hopefully I can drop it in oh now then one thing to watch out for
is the shade the hinge or the latch I think I'll put that on there it's not
sitting like that I'll just flip it over put a little touch of glue on from the
backside let that set up for a second so I'm gonna use a slightly different
method to break these case loose just saw on that side to give them loosen up
and on this side just using the razor blade that's turning out that these
holes are a little bit tight so I'm just gonna open them up with a tiny little
drill bit in my pin vise long as they don't get too carried away I shouldn't
have any problem the the glue the solvent will fill in some of the gaps
anyway but hopefully that should be enough to make them fit better okay so there's one and again I just hit
it with a little bit of the solving boof on the inside and it whipped up into the
hole so these aren't what I would call shake the box beginner kit I've done a
couple of those in the past a flatcar I think was one of them and those but this
is a pretty good sort of next step up kind of kit if you can find them and I
did a little bit of looking around and these ones are still available on eBay
if you look around there's so many things so the next step is attach the
weights and secure them in into the top and bottom half and put some more grab
irons on and well it's 32 running boards yeah so yeah and then set it aside again
these are really good instructions very complete even gives you instructions on
on cutting stuff apart run a screw through the meanings of the
piece don't have to over tighten them just
enough so that they won't rattle around you don't wanna strip the screw out
there that adds some significant weight and that will help it track nice and
straight once it's on the rails so these notches here there and there line up
with those ribs inside you've got it the other way won't quite line up and it
tells me to apply some glue to the inside and then snap it in place so now
that our dry fit it I shall do just that not to get any glue on the outside that would be unsightly if I do get any on
the outside don't get your fingers in it is the the solvent will evaporate clean
but if you leave a fingerprint in it in the softened plastic you're hosed
okay so seam as with the grab irons on the dome I've used this drill to open up
all the holes just ever so slightly and now I'll just put these guys on now
these ones I can't get at from the inside so I need to have to just gently
just a little touch of cement on there that's way more than I should have put
on but it evaporates fairly cleanly I'll just proceed to put the rest of these
bits on so with these tiny grabs it's inevitable
you're gonna break one fortunately they give you two extras
unfortunately I don't come Z so this is one of the broken ones that's the least
broken so I'll tack one end on there and then I'll take one of the broken pieces
there's one of the broken pieces and I'll put it in the other hole and
hopefully I can join it up it's not perfect but I think it'll do so the next sub if it's my phase three
needs to put some of the brake gear the triple valve that guy there the under
frame no not that one that's not the under frame there's the under frame so
the triple valve goes on the train line which is what I called the brake pipe
earlier it's more grab irons of different two different kinds and the
outlet valve of the brake system that guy there and there's a saddle where is
the saddle 25 okay okay that part that I called the the bottom hat cover is
actually what they're calling the saddle which I guess is just where the tank
sits down on to the the under frame as I'm going I'm just cleaning off a little
bit to flash a little bit to screw off the ends of the pieces as I'm cutting
them out doing here 0-9 of the brake go for the triple valve me and what I'm
finding is working best on this kit it's just using a gentle sawing motion with
the with the razor blade not as critical for the larger parts but
on the smaller parts like the grab iron it's proved to be very important okay
this is going to be a real bugger to get off number 14 the train line this is the
air pipe that basically runs the entire length of the Train at one end the air
comes in from the direction of the locomotive the other end it goes out to
the next car and along the way it connects up just to the brake brake
plumbing within the car then cutting this a little bit roughly here not not
rough as in heavy-handed because I know that's going to end in tears but rough
is you know a little bit wide you can see that there's some little bits left
on it I'll scrape those off once I've got this freed up from its sprues it is relatively flexible but it's also
quit fragile I think I think I already mentioned that well this isn't a
beginner kit it's definitely doable for somebody who's doesn't have a lot of
experience with making kits especially in finding a good deal on one on ebay but these really up the level of quality
on your railroad if you can muster the patience to build them again they're not
going to be the quality of a craftsman kit or expensive brass kit but Wow do I
need to go to this level not really but I'm just wanting to challenge myself to
see just how decent a job that I can do I'm often of the three foot rule opinion
that if you can't see something from three feet away then it doesn't matter sometimes you like to challenge yourself challenge with doing this is getting it
cleaned up without destroying it there is the outlet valve number 34 it's
a relatively robust piece and the retainer valve number 33 holy
crap that's a tiny guy there's the break retainer Ville will focus on this that
will go into a whore these holes in the back of the brake valve here looks
pretty much like it then I'll just glue it down okay I think I'm gonna wait for
the triple valve to get a little bit more firm in place so I'm gonna poke
that into one of the holes in the back of it so there's tree lines being tricky I had
to trim the ends a little bit and then I got that one tacked down there that
little bracket and I tacked down there tacked down in the back of the triple
valve and I'm just going to wait for those to dry before I tack this little
saddle down and here and at the end okay I've got all the all the different spots
of that glued down and just let it dry for a little while here that's one thing
about a kit with this level of detail on it you spent an awful lot of time
waiting for glue to dry until you move on to the next step but
just fine I mean time spent doing a hobby is time well spent in my opinion
next is adding these grab irons on the ends and it wasn't sides as well and
just for the fun of it I'm trying these little micro brushes
with the glue just to see if that they're still pretty big for getting
into tiny little details like that but we'll see how it goes might actually
have to come up with something even finer maybe a paintbrush or something
the trick with getting these ones into place is that they're in the middle of a
channel those were really hard to get the tweezers in there I think I've got
that one in then you notice that I've moved to my helping hands to hold on to
it so I've got both hands to mess with it their last one in place okay so the next
step is the coupler cut leavers these two those are the levers that the train
crew when they're disconnecting the car is flips to open the coupler there's two
different ones this one with the bend in it goes on the B into the car which is
the end with the brake wheel and the band is to go around that little cutout
for the brake wheel which is that right there halfway there there you go that
goes right in there perfect so that when we leavin fairly neatly I
know let's see if it'll stay there yes I think it well then the last thing
to go in is this beast which they call saddle and I've already attached this
other chunk on Hall was waiting for outlet that wolf okay already attached
that on while I was waiting for other stuff to dry so that just kind of sets
in there until groove and I think yeah I can get at it from underneath the glue
it so I'm gonna swap lots on and not have to worry about if I've made a mess
or not make it nice and secure so that is oh no wait I've got the retainer
valve where is it there it is back there okay one last
thing to go on it needs to go right in this little hole there there is phase
three details on the top of the under frame completed so now we flip him over
and do the details on the bottom side quite a bunch of pieces that we're gonna
eat here okay well what do we need here air reservoir check under frame under
frame that's that part insert the installed couplers so I'll need a
coupler pocket a lids which are there and the couplers which are over here screw them on do not overtighten through
the brake lever that's this whole assembly on here which
has the all these levers that connect to the the actual brakes and that is a
cylinder that pulls them that goes into the valve and the placard boards and
some stirrup steps Oh at least those aren't quite as tiny as the grab irons
okay back to cutting so the air tank goes
into that little hole just above the triple valve kinda like that with the
lettering facing out of course no which way does that go sometimes you got to be
a little bit ambidextrous to clamp this stuff down until the glue firms up okay
now that that piece is on there I can get busy with the brake lever detail and
I've already got the the brake piping the air pipe connected to the tail end
of the brake cylinder that drops in like that and then all those bits just go
into there at all holes it's gonna take a little bit of finagling and then glue
that down so the next bit is to put the placards on and they go on from the
bottom when they're properly oriented they look like that but they go on this
way into these oweth or notches down here now how the hell am I supposed to hold
that in there well the glue dries now let's just put a
drop of glue in there let it soften for a second you have that placard by the
very very tip and just hold it for a second okay I
think that looks fairly straight pull that out and take a look here yeah
that'll work and wet/dry and because I wasn't paying
attention I skipped another step so now I have to come back and do it
I was supposed to put on the trucks around the couplers before I put the
placards on so I'll just gently balance that up on
top of there and put these couplers on it also comes with these horn hooks but
yuck don't use those if you can avoid it the key D compatible knuckle couplers
are so much nicer so spring just sets down into their knuckle sets down into they're a couple
of bucks a lid sits down onto there and the screw goes in but as it says the instructions do not
overtighten what you want is the cover retained and this able to flex back and
forth on it spring next step stirrup steps step knee step step step which are
these guys and they go on there and there's the fourth syrup step how
come that one's kind of wonky I think it's the for stirrup steps in there and
let dry phase five mean assembly glue the cradles to the cradle straps there's
a little notch on the back of them to make them fit together then it gets
intense dry fit the tank onto the under frame and make sure that everything
lines up and then put it all together then put the trucks on okay okay so
these pieces just slot together sorry just like that oh those dry and you know
okay no it says dry fit the tank to the under frame which is pretty
straightforward proper alignment yeah everything seems to sit good down there these guys sit into these slots down
here the tank sits on top of them and then there's a little pin in these that
goes into the side of the tank crap I didn't wait long enough okay I've got those four pieces what it was
called cradle assemblies in there and they have dried now lower this down into
place nothing's glued in place yet and those two cradles just fell out I'm
doing this pinning these into there you saw those two straps are pinned in place
on this side do you just touch that little bit of glue there and there and
you won't be able to see this I don't think I'll just get the bottom of these
two saddles down here that should hold that all in place I'm gonna let this
side just firm up a little bit before I put them back on I'll spin it around
I'll see if I can sneak them in there I should be able to oh boy
and this isn't exactly how it described that it should go together but that's
okay next step is to screw the trucks on okay and I guess that will crank that
down so that's that's good and as before it said do not over tighten the screws I guess just enough to hold the hold the
trucks in place you want a little bit of wobble in them to deal with uneven track
surfaces but you don't want so much that it falls over and you want them to be
spin easily like that there we go saddles are on please yeah that's good
see them that's on wheels now don't need the Box anymore all right we're up to
final assembly first glue the inner straps these two there there and there
and there which is there and there and the same on the other side basic with
completing these straps that are molded on and tying it down to the frame then
glue the letters to the tank in the inner frame brake wheel shaft and the
brake wheel but the dome on tank hand wheel tank handrail okay and the brake
wheel assembly so these seem to go there yeah that's exactly what they do you
know from here down to there except for I'm saying you have to open those walls
up one down three more to go
and now the ladders this one's gonna be a little bit tricky because it's a
little bit bent it was bent like that in the package but I think it plugs into
holes in the run on the gangway they're here or the site frame I guess that
really is I'll just spin those holes open and get these ladders on that
actually wasn't too bad okay the ladders are on what's next
the brake wheel gate just clean up the corners of this wheel a little bit here I've been doing this on a lot of the
parts I just haven't been boring you with it assume that there's a little bit
of flash cleanup on everything not too much this gets pretty good for that but
there's always going to be a little bit especially when you're if you're cutting
wide or something is that gonna go on here we go we toured a drop of that onto there and
as the instruction sea let dry yeah well that's happening what do we do we glue
the dome to the tank so the way the draw there's a notch and the notch that it
meets with is there that's just idiot proof that just pops in just like that
excellent and I can put some glue on the inside of there so we'll never see it
that's great – hmm okay back into a spot we put in place
tada okay there's the handrail it goes right
around like that and it plugs in to bunch of holes which
I don't have to drill out oh that's good not sure exactly what's the best way to
accomplish this maybe I should do the two ends first then again fiddling ICC's okay I've got
all those handrails fiddled into place I'm gonna try something different for
the glue again know what I'm almost done these things are tiny just using a
paintbrush teeny little bits glue in there this is a 5/0 super fine
paintbrush I think I got at the one of my local dollar stores there's a pretty
good art supply section okay oh the brake wheel of course the brake
wheel goes great is there should drilled him out sooner a lot sooner is that him please I think so I think
that is the last step yes that's his completed mortal I've run out of parts
except for the few extras that I didn't use didn't need because that he's the
nice thing about these kids they do have some extras if you happen to break one
else grab irons irrevocably like that one there I'll just let this guy dry and
let's see how it looks up on the railroad and there it is with the rest
of my tanker fleet I think it fits in pretty well with with some of them it is
a little bit old for my era as I mentioned but it's not not going to
bother me too much oh no I think that guy looks pretty darn good
obviously it's far too shiny for the error that I'm modeling and it probably
wouldn't have survived anyway but that's beside the point I'm gonna run it anyway
it's gonna need some weathering but I think this video is going along enough
so I'll uh I'll do that weathering some other time you may see it you may not
I'm not sure yet actually let me know down in the comments do you want to you
want to see a weathering video on this car anyway thank you very much for
watching as always I really do appreciate it if you've got any comments
jump down in the comment section and we'll do that down there thanks for
watching and I will talk to you later
