Kling Hot metal

An experimental Kling double pot hot metal car has been put into service at The D&D Steel Works. First couple test has seen good result. There will be more done before the car goes into production.

Hot Metal Cars Part 1

Well, I have been in the mood to do a little modeling. Must be the weather. I been want to model different types of hot metal cars but only use ST&D and Walthers cars. Past couple days I have sat down and started them here are the results so far. Sadly I ran out of parts to do other types of cars I had planned. 

Pic #1 shows 5 hot metal cars. The 2 outside cars are stock Walthers and ST&D cars. the 3 inside cars are customs.

Pic #2 is a comparison picture of Walthers cars. One I removed the spot to the Walthers car and replaced it with a spot from ST&D The other is a stock Walthers car with no modifications.  This was a very easily done. I started by cutting the spot completely off the Walthers car. Once it was off it took just a little sanding to get the ST&D spot to slide in then I sand the top smooth and glut the heat shield over the Walthers car using the ST&D spot to line everything up. Pic #3 show the car with the spot redone. 

Pic #4 car I took the barrel from ST&D and used the ends platforms from a Walthers kit.

Pic #5 car I did was take the barrel ends of a Walthers car and put them in the center section of the barrel of an ST&D car. I also use ST&D platform ends on this car also.

Pic #6 shows a stock ST&D car in the back and the 2 custom cars I build in the front.

Next is to finish the rails and other detail parts and paint and weather.

Adding Weight to ST&D cars.

If you have been modeling steel mills in HO scale, more than likely you have run across a few ST&D cars. Most of these do not include car weights, but that is a small problem. One could buy aftermarket weights and there is even a company that makes weights for the ST&D cars. For me, I go the cheap way out. I bought a bottle of Daisy BB's 2400 count and a bottle of Elmer's Multi-Purpose Glue. Total coming around $7.50

I put a thin layer of glue inside the car and then pour the BB's in the car a few at a time so they can be arranged so one can get a couple layers of BB's in the car. Once I get the first layer down I add another small amount of glue on top of these and then put another layer. I will let it dry for a few hours than with the cars still laying on its top. I will later glue the bottom of the car to hide the BB's. If you decide not to use the bottom to hide the BB's let the car lay on its top overnight to allow the glue time to dry. 

With this package of BB's, I have done 5 ST&D Universal Mill cars and 1 Walther's Hot metal car that I forgot to put the weight in while I was building it. Less then half of the BB's have been used.