Scrounging For Material

 Before I relocated to Ohio from southern Maryland, I was in a quandary when it came to getting parts for projects. 

Sure, way down near Patuxent NAS there were craft stores, but that was a long trip that I really didn't like to make. There was always ordering material, but that seemed silly to me unless I was truly desperate. I don't like to wait. 

Some parts you have no choice but to order, especially for model trains. 

For everything else, though, it just seemed mighty inconvenient that usable material wasn't availabe.

So in 2022 I decided to try using "alternative" materials for my O27 projects.

I scratchbuilt a small flatcar as a test. The base of the body is Readi-Board foam sheet, 3/16" thick. The sides were small strips of basswood scrap. For the post pockets along the side I used thin aluminum cut from a soda can and pressed into shape using a jig with thin bar stock from the local Ace Hardware. The truss rods were made from florist wire, with their "king post" from cut popsicle stick. 

The deck was from a piece of hardboard from a packing crate, left unpainted with planks drawn on. The "rivets" on the ends were small pin heads. Finally, the brake wheel was a small clothing snap mounted on another piece of florist wire. Craft acrylic paint was used.

The arch bar trucks were Lionel. I never got to the point where couplers were added.

It certainly looks the part.

 

When I was a child I was pretty poor. If anything was bought new it most certainly came from a five & dime or other discount stores and usually of poor quality. I learned early to make-do, to scrounge.

Which brings us to the present day.

On the heels of my StromBecker refrigerator car I am already prepping my next project.

A clone of the same refrigerator car.

But, I am making it with "scrounged" material. For instance, the sides are laminated to cardboard recovered from cereal boxes, which in my experience is fairly long lived. I used the recently discovered E6000 non-toxic latex based spray adhesive to mount the print out. The rest I need to decide on as I work on this.

And of course I will share this here.