at Sewell, WV. I will be using his instructions to build my Larry
cars. Here is how he built his:
I got my information from using photos from "Sewell onsite
pictures," “West Virginia Narrow Gauge, The Mann’s Creek
Railway,” and folks from Sewell.
These larry cars are also called "charge wagons" by the folks in
Sewell who worked them. They ran on old street car rail. They
had DC electric motors, (one car in each pair was powered and
one wasn't) and traveled in pairs tethered together. A simple
trolley system ran along the back of the charging area for power.
Page 78 of Ron Lane's book shows a great drawing of the end
view, which I used to make a scale drawing. In Sewell, I actually
measured a larry car which is flipped over on the very end
of the coke ovens. On Page 79 is a Rich Cool photo showing
a great profile of front and angled slope sheet ends. It also
shows wheel size, type, I-beam frame, chute, and the chain
linked loading lever.
The box dimensions are 6'9" wide, 10' long, and 7'6" tall
overall. Wheels ride on 42" wide track (I built mine for N scale
track width). The spout is 12"x18" and feeds into the chute
which it is hinged on. I used .020 Evergreen sheet styrene cut
and scored to bend angles. The wheels are from Durango Press
speeder kits.
Here is a rough description of how I built mine: Trial and error!
I made paper drawings of the ends, front and back, then I
made cardstock templates to bend angles and capture the
look from photos. Dry run fit and taped together, made
modifications, then transferred onto pieces of .020 Evergreen
The Lite and Narrow Column - 10
12: Tom Maule's two finished larry cars prior to painting,
showing the location of the details for the cars as listed
in the article. Tom Maule photo.
12
MRH-Dec 2013
