Batch-building freight cars 101part 2- 2
26-27: All of the parts for our stock car build are
sorted into boxes. Kit boxesworkwell for this. The
photoon the right shows the sort for a build of 12
refrigerator cars – notice that the car endswith the
reportingmarks and car numbers are kept with the
corresponding car body.
Originally, I built abatchof 12PFE reefer carswith the inten-
tionof using thephotos from that build for this article.
Unfortunately, I got sowrappedup inbuilding the cars that I
didn’t takeenoughphotos. This timewith the stock car build,
I wasmore careful and tookmorepictures. I alsotimedeach
step. I did this to show that buildingdetailed cars doesn’t
take as long as youmight think. Everyonehas different skills,
so I’mnot surehow applicable thetime informationwill be,
other than to showwhere thetime goeswhenbuilding this
typeof kit.
Identify subassemblies, couplers, and trucks
Thereare threemainassemblies for thisbuild: underbody, car
bodyand roof. Since I havealreadybuiltmanyof these cars,
therewasnoneed toassemblea car or subassemblybefore
startingon thebatch. I decided touse the trucks andwheels
suppliedwith thekits, asP2K trucks andwheelsets aregreat.
For couplers, I usedKadee#58s (my standard). Thereare78
individual parts ineachkit (total for four kits is 312parts).
Sort and unpack:
I beganby sorting theparts into threegroups and then into
smaller subsets (26). All thegroupedpartswent intoboxes.
This step took sixminutes to complete.
Cut out and assemble:
Phase one assembly – underbodies
Thispart of the constructionwas straightforward. Theunder-
bodyparts (28) included: Thebody, brake rigging, underbody
frame, and the coupler boxes. Thebrake linepartson the
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MRH-Apr2014
