Planning & Building the Portable Substation (PSS) Model Part 1

Unfortunately no photos were taken as the model was built.  A few photos were take as the model was completed and installed.

But, there's some things I can help you out with the planning and building. With that, let's do some planning. Almost all of  model PSS are permanently mounted on a layout. Although you can have your PSS in a freight or service train being moved to its in-service location.

In the plans and photos the PSS are mounted on arch bar trucks. In my parts bin were Athearn arch bar trucks with NWSL wheetsets. Some years ago Athearn had a plastic frame and bolster 5' wheelbase arch bar trucks available in O scale. Before plastic became more common, these same trucks were made of metal by another manufacturer. PSC has a 5'4" wheelbase arch bar truck. The PSC arch bar trucks have too long of a wheelbase. The extra 4" may not seem like a lot but it is for a short wheel base truck under a short car.

Although the Athearn (or older Athearn style) arch bar are no longer made, they show up for sale at O scale Meets, EBay, and other second hand markets. The Athearn trucks with plastic sideframes are the best. Some of the older metal trucks were made from a pot metal which designates over time. The Athearn plastic sideframe trucks with NWSL metal wheels and axels roll freely on track.

These are photos of the Athearn plastic frame arch bar trucks I used under the model. The trucks have been painted with a rust color paint. The trucks under a stationary car will start to rust in a short time. Note the amount of detail in the trucks. NWSL wheel sets were used to replace the plastic wheel wheelsets in the trucks.

The reason for having the trucks to be used before starting on the body allows you to know  how the trucks are to be attached to the model's body bolster. This will be important as you plan how to make the underbody of your model.

With the decline in the number of hobby shops around the United States you have to determine how you are going to obtain the materials to build your model. This can include a hobby shop near or remote to your home and/or ordering direct from the manufacturer. There are pros and cons to both.

Next is the decision on what material is to be used to build the body (sides, ends, floor, and roof). For most of you it's either wood or plastic (styrene). What may influence your decision is, is the floor or roof to be removable?  This is necessary for the installation of glazing in the windows in the doors and an interior.

You may want to install lighting and an interior in your model although there are little to no items available for a substation. One item which can be used is an old open frame motor to cause flickering, sound, and mini shaking of the substation. Some years ago at least one  vendor had a model large elevator motor.

Control panels with flashing red lights can be created and installed. The PSS does not have to be a quiet model on your layout!

Just as an aside, the PSS in the plans has, to cool the equipment inside of the car during operations, 4 sections of the roof that are hinged and can be opened several inches. I did not make these sections of the roof operational. But, a model with opening roof sections would be a contest buster!

If you decide to build your model from wood, Northeastern Scale Models has all the material you will need. For styrene, Evergreen Scale Models has all the material you will need.

I come from the pre-WW II "Velveeta wooden cheese box school of hobby building". It took me a long time to change from making all wood models to using styrene.  It seems like now the hobby favors styrene more than wood. Grandt Line has change to an all plastic (almost all styrene with some Delrin) inventory. As you will see this plus some other items make the plastic assembly faster and easier.

Some words about plastic glues or adhesives. There at several on the market. Some dry faster than others which results in a "strong" joint faster. Styrene is known for stick the pieces together of 1 joint and then shortly go on to the next joint. But, sometimes the model has to sit overnight to ensure all joints (seams) have complete dried and sealed.

Also, generally speaking, only similar plastic can be rapidly glued together. This property of plastics has to do with the chemical structure of the plastic.

Before any assembly starts, how do the doors operate? How the doors were hung/fitted was learned from looking at photos of old freight cars, building kits for old freight cars, looking a diagrams in old car builders' encyclopedias, looking at old barn doors, and some common sense.

They are sliding doors much like the old time pre-1900 freight cars and barn doors. They hang from a top "rail" using door hangers with rollers to engage the "rail". On the PSS this "rail" is enclosed in the letterboard. This detail can be noticed on my model's photos.

Also, the doors are kept next to the body of the car with the use of "Z" shaped door guides on the bottom and ends of the door. If you have not, carefully go through the Grandt Line. PSC, and other catalogues you may have to look for parts.

Normally I don't mention stock numbers or SKU's. However, I recommend using the PSC body bolster, truck screw and spring. The 3 PSC numbers for their body bolster, screw and spring can be hard to find. These are the same type of items used by US Hobbies, Westside/KTM, Max Gray, etc. on their imported models.

PSC has a styrene body bolster (PSC #349), spring (PSC #350), and screw (PSC #351) to hold the trucks in place. Their arrangement is the best in the long run over a wood screw. Other brass PSC parts are grab irons, coupler assemblies, K brake kit, equipment for the hand brake staff (a kit), hand brake stand on the end of the car, and coupler lift bars. On the top of page 54 of the "Passenger/Freight Car" catalogue is a drawing of standard gauge freight car and caboose underbody diagram. A kit is shown for the underbody castings.

With the styrene body bolster from PSC plus the styrene parts from Grandt Line it's easy to make the car from Styrene. But wood can still be used.

More in the next Post. Cheers,

Ed

PS - From the "Preview" I'm able to see what the new Post will look like before publishing it. The Blog editor is doing strange things again!