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Dented Gondola Cars
Rich models HO and asks:
“Recently watched several shallow gondolas go by, most of them were badly dented and ‘sway-backed’ in the middle. Probably scrap service or headed for scrap themselves. I remember a model train article about carefully using heat to warp and dent cars. Does anyone have suggestions of how to replicate this? Thanks”
3 Responses to Dented Gondola Cars
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I’ve done it, after removing the trucks and couplers, by using a heat gun to warm up the car. Then I made the distortions I wanted and used clamps or braces to keep the car from changing more as it cooled. Since I was making side bulges in a hopper car, I used a toothpick cut to length as a cross brace. One caution…be careful not to warp or twist the car or it may not ride properly.
Thanks Dale.Since I don’t have a large supply of rolling stock, I had thought about too much heat. I can see the sidewall bulges but what I wanted to replicate was a swaybacked look and I was worried whether car would track properly. I have an old gon that I have yet to redo the couplers and swap out wheels for metal. Perhaps a test subject.
I clamp the car to a metal form that i made from 2X 1/4 inch to hold the bottom of the car so that it remains dead level and use the heat gunon my soldering station that can be set to any tempature and carefully apply heat to sides of the car be carefull not ot over heat as the sides could and will collapse