Coach 9 - Official Work Thread

[Carl G. Soderstrom]

Well a very quick look shows that decals were available in late
19th century:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decal

Most likely not used on coaches at that time - labor was probably
cheaper than purchased product. Beside it still had to be installed.

[Bill Reidy]

When I took my August 3rd photos (this post), I took a quick look in the saloon compartment and noticed the decorative plaques in the two window corners are blank.  I mentioned it to Eric, and he said, mildly amused, he couldn't believe Jackson & Sharp didn't take the few minutes it would have required to carve the scrollwork in those two pieces.  It would have cost pennies, based on the wages of the day.

[Keith Taylor]

Well a very quick look shows that decals were available in late
19th century:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decal

Most likely not used on coaches at that time - labor was probably
cheaper than purchased product. Beside it still had to be installed.

I would bet that the decorative scroll work was done with stencils. And back in the day….the decals were all varnish transfer not water slide. I don’t believe there are any suppliers of varnish transfers left anymore.
Keith

[Ron Ginger]

Eric and I have talked about the ceiling a bit and have a basic plan. We will remove the white painted masonite from coach 3 and see whats under there. We suspect the old decoration is there, based on some peeking Eric did a couple years ago. If its there we will probably do good photos, import that into some CAD program and try to reconstruct the image. From that we will likely create cut files and cut mylar masks on my CNC router (or use Alans if the images are to big for mine). We should then be able to stencil the layouts onto the oak veneer we will use for the ceiling panels.

Like all the tricky parts of this project Eric and I start to discuss them as we approach that work. By the time we get to it we seem to always get a plan ready and are able to move on. That is what has made this project so much fun, at least for me.

[Fred Morse]

I believe it's there, I saw a sheet removed once at One end of the car.

[Bill Baskerville]

True to WW&F standards Ron & Eric are producing what I call a Smithsonian quality reproduction. I am sure when coach 9 is complete they will apply the same level of restoration to coach 3. As so many of our projects turn out, they are fully functional and still museum quality.

[Marcel Levesque]

Yes one of the white roof panels was removed many years ago and yes there is goldish stencil scroll type work on that panel which went all around the edges with a significant pattern in each corner.  I did not have my camera with me that day however I did make a tracing paper trace of the corner pattern.  I gave the pattern to Jason and the last time I saw it was on the shelf in the office closet.  He may know where it is now. 

[Mike Fox]

[Moderator's Note - from Bill Reidy]
And I see one of the coach end doors has been hung.

[Ron Ginger]

Coach 9 will need a lot of hardware that is no longer available, so  I have been working on making the needed parts. They will be made by  the investment casting, also called lost wax, process. I have made the wax parts in my home shop, but I will be taking the wax to a professional foundry to be cast.

First I removed one of each item we need from coach 3. This includes a handle to lift the window, a latch to hold the window, a finger pull to open the clerestory screens. I took the parts to my home shop and cleaned them up of the old varnish and crud.

I then made silicone rubber molds of each item.


Then the rubber molds are injected with molten wax from a small pressurized wax pot. We need about 32 of each item, but I am making enough to also restore coach 3, and some spares. Altogether I made about 50 waxes of each part.



I will be taking these to the foundry later this week. When I get them back I will have to do the finish machining on each part.

[John Kokas]

Ron,

Are these parts being cast at Cattail Foundry?

[Mike Fox]

Very nice Ron. Thank you for the update and sharing more behind the scenes work that we don't always see.

[Ron Ginger]

Not at Cattail. They do sand cast iron, these parts are investment cast brass. Investment cast is more of a jewelry process, leading to much finer detail in the parts.

[Wayne Laepple]

Cattail Foundry does cast red bronze, but as Ron said above, it's all sand molds and the finish is sometimes less than optimal. As Bernie Perch about that. Incidentally, they also do aluminum castings.

[Harold Downey]

Ron, post a picture of the transom door hinge you just made, next to the original. 

All of the brass parts are practically jewelry, and will really add to the authenticity of the new coach. 

[Ron Ginger]

I need to figure out how to re-size my photos- I am posting them direct from my Google photos folder.

The transom doors only need 4 hinges, so I decided to carve them out of solid brass instead of making castings. We got one of them mounted today, Eric may have actually finished hanging the door- I had to leave early for a dentist visit.


The top one is an original from coach 3, the bottom 4 are my carved parts. I am about half way through the latch.