Coach 9 - Official Work Thread

[Harold Downey]

On to the next thing.  We have the J&S build orders for coaches 5&6 (1901) and the material specified for the body framing, as well as the sills and floors, was yellow pine.   Since yellow pine is not readily available in Maine, other than pressure treated, I decided to source the material here in Texas.   Eastern Texas and Louisiana are a major source of yellow pine from managed forests.    My plan is to prepare all the material for the body framing here in my shop, and then make a road trip and bring it all up to Maine this summer, along with the patterns.     

I special ordered #1 grade yellow pine 2x12's in 8', 10' and 12' lengths.    The reason for getting 2x12's is that they need to come from the best and biggest trees. and #1 grade to minimize knots.  None of the body framing is standard dimension lumber, so all of it will need to be sawn, surfaced and other milling done.    I picked up the order on May 17th. 

Here is the trailer load when I got it home:


All the eight footers became this stack of 72 vertical frames (studs).  The final thickness is 1-1/8", and there are 9 notches milled in each, plus a tenon on both ends.   


The studs are assembled into pairs with 5 spacer blocks between them, drilled for the vertical tension rods at each location.  There is one pair between each window, as well as one wide pair at one end of the coach.    After completing 160 spacer blocks and 320 holes, I started assembly of the stud pairs.  I used #12 flat head slotted wood screws to fasten them together.  I am thankful for modern cordless drill/drivers!

You can see the first few here:

[Bill Baskerville]

Harold,
Most of us are still catching our breath from the professional, and artistic work you have completed on the seat patterns.  Then you come up with what looks like a laser cut kit for a J&S coach like we would put together for our model railroads.  I echo the previous remarks on your patterns, and I hope we can find a place in our new museum display area to show off your excellent work.
B²

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Really fantastic looking work Harold! I'm impressed by the output and consistency. Did you make up a set of jigs for producing those studs?

[Mike Fox]

What do you do in your spare time? Sleep? It seems like last month we (the board) just gave the green light for the wood order, and here you have the studs done, looking ready to be installed. Very nice work.

[Joe Fox]

Such amazing work. Very impressive stuff, well done.

[Jeff Schumaker]

Fantastic work!

Jeff S.

[Jeff Schumaker]

Isn't there a larger-but-still narrow railroad out in Colorado doing some interesting coach rebuilds? Would the 1894 H&K seats be appropriate for those cats?

Cats usually sit anywhere they want, so I doubt they would prefer one type of seat over another.  (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Jeff S.

[Harold Downey]

From Stephen P:

Did you make up a set of jigs for producing those studs?

Not really jigs.  Each cut was done with a fixed setup, then I would do all 72+ pieces.   The dado cuts used a sort-of jig:  the blade only cuts about 3/4" wide, so I made a spacer block just the right width for each setup.  I set the table saw fence so that the left edge of the desired notch was aligned with the left edge of the blade, and then made a spacer block the right width to go between the fence and the stud to put the blade at the right place to cut the right edge of the slot.  So I would do it with this sequence: first cut with spacer block (right most chunk), remove block, make second cut (left most chunk), then free hand the middle out. 

It still took a total of 16 hours to make all the cuts.  14 setups including the first length cut.   So it took just over an hour for each setup and running all the pieces through. 

Pattern making has really forced me to up my game for accuracy in woodworking.  I just take that to this job too.    I also spent a lot of time tuning my machines to be super parallel and square.  That really helps. 

[Steve Smith]

Harold, the Museum is WWF.......wicked WICKED fortunate to have you doing this marvelous work!

[James Patten]

The walls will be ready before we have big timbers to attach them to!

[Paul Crabb]

Harold's work is just amazing!!!! As Steve Smith said the Museum is fortunate to have him doing this.

[Paul Uhland]

This is super-precision factory work, right? 
Amazing quality wood. Can't wait for assembly.

Go for it!

BTW, when will boxcar 67 get its metal roof?

[Harold Downey]

Latest progress.   The curved roof beams are called carlines.   The top part of the roof is the "main deck", and the outer section is called the "clerestory deck."     

We need 41 main deck carlines, and 78 clerestory deck carlines.    I made a template for each of them out of 1/4" marine ply.  First I just traced the template on the stock (planed to 1-1/8" thickness) and cut them out about 1/8" outside the line.   Then the next step is to use a router with a top bearing flush-cutting bit to trim each one to the template.   

Here is the first one with the template attached, ready to trim and next to the stack of rough cut clerestory deck carlines. 



The finished stack.   I started with 85 and ended up with 78, due to some of them warping too much after rough trim, and some due to router tearout.   I will need to make a few more to make sure there are some spares. 



This is the rough cut stack of main deck carlines.



There was a bit of waste after cutting out the carlines.  This is what the pile looked like around my bandsaw when I finished. 

[Wayne Laepple]

Harold --

Will these main deck carlines be sistered to flat bar stock bent to the same curvature?

[Harold Downey]

Wayne,  basically yes, but not every position.  There are "iron carlines" at every second window post.  The wooden carlines are spaced one at each window post and one in between  Thus, every fourth position gets an iron carline.  At that position, two wooden carlines sandwich the iron carline, and there are bolts holding them together.   

While the originals were probably wrought iron, and forged, we will most likely deviate and have them waterjet cut from hot rolled steel plate.