Closed Freightcar

This freight car, or "wagon fourgonnette" as the French would say, was build using two LGB ToyTrain freight cars. Combining those two together would make an unique car with a mid-European / French appearance.

So... bring out the hacksaw and the glue!





This is how both cars looked when they entered the railway workshop. The yellow car is originally from the LGB 70994 Vedes Starter Set and the red one is original from the LGB - ToyTrain 90782 Auto Expres Start Set. Both cars were bought secondhand at an online auction site.

The Vedes logo is easily removed with a small screwdriver.

The chassis from both cars were cut using a small hacksaw. The LGB plastic is rather soft and easy to saw. The cut was made just behind the hole for the axles holders on platform side. See picture below.

The two bigger halfs of the chassis were glued together and reinforced with styrene strips. This formed the new chassis for the car. Both yellow and red car were cut in half at the desired length, so that together they fit on the new chassis.

 

Instead of one bigger sliding door on each side the car got two smaller sliding doors on each side. Therefor the doors needed to be a bit smaller than the original doors. The middle part, 3 planks wide, of each door was cut away with a fine hacksaw. 

Cutting away the mid 3 planks

Left; original door. Right: smaller door

Also the roof had to be longer. To made sure the pins in the sides fitted the slots in the roofs correctly I cut one roof somewhere 1/3 and the other 2/3 of the length. This way the roof fits easy in its original slots. I camouflaged the seem between the two parts by adding slats over the roof (visible on the pictures of the painted car a little bit more below).

And this is how it looked like after a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. The basic form is now finished. Next step is working away the seams, do some detailing and some painting.

 

You notice the doors are in wrongly?

Painting

The car was painted in a neutral grey livery with the frame 'metal bars' of the car painted black, which is very common for French narrow gauge freight cars. All original LGB handrails were placed back. Actually the car is not completely finished, it will still need some lettering. But I wait for that until I have found a nice name for the railway and figure out a sort of numeral system for the rolling stock.

And some weathering with artist oil paints.

The car runs reasonable but I noticed on the old railway that the LGB couplers somehow seem to cause derailments on more uneven track. This problem will not occur on the new railway because the track is more even laid. However I am considering to replace the LGB couplers for a little 3 link chain and hook as coupler.

 - o -