These cars are used for construction / destruction debris. They are like big dumpsters on wheels , all beat up and crusty . These cars do not have any doors but there are some types that do have large doors on the ends of the car.This car has end doors and is another car I hope to model some day.
Here’s a link to a video of HO scale models of these cars. This guy is really good at weathering and gave me the idea of building some of these for myself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM1_W7lELyQ
Craig Townsend said:
Wood chips, Greg.
Some woodchip cars have a door on the “A” end, others have rotary couplers and are dumped via a rotary dumper. The cars with a door are unloaded with a front end loader…
And then there’s this method.
That’s really neat Dan , thanks for those pictures ,very interesting. The cars i’m making carry construction debris but most do haul woodchips I would think. I worked on the ends of my cars by adding a scale 18" x 18"piece of plastic in each corner and then trimmed them to a angle as per photo’s . Then I filled any gaps on the sides and ends with Green Magic body puddy and then wet sanded it. Next I added the braces under the cars . The pieces going from the middle of the car to the sides are made from Evergreen #'s 277 and 278 “I” beam strips. The #278 is larger and was used at the car center line and 15 scale feet from the ends. There are 6 of them 3 on each side. The rest are #277. Triangular gussets are .030 plastic topped with Evergreen #266 , the 6 larger gussets I drilled a hole in them . Here’s some pictures .
Looking good Mike. I like those fancy arrows in the photo.
Shane
Thanks Shane ! I’ve been playing around with paintbrush on my computer and i’m gonna try that next to show what and where. Gonna keep the arrows though , maybe i’ll have a set .(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
It’s been a little while since I last posted any progress on these cars . I have been moving along slowly but progress is happening. I built 4 bulkheads for these two cars and mounted them with MEK . Since I shot these photo’s I have been working on the sides of the car . The sides of the car will have depressions and waves and riibmarks ,etc. As soon as the glue drys on this wooden pattern I made for the sides i’ll get some more pictures . 
Nice work(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Here’s a picture of the real car. As you can see the sides are really beat up.
Just a couple of dents there, I’d say “slightly” used (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
The first picture here shows the wooden side panel jig I made. That’s the heat gun i’m using and the first .060 plastic panel to test with. I cut it way oversize to allow for shrinkage. The second picture shows the ribs indented into the plastic after heating and forming . After all the ribs were on the panel I put it on my concrete floor and re-heated it a small area at a time and using a small hard rubber hammer pounded the ribs down . I also used a piece of 2 x 4 and rolled it over the softened plastic to give it dents and gouges. I still have more pounding and shaping till i’m happy with the texture and detail. After it’s to my satisfaction I will put it in my oven at low temp to straiten it . Since this is new to me it’s a experiment in progress and the results are still to be determined . Anyhow here’s some pictures. 
Well I messed around with this today and although I can get the texture ( dents , waves , ribs) okay , there is no way i’m ever going to make it flat. My wife told me that using the oven was a no go. She didn’t want Thanksgiving dinner tasting like plastic. On this first experiment I used .060 plastic and it turned out to be too thick for this. So I wasted a 24" x 10" piece of plastic , darn ! I would say something else but I have to watch my language here. Anyway I tried using .015 plastic and then laminating it over a piece of .060 plastic . I think this might work . The .060 remained flat and usable and the dents and gouges are there. Cool , now I will order some more .060 sheet and .015 from my plastic supplier and see if it works as good on large pieces. I remain hopeful . The worst thing would be using a plain sheet of plastic and going on from there. 
This is the laminated part I put this together very quickly . It’s about 3" x 4".
Very nice work indeed
Thanks for adding the Styrene numbers as it makes it much easier than going off the photos
Thanks Bob !
https://www.whimsie.com/brass%20embossing%20foil.html
Mike have you thought of using embossing foil.
(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
You could make the car , and with a hair drier and some implements just heat and press/whack the way the dents would of gotten there anyway …the heat will hopefully make it easier …
I’ll check out the foil Dave thanks . I did order more .060 plastic and .020 plastic sheets today so i’ll give the laminating another try . That link didn’t work for me but I will google it tonite. Thanks Sean , That will get dents for sure but I also want a very faint support post look also . I don’t know what their called but it’s the vertical lines seen behind the steel face side. I’ll post more when my plastic arrives . I am hopeful the .020 laminate method will work. That example I posted was literally put together in 10 minutes so the dents and groves are too deep and exaggerated.Thanks for the input !
Maybe a thicker piece and Dremel our file or grind the creases you want. Since most of the dents and gouging is from the inside doing the actual melting and for in on the opposite side (inside) would be most prototypical. Both attempts look good to me, but I like the 10’ rule to be firmly enforced!
Mike, the straight lines you see in the wall panels are stiffeners on the inside welded to the wall. Their purpose is to keep the wall somewhat vertical. Possibly add stiffeners to the .015 sheet in appropriate locations (make sure of a good bond). Using a piece of ‘foam rubber’, lay the wall face down on the foam carefully heat the.015 with a heat gun or hair dryer and distress the sheet into the foam. Hope the stiffeners will do their job and y will get the distressed face with the stiffener lines. Then clamp the side Elsa with stiffeners to your.060 and glue. Just some thoughts.
I would bet my paycheck you are correct Bob as how the sides of this car was made . It’s obvious when the vertical lines line up with the cars side stakes. I’m thinking if I was to look inside I would see side bars welded vertically inside . If my method don’t work out then your method would be another option to try . Thanks for the advice !
Just measured up the dimensions that Mike gave and I think I may have blundered.
I measure the floor out to 63cm by 9.5cm converting them
It looks horribly big and I only have the photos and measurements Mike gave to go off down here. No cars like that here to check
Am I right
