Daley Train Log
Page 66
Step 9 - "Bolster Caps, Grab Irons & Air Lines" is my next goal for the remaining 3 kits for my cylindrical hopper cars. I have all of the pieces removed from the sprues and ready for assembly. But my experience with this step for my first car suggests that this will be a slow process. But the remaining two steps appear to be straight forward. With a little bit of luck I may at least one of the kits completed by the end of today.
I have completed step 9 for all four of the kits. This is the last of the difficult steps. It took 2 hours to complete this step for the three cars. It was only near the end that I was developing a technique for handling the grab irons. But there is a strong feeling of satisfaction as I near the end of these assemblies.
Ooops. I just noticed that step 9 also involves the installation of the air hoses. This is mentioned in the title for the step, but the actual details for this step fails to mention that three long air hoses (parts f & g) should also be cut from the sprues and glued to the underside of the body.
All four cars are now essentially completed. All that remains is to attach trucks and couplers. But the attaching of small plastic components is finished. I have two sets of trucks so I can put those on two of the cars, and I can attach Kadee couplers to all of the cars. I will let the glue set completely overnight and then finish this tomorrow. I will need to buy two more sets of trucks in the near future in order to finish the other two cars.