Barry Bogs'  Standard Gauge

R P O  /  Railway Post Office

August 2nd 2020

The custom 40 foot, Standard Gauge, Railway Post Office (RPO) project is started.  Barry reviewed two versions of the 40 foot car, from the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads.  After studying a brass, 1/48 O scale model of the Union Pacific version and plans for the Southern Pacific version, Barry came up with a design merging the two styles.  In early 2020, he worked with his friend Dan to try something different.  Barry downloaded  Delta CAD  and drew out the side walls of the RPO, the way he wanted it.  Dan did some enhancements and tweaks, then laser cut the side walls for Barry  (Dan has a rather larger laser cutter).  From there, Barry aded various details including drilling many holes and inserting HO track-nail heads to simulate rivers.
Below are the SP and the UP cars in O scale brass, to review, compare and try to find the combined design details.

CW-20200127-a.jpg CW-20200127-b.jpg CW-20200127-c.jpg
CW-20200210-d.jpg CW-20200802-e.JPG CW-20200802-f.JPG

Guys,  Many of you have asked what the next project in the BLW shops. Well, ask no more. From the super long FM, I decided to go the opposite direction in the passenger car world. I found a picture of a 40 RPO that both SP and UP had. Both were slightly different on the door and window arrangements, so I decided to do a combo of both of them, and come up with an RPO that meets the needs of the CWRR. It was time to rally the troops and make sure the boys in the shop were all on board. Of course the first order of business is the trucks (note: see 1/27/20 page). The boys in the casting shop quickly made a master for the side frame and got them into the mold, while the boys in the erection shop were making the bearing blocks for the wheels. Once the trucks were done, the boys moved on to the sides of the car, by cutting out the doors and windows.
To save lots of time and get a better product then what the boys in my shop can make, I enlisted the help of Mr. Dan Stuettgen over at the Colorado and Rio Grande Southern shops to laser cut the doors and windows.  
www.DansTrains.net  is the web site for his fantastic laser cut items in both Fn3 and O scale.  Thanks again for your time and interest in BLW!   - -  Barry

 

to the 40ft RPO page   the C&W home page  Page created  8/29/2020