Dipl.-Ing. Thorsten Niggemann
Constructional plans
Flat bogie wagon in special construction
One of the most popular and widely built wagons is the flat wagon. The drivers of 5” garden railways probably fancy this because it can carry passengers and still looks good. A further reason is that it is relatively easy to make so the garden railwayman thinks. From this point of view, you only need to paint a piece of chipboard brown, add two bought or home-made roof frames, fix them underneath and the flat wagon is ready to rock’n’roll. It is possible to buy a finished wagon, but that is too easy. Where is the sense of achievement?
That is why I decided to draw it myself with all original details.
There is not a lot to say about the axle and the wheel set, except that the axle-boxes need a lot of work.
The axle box is machined from brass. To enable the axle bearing cover to be fitted mill four grooves (at 90 degrees) into the outside of the axlebox. Into these solder a suitable piece of brass round, face off then drill and tap each one M2.( Refer to the drawing).
For supporting the axle, two grooved ball bearings are fitted into the axle box and retained with a circlip. That is it. But you need eight of them!
Laser cut parts.
I had everything possible laser cut to make it easier for me. That is not as complicated as it sounds. The appropriate parts are drawn using a CAD-program and saved in a “dxf” file. Take the disc to a local laser cutting company and get the parts cut.The result is really good. The parts have hardly any distortion and are very good for milling. The material you should choose is “QstE 380 TM”, this is fine-grained steel and on hand in every laser cutting company.
Now a few more hints about laser cutting cauterisation of parts :
1) Usually you pay for the lengths of the cut and material. Then the single part costs a few cents only, to do it on your own is not worth it. But you should give them several parts, otherwise they charge a high markup for small-volume purchase.
2) On the CAD drawings you need to mention the material size of each part. To save money, just give them a lot of parts with the same material size. Any time you laser cut parts with a different material size, an appropriate steel plate needs to be put onto the machine, which causes set-up costs.
3) Approach: It is best to choose the laser cutter nearest to you, which you will find in the yellow pages and ask for the prices without obligation.
This report will be continued soon …
