Kitbashin' 2

We ordered 3 inexpensive Hartland 2 axle cars and did the Kitbashin' on them. Changed the
plastic wheels to metal, painted and detailed them as shown below. All the cars were sprayed
with brown paint and antiqued with flat black while the brown was still wet.

Timbers for shoring
the mines are now on
the six stake flat car.
The timbers have
been secured with
cables to prevent the
load from slipping.

A pipe hauler was
made from the 4
stake flat car and
now carries pipe for
the mine. The load
is held down with
special straps so
they will not shift on
the mine track.

Conversion of the HLW value line is very easy
and effects unlimited. Three ore cars were
purchased on "Special". The first of the set of 3
cars was stripped and converted to a "Prescott
Canyon Mining Company" Supply Car, which new
serves as the "battery car" for the PCMC
Porters.

The cars were very light weight and would bounce over the turnouts so weight was added to the
new "Water" car by removing the turret and pouring about a pound of birdshot in the tank.
The "Pipe" car was weighted by hot gluing one end of the bottom middle pipe shut and then fill
the pipe with shot and hot gluing the other end. Now the cars pull very nicely.

The second car was never put together as an ore
car. It was converted into a "Dynamite Carrier"
for the PCMC. The roof or covering of the car is
"canvas" to provide cooling for the cargo. All
wheels on these kitbashed Value Line cars have
been upgraded to mostly Bachmann metal wheels.

The last of the value line became a scratch
built"crummy" for the Prescott Canyon
Mining Company. The image a right is the
construction stage of the"box"

Lower right image shows the finished
"Crew Car" named for a grand daughter,
"Miss Ashley". For visual effect, EOT
devices were installed on each side of the
car using 3v red LED's with 2 AA batteries
hidden in the car providing the power. Train
crew member catching a breath of fresh air
on the rear platform.

We had some LGB cars with short wheelbases that pulled right well. Hmmmmm..... Can we shorten
the wheelbase on the Hartland's?? So I took one apart and chopped about an inch out of the middle of
the wheel mount, screwed it back together, put the metal wheels back in and whadya know, a short
wheelbase car that ran wonderfully on the tight curves. The battery running time was increased by
25% with less stress on the engine. All the Hartland kit cars have had the wheelbases shortened�

A view of the shortened wheelbase cars is below.