by Jack Hess

The year 2145. Lunar orbiting satellites, surveying the moon's geologic composition, have revealed vast amounts of gold ore and other precious metals. World governments and numerous private enterprises are scrambling to get to the ore. The United States has just released photos of two narrow gauge ore cars it plans to use during excavation. #21 is an ore car and #47 is an equipment car.

Both cars are scratchbuilt from .060 styrene and use HO roller bearing trucks with scale 42" replacement wheelset and Kadee #5 HO couplers. Construction began by building a floor, adding the trucks and couplers, and then adding the slanted bottom sides and ends. Once the cement dried, the sides and ends were smoothed with a large single cut file and then the corners rounded with a needle file. The upper body was then built in the same manner. Though they were built for 1/48 scale, the 1/35 Revell German tank crew figure shows they would work well for that scale also.

Cutouts were made for the wheels as the bodies are so narrow that the wheels would not clear the sides. The wheels on #21 do not pivot and the skirting was added to preserve the body lines. #47 has pivoting wheels.

They were given a coat of white spray paint and once dried, were masked and sprayed with metallic copper (available from The Home Depot).

I made the decals in Microsoft Word and printed them on clear decal paper with a laser printer. They were coated with clear and allowed to dry and then put on the cars.

Image: Above

Image: Ore car

Image: Equipment car