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 Posted - December 27 2015 : 1:55:36 PM
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I love kit bashes that turn "sows ears into silk purses". Case in point, the Tyco Skid Flat, a car that is commonly dismissed by most model railroaders as a useless fantasy car. However there are those who have taken this most common of Tyco cars and turned them into into real interesting models. This forum posting is an attempt to centralize the assorted skid flat projects posted else where in this forum and put them in one place.
quote:
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Posted - December 27 2015 : 2:14:33 PM
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I cant figure out how to transfer the image, but this beet car that was featured in COTW by Redwoods is supper cool....
My COTW is a kitbashed beet rack car, now with beets. I scratchbuilt the rack from styrene to fit a Tyco skid flat. The beets are rye seed that I colored with clay that I collected on a fishing trip to Lake Shasta.
Originally posted by Redwoods - December 23 2015 : 5:33:05 PM
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Edited by - Srenchin on December 27 2015 2:16:35 PM
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Posted - December 27 2015 : 2:21:45 PM
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That is quite a machine. This is an excursion car I built onto a Mantua flat a while back. It looks pretty primitive to me now, but I also dig the possibilities of working with flats.
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Posted - December 27 2015 : 2:27:56 PM
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quote:That is quite a machine. This is an excursion car I built onto a Mantua flat a while back. It looks pretty primitive to me now, but I also dig the possibilities of working with flats.
Originally posted by Barry - December 27 2015 : 2:21:45 PM
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This excursion car is a great idea! Need an excuse to get that shay or climax when you model the present day? Well here you go....
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Posted - December 27 2015 : 2:32:41 PM
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Other ideas I have for skid flats include...
- A wheel car for transporting railroad wheelsets
- A shop built gondola
- M of W bunk car with a house trailer mounted on top
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Edited by - Srenchin on December 27 2015 2:34:24 PM
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Posted - December 27 2015 : 10:30:23 PM
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quote:Other ideas I have for skid flats include...
- A wheel car for transporting railroad wheelsets
- A shop built gondola
- M of W bunk car with a house trailer mounted on top
Originally posted by Srenchin - December 27 2015 : 2:32:41 PM
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MDC had (and may still have, I don't know) a kit for a short flat car and it came with sides that plugged into the stake pockets to make it a small gondola:
That idea should be easy to copy onto the skid flat, as well.
I wanted a low-sided gondola just a little bigger than the one on the MDC shorty flat, so I used an MDC tie-rod boxcar frame and cut planks out of 1/32" balsa to build this up:
The bolt heads on the stakes are just drops of glue.
These examples are a little off-topic for a skid flat conversion, but they illustrate an easy way of making a gondola from a flat.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - December 28 2015 : 3:30:52 PM
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| Those MDC Roundhouse short flat cars with the wooden sides are pretty nicely put together. I dig what you did with yours Don. They look quite a bit like some of the earlier cars that were used in this neighborhood to haul ore from Cripple Creek to the mills in Colorado Springs.
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Posted - December 28 2015 : 10:55:02 PM
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Scott, cool idea for a thread. Here are some beet cars and a log car that I kitbashed. If you look closely, you'll see that one of the beet cars is kitbashed from a Tyco dump car.
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Posted - December 28 2015 : 11:24:29 PM
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On the log car, the pointed chock-like things on the corners of the part above the deck are a nice touch. They look like they belong on a log bunk.
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Posted - December 29 2015 : 11:56:16 AM
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Here's another one of my skid flat kitbashes. It's a coffin style pickle car. I kitbashed the superstructure from wooden tongue depressors and coffee stirrers. I embossed rivets into cardstock for the metal straps. It's painted but I still need to create and print some decals for it.
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Posted - December 29 2015 : 11:27:43 PM
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quote:
I wanted a low-sided gondola just a little bigger than the one on the MDC shorty flat, so I used an MDC tie-rod boxcar frame and cut planks out of 1/32" balsa to build this up:
The bolt heads on the stakes are just drops of glue.
These examples are a little off-topic for a skid flat conversion, but they illustrate an easy way of making a gondola from a flat.
Originally posted by scsshaggy - December 27 2015 : 10:30:23 PM
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That's a cool wood side gondola. I like the idea of using glue for bolt heads, that's a new one to me.
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Posted - December 29 2015 : 11:29:02 PM
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quote:That is quite a machine. This is an excursion car I built onto a Mantua flat a while back. It looks pretty primitive to me now, but I also dig the possibilities of working with flats.
Originally posted by Barry - December 27 2015 : 2:21:45 PM
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That's really well done. I like all the detail and seated people. It gives it a lot of personality.
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Posted - December 30 2015 : 11:45:35 AM
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| There's some good tips here; using a pin and cardstock to make riveted straps, drops of glue to show rivets, wooden coffee stirrers. I just found a place a while back that uses wooden coffee stirrers and that's pretty nice scaled lumber for some applications. I'm digging seeing these build ups. One thing I'd like to figure out before my next flat car attempt is how to deal with the stake pockets. On the metal cars I have, these have round openings that will best hold a round wire. On the excursion car, I simply butted up against the stake pocket and because my cuts were less than perfect you see gaps in a couple places where the upright support isn't touching the stake pocket (and also white glue where I never touched up with more Tuscan paint). I'm curious how others may have dealt with this?
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Posted - December 30 2015 : 12:35:44 PM
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hey Don't put Heinz on the side
Do some other pickle company 
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Posted - December 30 2015 : 9:14:53 PM
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That "Bus Exterminator" is so clever. Barry, that excursion
car is fabulous. Primitive? My foot!
All very interesting and imaginative pieces.
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Posted - January 01 2016 : 6:43:49 PM
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quote:
A Pickle Car! Excellent idea!!! Great work by the way!!!!
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Posted - January 01 2016 : 6:58:04 PM
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quote:
I'm especially impressed that you found a way to use the old "clementine gold dumping" car for a kit bashing project. That car is so weird looking to me that I dismissed it as starting point for building anything.
I just thought of another possible kit bash for these cars, how about a wood tank car .
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Posted - January 03 2016 : 1:44:18 PM
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quote:
I just thought of another possible kit bash for these cars, how about a wood tank car .
Originally posted by Srenchin - January 01 2016 : 6:58:04 PM
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I like your thinking. There are a number of wooden vinegar tanks cars that were mounted on steel frames, some even with dual tanks. Another possibility is a Borden milk tank car, the one that looks like a butter dish lid.
Edited by - Redwoods on January 03 2016 1:44:45 PM
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Posted - January 06 2016 : 8:10:42 PM
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A "butter dish" style milk car would make a really interesting project, it would be a real challenge to make a realistic looking hood though...
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Posted - January 06 2016 : 9:29:04 PM
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quote: quote:
I just thought of another possible kit bash for these cars, how about a wood tank car .
Originally posted by Srenchin - January 01 2016 : 6:58:04 PM
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I like your thinking. There are a number of wooden vinegar tanks cars that were mounted on steel frames, some even with dual tanks. Another possibility is a Borden milk tank car, the one that looks like a butter dish lid.
Originally posted by Redwoods - January 03 2016 : 1:44:18 PM
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yeah Bachmann & AHM had those
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Posted - November 17 2016 : 3:30:53 PM
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Here is an example of a Tyco Skid Flat repurposed to upgrade an old Ulrich Track Cleaning Car Kit...
This kitbash utilizes only the side sills and ends of a Tyco skid flat to dress up the appearance of the car, the core of the car remains the Ulrich kit.
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Edited by - Srenchin on November 18 2016 10:55:07 PM
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Posted - November 17 2016 : 4:17:17 PM
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| Very nice Scott. Cool fix for that plain hunk of wood that makes up the body of the Ulrich kit. I'd forgotten about this thread. I still have a couple ideas percolating for a couple of Mantua Metal flat cars I have. I hope you take a notion to build a few more flat cars Scott.
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Posted - November 17 2016 : 10:19:28 PM
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Here is what I did with one of the Tyco flats. Subtle, but several detail changes.
Vic Bitleris
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Posted - November 18 2016 : 8:36:04 PM
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This is not really a kitbash, just a repaint but I think it turned out well. I have a pipe unloading depot on my layout and I wanted some nicer looking skid flats than just generic Western Maryland "greenies" to spot in front of it...
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Posted - November 18 2016 : 9:11:43 PM
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Nice work. It is at least something of a kitbash, insofar as coupler conversions count
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Posted - November 18 2016 : 10:42:56 PM
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I'd send you about 2 of those to do in BN & UP
Same with the TOFC ones 
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Posted - November 22 2016 : 9:00:26 PM
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In the background is the existing bucket loader deck; built on a Bachmann Old Time flat. I wanted to redo it on a Mantua flat. Here's a couple more shots . . .
Everything else, I reused from the existing loader.
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Posted - November 22 2016 : 9:38:10 PM
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They make a really good drop center flat car. The load is a Chooch Enterprise machine load.
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Posted - November 22 2016 : 9:40:21 PM
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I don't think Barry's should count :P
Yours sure does though
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Posted - November 23 2016 : 12:11:27 PM
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This skid flat kitbash looked interesting but the picture was so small I could hardly see it. I was able to make the image bigger...
Nice work!
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Edited by - Srenchin on November 23 2016 12:14:34 PM
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Posted - December 10 2016 : 12:53:36 PM
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Here is a link to another thread about improved skid flat loads....
http://www.tycoforums.com/tyco/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14729
These are excellent examples of what can be done with the Tyco skid flat.
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Posted - December 21 2016 : 7:10:54 PM
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Here are some pictures of an excursion car I made from a skid flat...
Go here...
http://www.tycoforums.com/tyco/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17676
To see the tread that shows how I made this car.
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Posted - December 21 2016 : 8:40:06 PM
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| You do nice work Scott. Motivating. I've got some stuff to do, but it involves the weather warming up to spray paint outdoors.
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Posted - January 22 2017 : 7:39:54 PM
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This may not be in the genre of a kit bashed flat car, but it is a unique use of a flat car. And this may not even be a Tyco flat car, but . . . I read that logging operations would make use of flat cars as bridges ? ? ?
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Posted - January 22 2017 : 8:04:08 PM
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It wasn't just logging lines
sim-al2
Also since they cut track maintaince the trains had huge trouble making over the railroad by the end
純那
yeah
They did a Rock Island volountarily
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Posted - May 18 2018 : 2:07:22 PM
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Here is a link to a really cool pulpwood bulkhead flat car kitbash project using an old skid flat.
quote: http://www.tycoforums.com/tyco/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18675
I build a CofG pulpwood rack from an old Tyco skid flat. I built the bulkheads from cut up hotel room key cards and junk bin parts. Finished it off with staple stirrups, left over dry transfers and some body mounted couplers. I left the original talgo trucks on the car with some MDC salvaged wheels. Its not perfect by any means but it was fun! [Click to enlarge]
Originally posted by Srenchin - May 18 2018 : 1:58:47 PM
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Edited by - Srenchin on May 18 2018 2:10:54 PM
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I patterned it after Key System wrecker #1011, that is still in use at the Western Railway Museum in Rio Vista, CA.
