Interestingly, the stacks on my Con-Cor test car do clear the Kato Truss Bridge. Barely, but they clear. Nonetheless, stacks and modern auto racks won't be found on my road. I've settled upon a 1-1/2" pier height as being perfect for providing a bit of excess clearance. I can't find any pre-made of this height, so I'll have to carefully cut my Kato piers, taking 3/8" out of the centers if I want to retain the bases. Speaking of clearances, I see there's a nice choice of tunnel portals made.
The Kato inclined pier set ought to have what you want, together with the add-on intermediate pier set. When both sets are used with Unitrack viaduct at the joints between pieces, it ends up in the neighborhood of 2% grade to 2" (depending on the lengths of the viaducts between them). The intermediate piers come with attachments to support mid span on the viaducts as well, but that gives you the same ~4% grade as without them. But if you need several piers at 1.5" height, you'll have to trim them yourself from the 2" piers (also sold in multiples at that height).
Yes, I still own my Weller Soldering station. I've used my soldering station for everything from Track Feeders to hard wire decoder installs and have not hand any issues. I did purchase a pencil point tip for the decoder installs, which works great for the small wires used on decoders. Just my personal opinion, but this soldering station is perfect for our hobby.
Messed around this afternoon with a way to reduce the height of Kato bridge piers to lessen my grades in view of my railroad's equipment which doesn't include stacks. I want a way to reliably cut them to height, taking 3/8" off their factory height. I made two holders like this, one for the uppermost cut and one for the bottom cut. Note the notch, which fits into the Kato base to hold the pier square. I then wrapped the pier to the uppermost cut holder for the first cut. The holder helps the saw stay square to the pier during the cut. (The photo shows the saw isn't tight to the holder at the bootom, but that's just poor photography trying to hold things while shooting a photo.) I did the same for the bottom cut, thus removing 3/8" from the center of the pier. I ended up with a fairly good result. I then glued and filled what little imperfection remained with Squadron Putty. I'll bet the cut line will still be visible when the pier is painted, but will maybe not look too bad. I can say that it's a result of the concrete pour. The factory height pier is on the right.
Man you must have one sharp saw, and a lot of patience Is it safe with the BAD concrete pour? Did OSHA approve? Just kidding, looks awesome.
Here're photos of two Kato truss bridges, one with factory piers and the other with my modified piers. Using an old Atlas auto parts hi-cube and an Arnold Rapido auto rack for testing (neither of which I'll likely run), I still have plenty of clearance for whatever my railroad will see.
Convertibles. I won't be running auto racks or high cubes; I just use extra height/extra long cars as testers to overengineer bridge clearances and tunnel portals just a bit. Just for the fun of it, I just threw an auto on the upper deck to see ...... and it clears by a scale 6".
We'll offer special rates for Mini Coopers only. Say, do you have word yet on the delivery of your new truck? I think you made a great choice.
Nothing yet. Still waiting for the highly elusive build date!! I'll find out if I'm a lucky one Thursday AM, when next round of scheduling is sent out. The weeks of 12/20, 12/27 and 01/03 had NO scheduling sent out. Was told I had to drop the spray in bedliner, as that was going to delay. Had to replace with a hard drop in instead. And even that was questionable. Drop much more, and I'm NOT gonna get the truck I want!
Have you considered an aftermarket spray in bedliner? I would not be happy with them altering what I can order!
I have. My current Ranger has a spray in. Going to have same shop that did it, do the new truck eventually! Will cost me more than factory, but will have a lifetime warranty. If it ever chips, cracks or peels, they'll redo it free. To date, I've hauled close to 16,000# of dirt, over 1,000# granite and maybe close to 1,000# of moss rock in the Ranger, with no problems. Wash it out, and looks almost as good as new!
My '06 Nissan Frontier came with a factory spray in liner, and like the one in your Ranger, it was excellent. I was always worried that rainwater would collect under a drop-in liner and promote rust, plus the drop-ins I had in the past had slick surfaces, allowing cargo to slide around back there. I feel your pain about ordering a vehicle. My wife and I are gearheads, do our research, know exactly what we want and never find our wants on Dealer lots. Combined with many Dealers reluctant to order a vehicle, it makes getting what we want a lot of trouble. We often keep our vehicles for 10 to 15 years, so it's worth the mess.
Agreed. Had a drop-in liner once; won't do that again! It even flew out of the bed on the highway; thank goodness nobody was hurt (nor was it damaged). Where it rubbed the inside of the bed, I had bare metal and some surface rust. And since internal cargo tie-downs were covered, it was difficult to tie stuff down in the slick bed.
Up until the early 1980s I remember seeing open racks and admiring the new cars. In a generation we've gone from what's pictured here to vault-like rack cars covered in graffiti.
Ahh, the venerable station wagon, the original SUV. And I refuse to model vandalism (aka graffiti) on railcars. I don't care how ubiquitous it is on railroads (or buildings) today, or how many people want to call it 'art', tagging is one filthy aspect of reality I will not flatter on my layout or railcars. My railroad, my rules. YMMV.
Very cool picture. I think the last time I saw any open autoracks like this in operation was in Windsor Ontario circa 1994. I remember still seeing a few with side panels but no roof rolling through Chattanooga as late as the early 90's as well. I think the modified bridge piers look really good. The picture may be deceiving but that clearance looks like it might be just barely enough that the rack would still fit even with a load of autos on that top deck.
