HO scale model - building a pipe load

I'm going to cross a couple of things off my to-do list today
- do a model railroad video (I'm long overdue)
- use something from a recent mailbag.
This is a quick, cheap and pretty easy open load for a flat car in HO scale.
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This isn't the only way to do it.
It's probably not the best way to do it.
But it's how I do it.

[@w.rustylane5650]

I use my chopper all the time for cutting plastic and wood. Handy gadget for model railroaders. I use match sticks, not kitchen matches but the smaller little boxes. Just cut off the heads and there ya go. I used to work at a lawnmower manufacturing company and I used an air powered tensioner to band the rear wheel to a pallet. I'm sure that's what they use to secure pipes. Arm's length is a good rule of thumb for HO gauge. I cannot believe some modelers cut all the molded on details and then add them back so they look more realistic. I just paint them and go on. Couldn't ya just use painted drinking straws? Cheers - TN

[@njRRtrainer]

Great job, fun to do as well - looks super..............

[@flyboy2610]

YEAH! A model railroad video! For pipe, what I use is plastic drinking straws. I save them from whenever I get a drink from a fast food place (which I confess is probably more often than I should. :( ) That way the pipe for my loads don't cost me anything extra.

[@vistalite-ph4zw]

I made these loads for my flatbed trailers. I got the balloon sticks from Amazon about $8. They came out great! Thanks for the tips and video....

[@BremptonJunction67]

Great to finally see a model railway video again, that's not to say I don't enjoy all the other stuff as well and yes we take milk in our tea, Craig.

[@ertyuiiknbvcx]

Steel that looks black like this has a outer hard layer on them. It is called mill scale and is a thin oxide layer that will flake off when you bend plates or pipes, kind of like old paint but harder. It is not intentionally made but becomes made when heating steel in hot air and rolling steel plates and pipes. I did work as a industry welder once back in time and noticed this. I have electro-mechanical education, worked as gardener, janitor, painter, plumbing, house electric, car electric, soldering electronics. We did as kids like to sit and look at grandpa (who died 40 years ago) doing carpenter work and a dads friend did mason work after they did drill holes and blow away rocks with dynamite under heavy car tire mats. So i has done a variety of works and education trough life and know a bit of everything, it can be good sometimes when someone notice things like you did here with the black pipes and thought that was interesting. So now you know :) Its likely good to know how things work when making models look as in real life. The black oxide layer work as a somewhat weak rust protection, very far from galvanization but works for a while, so they are black for a while, but the pipes are cut so they have bare metal on the ends and thus fast becomes rust red there in the rain. I see it is green there on the ends on the photo, i think that is something they put on to protect the ends from rusting, i has not seen what that is in real life, might be plastic, might be paint.

[@williambryant5946]

The green is plastic caps.

[@gordanmilne7034]

Nice work, If you empty the Tea from the bags and dry it you may be able to use it as a load of some kind and possibly even the material of the bags. Not a modeller myself but I am amazed at how inventive you all are. Thanks for all your videos.

[@starpawsy]

I have used cheap instant coffee to make a shiny brown stain. Works well.

[@gregbowen617]

I never knew that you were a model railroader!!! Thought you were just a tech guy showing us fascinating stuff!!! Excellent stuff!!!

[@pileofstuff]

I'm a man of many interests. (I almost said "talents" but that would be overstating the case)

[@kwman69r]

Great job, Looks great, Thanks for the video, Looked great on the track !

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

No beer? What an outrage!

[@davidr6585]

Cool. And BTW, drafting tape can be had form the online Jungle (Amazon) down to 1/32" (about 2.7 HO inches) AND 1/64" ( about 1.3 HO inches). Thanks for the great video!

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

Been up all night watching our general election on tv, so was nice to relax and watch your build. Prefer milk in my tea, black is a little to bitter for my palate.

[@paulcabrelli1863]

Really cool video. Great to watch as 99% people who watch this will have the same attitude towards modelling. Keep it up mate, as i do watch all your vids and find them entertaining and also a great inspiration :)

[@MrHans818]

Where was youtube and you back in the 90s when I was doing this kind of stuff?

[@DrGerryD]

Nice! Like the tea, as for beer, well, sometimes, most other times, like now, Bacardi and Cola. LOL Good "how to do it" video. Kudos !

[@gapadad2]

Awesome job.

[@mikeseba7817]

Great information, thanks!

[@davidballoid2118]

I don't know what era you model, but most of the time I see stacked pipe loads inside Gondola's. I also see large diameter pipe loads only one row high on bulkhead flatcars. I don't know if this helps you out or not?

[@aurorahauntedhobbies968]

Excellent work. The pipes look great. What other kinds of inventive loads would we be surprised to learn was something we didn't expect it to be? The bunk lumber should technically be directly under the other wood to prevent the pipes from bending due to weight, but like you said. Good enough from arm's length is good enough.

[@pileofstuff]

Here's another "repurposed" freight load that I did a while ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYick5lmea5-ZtE and another: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIqceGueqqd6orM

[@mahlapropyzm9180]

Yay for tea. Add milk and leave the bag in!

[@gpeter7498]

Cool work! I like your You Tubes and wish you and your family a Merry Christmas

[@markfergerson2145]

Upvoted because I'm a modeler too (not railroads but still) however... That strapping would NEVER be left lying there. Remember it is steel strip which is like an unsharpened knife- not dangerous unless, say, it comes flying off of a passing flatcar, whacks through your windshield and decapitates you. Even those wood spacers should be tied down. Nonetheless, please do more modeling videos. I've moved to paper modeling and am always looking for more inspirations.

[@pileofstuff]

Good point. In my miniature world I guess the safety inspectors are a bunch of slackers

[@markgoodrich941]

The banding breaks also, especially when the cars get humped.

[@williambryant5946]

You know we're smart enough to make these great models but not smart enough to wear latex gloves when painting whit the airbrush to keep paint off our hands. I do the same thing and say to myself when I'm half way through with paint all over my hand, why didn't I put on gloves the box of gloves is right here with all the paint equipment. 🤷‍♂️❓🤦‍♂️ Oh well. 👍 The pipe loads look really good by the way and it's nice to see some model trains work on your channel again. It's been awhile. That's most of the reason I subscribed to your channel.

[@pileofstuff]

To quote a great philosopher of our time: "he's old enough to know what's right and young enough not to choose it".

[@ewoodrailway]

Great video, I've subbed

[@vagnerfeksa6219]

Parabéns por compartilhar estas dicas!!!

[@billbarnes8192]

I use black straws you can get at any restraints supply

[@pileofstuff]

Good idea. If you keep your eyes open it's amazing all the places you can find modelling supplies for cheap .

[@shihanjulio]

White pipes = PVC pipes :)

[@GadgetReboot]

Neat! Is that little spray painting mechanism specifically designed for those small jars of paint?

[@pileofstuff]

There is a jar attachment for the airbrush, but it can also be set up to paint from any source. It's main purpose is to spray controlled amouts of paint very precisely. I'm not using most of it's capability. It can do very fine and delicate painting in the hands of a skilled artist (I'm not that)

[@sem1ot1c]

The 'national drink of the UK' requires milk :)

[@zx8401ztv]

Are the tubes out of airosol cans any good for models or too shiney :-) Your model needs a bit of a mucky/dusty look, it looks too pretty :-D

[@pileofstuff]

I hadn't considered aerosol dip tubes. I suspect they could be used for something in scale if they got a coat of appropriately coloured paint on them

[@adam850]

Have you thought about making a spine flatbed car?

[@pileofstuff]

i just checked my shelf of unbuilt kits and, surprisingly, I don't have one in my accumulation. I may see if I can find a kit when the next train show comes to town.

[@adam850]

@@pileofstuff I see many of them here in Oregon, are they common in your area?

[@pileofstuff]

@@adam850 In the real world there's lots of them. However, I model the early 1970s, so they weren't that common at the time.

[@DrexProjects]

What scale is your train stuffs?

[@pileofstuff]

HO scale. 87:1