I think after one has built a few cars, in whatever scale, there is always the desire to see some different variation on the most common car - hence our love of work train equipment.

Photographs © Jeff Saxton

Most of us have a crane or derrick car of some form planned, and I am no different. I began this project with one of my “new” Gn15 Heywood style 3 x 6 Flatcar kits, assembled per instructions (actually, I threw the instructions away, since I wrote them!). This particular car was finished with a natural stained wood deck, black hardware, and Floquil’s “Rock Island Maroon” for the other wood parts.

The scratchbuilt Derrick itself was made back in 1989, when I was toying with 1:32 scale on HO track. It originally sat on the rear deck of a Mack “Bulldog” AC truck, converted from a diecast Ertl bank. The prototype truck I based the model on, as well as the model truck, are long gone, but I had saved the Derrick in one of my scrap boxes for future use.

The center post is 3/16″ diameter brass rod, with a sleeve around the lower half made from 1/4″ diameter Evergreen styrene tubing. The base ring is a lathe-turned disc of brass, with a tapped hole in the center. The horizontal arm of the Derrick is also brass rod, 1/8″ diameter, and extends through a hole drilled in the vertical member. The braces are 3/64″ brass wire. All the brass parts are soft soldered together, but styrene rod and tube could easily replace the brass sections.

The two pulley blocks are from some model ship firm, and are white metal. The hook is an old Mantua part, from an HO crane. The winch assembly consists of a sheet styrene base and two sides, roughly cut to size and sanded along their edges after they had been glued up into a “U” shaped section. The winding drum is more tubing and discs of styrene, with a brass wire axle and handle extending through the drum. The base of the winch is glued to the styrene tube on the vertical post.

Since thread in small scales seldom looks like cable (it doesn’t stay taut, it has fuzz, etc.) I used .015″ brass wire for all the lifting cables. Each section is cut to length, and formed to fit the pulleys, then glued in place. The hook is therefore quite stable, so it won’t look limp when viewed. The winch drum though, does have thread wrapped around it a few times.

Attaching the Derrick to the Flatcar consists of a hole drilled in the Flatcar deck and frame, centered, and then a bolt was threaded up into the tapped hole in the Derrick base. I still need to weather the model, and add some small junk like a wrench or two and a toolbox to the deck. While such a Derrick would likely not be too useful on such a small gauge (when rotated to the side, even the model car tips over!); I felt it was different and interesting enough to warrant the effort. It will look good on a siding near the sheds, at any rate.