Diagrams of a Toy Train.
The coal car floor measures two inches square, the sides two inches by one, and the ends one and three-quarters by one. These are nailed together to form a little box, and four wheels and bearings like the forward ones on the engine are made. The couplings are made from little round brass hooks, the one on the forward end of each car being horizontal, and the one in the rear end perpendicular.
The baggage car is a triumph of whittling, for it has a door that will slide back and forth just like a real one. The bottom and top of the car are oblong pieces of wood two inches by four and a half, and the end pieces measure two by two and a quarter inches. The sides are made like Fig. 5, with an opening an inch and a quarter square for a doorway. On the inside of the side pieces, extending to within a half inch of each end, and starting about an eighth of an inch from the top a groove is cut, the depth of the groove being about a quarter of an inch. The door itself is one and thirteen-sixteenths inches high by two inches wide, and has two very small, flat-headed, wood screws, screwed in near the top at an angle, so that the heads rest in this groove, and slide back and forth. Above the door is a strip of wood an eighth of an inch wide, and outside of this another strip a quarter of an inch wide, both of which are nailed in position, and keep the door from slipping out of the groove. Another screw forms a handle for the door, and when the car is put together it is not at all apparent how the door slides. Fig. 6 is a section cut through the side, above the doorway, and shows the groove and how the strips are put on.
For the passenger car the floor is made first—like Fig. 7—the car floor itself measuring two inches by four and one-half, with a projection one inch by five-eighths at each end for a platform. The sides of the car (Fig. 8), are two inches by four and a half, with three holes one inch wide by three-quarters high for Pullman windows. The ends of the car are like Fig. 9. They are slipped over the platforms, the space one and one quarter inch by a half inch forming a doorway and the lower ends extending below the platform to form the side of the steps. The end of the platform is a piece measuring one inch by two inches, and is nailed in position so that the lower edge of it is even with the lower edge of the side pieces, the remainder of it extending above the platform for a railing. There are two steps on each side at each end—eight steps in all. The bottom ones measure a quarter of an inch wide and three-quarters of an inch long, while the upper ones are the same width, but only a half inch long, for they have to fit in between the ends of the car, and the ends of the platform. The roof of the car is like Fig. 10—a piece two inches by six and one-half inches with rounded ends, extending well over the platforms. Both the passenger and baggage cars have wheels exactly like the coal car. When these are done the train is coupled, and away she speeds. “Clear the track there! The Twentieth Century Limited is just pulling into Chicago, and she has made the trip from New York in eighteen hours.”
OUT-DOOR TOYS
THIS set of whittled outdoor toys ought to please almost any boy. With kite and fish line time coming soon and the wind blowing a gale for your weather vane, and the other fellows out ready to play “cat”—well, let’s see how to make all these toys.
The kite stick in Fig. 1 is made from a piece of pine wood eight inches long, and, roughly cut out, about three-quarters of an inch square. This is smoothed down to five-eighths of an inch, and then you start in to make it round. First the four corners of the square are trimmed off evenly for the full length, making it an eight-sided stick, and then these corners are again trimmed, until finally the stick is round enough to be sandpapered smooth. It is better to draw a five-eighth inch circle on each end of the stick before you trim it down, so that you can see whether you are making a true round. When the line for the bevel is marked around one-eighth of an inch from the ends, the bevel is cut, the notch is cut around the middle, and the stick is ready to tie your kite string to.