Some of the obstacles left to solve were, creating and mounting the center
"beam" and centering the trucks on a 7 wide platform. The ropes are only
decorations, they are not structurally needed.



Creating the center beam:

I used 2 - 1x8x2
arches to create each of the 5 oval opening. They are held together by
inserting a 4 stud axle into either 1x1x2 end of the arch (see here
for related details). In order to space them properly I had to add plates
and/or bricks and then a tile to the top of each arch.



Mounting the center beam:

The arch assemblies are seated on their sides in a 32 stud long channel created
by 2 rows of 1x2 thin wall panels. They are held in place on the top by a row of
alternating 1x2-1x4
90-degree brackets. This alternating row of brackets creates a nice 1 stud
channel and can be strengthened on 3 sides (from McKee/Mathis design) .



Centering the trucks on a 7 wide platform.

Trying to keep the deck of the train car as thin as possible made it tough to
find a solution to centering the bogie. After many attempts a 1x8
technic plate with holes in the end stud positions worked the best.