12-02-2024, 05:13 PM
Didn't win that SD45, but the truck frame issue will have to rest for a while. I got both the Intermountain chassis and the Athearn SD40-2 body in the mail today and I already see some interesting challenges (translation - not as easy as I thought it might be, not as impossible as it could be...).
Ran the chassis this evening, runs like hot butter and it's whisper quiet, so kudos to Intermountain there.
However, the Athearn shell is an old blue box unit (as I expected) and it isn't a simple "slide-over-the-chassis-and-secure-it-somehow" project. The Intermountain chassis is just a hair longer than the shell cavity, and the handrail pockets in the shell are not going to allow the shell to slide down flush with the flat full-width chassis, and the shell includes an air tank that's on each side that already exists on the chassis.
The front and rear pilots are also reinforced and thickened on the back side of each and won't allow the shell to seat.
The front pilot on this dummy unit appears to have sustained some damage during it's time on earth - it's slightly deformed. There is no rear number board "glass" on the rear number boards, there is no snowplow, and the grab irons are molded.
Also, the old blue box shell mating (two nubs on each side of the chassis which fit into holes in the shell) aren't prototypical and the Intermountain chassis doesn't have any nubs, so I'll be filling the holes in the shell. The whole shell has been well weathered, but as I said in my last post, I'll be modeling something pretty fresh off the factory floor, so I'll have to de-toxify the beast at some point.
At this point, a wise man would say to himself: "Self, why don't you just bide your time waiting for an Intermountain shell to appear on evil bay, and give up the quest to marry these two disparate components?" Well, this self is not a wise man and I (sometimes) like a challenge. Trying to make this work should also make for good comedy on Big Blue Trains, and don't we need a little comedy?
Ran the chassis this evening, runs like hot butter and it's whisper quiet, so kudos to Intermountain there.
However, the Athearn shell is an old blue box unit (as I expected) and it isn't a simple "slide-over-the-chassis-and-secure-it-somehow" project. The Intermountain chassis is just a hair longer than the shell cavity, and the handrail pockets in the shell are not going to allow the shell to slide down flush with the flat full-width chassis, and the shell includes an air tank that's on each side that already exists on the chassis.
The front and rear pilots are also reinforced and thickened on the back side of each and won't allow the shell to seat.
The front pilot on this dummy unit appears to have sustained some damage during it's time on earth - it's slightly deformed. There is no rear number board "glass" on the rear number boards, there is no snowplow, and the grab irons are molded.
Also, the old blue box shell mating (two nubs on each side of the chassis which fit into holes in the shell) aren't prototypical and the Intermountain chassis doesn't have any nubs, so I'll be filling the holes in the shell. The whole shell has been well weathered, but as I said in my last post, I'll be modeling something pretty fresh off the factory floor, so I'll have to de-toxify the beast at some point.
At this point, a wise man would say to himself: "Self, why don't you just bide your time waiting for an Intermountain shell to appear on evil bay, and give up the quest to marry these two disparate components?" Well, this self is not a wise man and I (sometimes) like a challenge. Trying to make this work should also make for good comedy on Big Blue Trains, and don't we need a little comedy?
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows