Big Blue has inspired some purchases

[Amalynn]

Coming along good, TMo. Any more progress?

[TMo]

Coming along good, TMo. Any more progress?

Hmmm....  Progress has to be positive to be considered progress (I think).  Unfortunately, the piece of shrink tube on the "unused" green wire fell off sometime in the placing of the shell over the chassis.  Negative electrical connection #2 frying decoder #2.  As a result, I ripped the whole wiring harness out and started fresh - new (and better constructed) wiring harness has been connected to motor, track pickups and LEDs.  New decoder arrives sometime next week.....  I really didn't want to admit that the same thing bit me twice, but....  the same thing bit me twice.  

It is a good observation regarding retrofitting a brass locomotive - there's lots of extra opportunities for short circuits!

[TMo]

The brass RS2 blew yet another decoder after I replaced the wiring harness, so that's going to end up on the display shelf as one of those "nice try, dumb@$$" projects.

However, my appetite for pushing the envelope remains, and I recently won an auction for an Intermountain SD40-2 chassis already with DCC. Apparently, the seller destroyed the shell somehow, and was willing to part with the chassis for what I think was a decent price considering that these have a really good running reputation. I had visions of getting it for a song until another buyer bid it up. Should be in my mailbox early this week, so I've been exploring options for shells. There are quite a few out there, but the reasonably inexpensive ones seem to have issues (missing pieces, missing handrails, bad paint jobs, etc.). I was either looking for a good foreign road lease job (say Union Pacific, Santa Fe, Chessie, Southern Pacific (I was flirting with a potential tunnel motor as well)), or a brand new looking off the production floor Conrail blue unit circa 1977 (that was the first year bought for that model, but it's close to my modeling timeframe, and I'm willing to stretch a little).

Ran into a dummy Athearn SD40-2 unit in Conrail blue that shows some promise - it's all there but has been weathered a good bit more than I want. Purchased it this morning, so a new project forthcoming fitting the shell and unweathering to nearly pristine.

I started into ideas for modeling the prototype and learned some things. The first Conrail buys of the Dash 2's had Flexicoil trucks rather than the standard HTC's, which was a spotting feature on those units. This unit does NOT have either the Flexicoils or the plow on the front (standard with the first units bought), so there's still some other stuff to research and purchase. More challenges!

[TMo]

Well, I did a search on the proper truck frames, and if I want to buy new, I'm looking at probably $30 for a set which seems a bit extravagant for 4 pieces of plastic. However, almost all of the Athearn SD45's (non dash 2's) have Flexicoil trucks, so I'll be doing some hunting for a reasonable SD45 or a decent chassis (dummy or powered).

I did put in a bid for a powered RG&W SD45 with a plow, so I may be able to kill two birds with one bid, but that would also probably mean having enough material for ANOTHER project....

[TMo]

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?

[jim currie]

take a Dremel and mill two slots in the Chassie to fit the reinforcements.
Jim

[TMo]

Good thought, Jim! I think I'm going to go the other way, however. The chassis in that area is beefed up to support the coupler pocket, and I'd rather preserve the integrity of the coupler rather than reinforcing the front pilot. Plastic's also easier to cut away.

[TMo]

Did a little scrubbing - a toothbrush and some isopropyl alcohol.  Looks better, but still needs work to replicate an early SD40-2.  It appears the previous owner also painted the railings with a darker blue paint than the molded plastic and they applied it pretty liberally over areas near every interface between the railings and the shell.  The more I consider it, the more appealing the airbrush looks for a completely new paint job and some new decals.  However, paint won't be applied until I bash this shell to fit the chassis, so postpone the aesthetics!

   

[TMo]

The bashing has begun!  I took out the vertical supports for both pilots (starting with a pair of cutting pliers to take out the major pieces followed by a Dremel with a sanding wheel to take it down to the left of the back of the pilot.  I also sanded off the back side supports for each of the handrail holes.  

       

Tried it out for fit, and it didn't (as I expected).  The shell thickness at the bottom edge (all the way around the shell) is a bit too beefy to allow the shell to slide nicely over the chassis.  the cutaways in the front and rear to accomodate the steps at each corner are also a slightly different profile that the Athearn design (and that's what's forcing the shell's porch to bend upward in the photo below.  

   

For the first problem, I could either carefully remove plastic thickness with a Dremel (delicately!), or shave off each edge of the metal chassis (probably a lot less delicate).  The step issue can only be resolved with removing some metal from the chassis, so after very little thought, I'll be cutting metal.

[TMo]

Well, after the cutting wheel was applied to each corner to interface with the Athearn steps, we have improvement.  

   

It's still not completely flush with the chassis on the front and rear porches, but I think that's mostly due to the shell thickness issue which I haven't tinkered with yet.

   

[TMo]

Did a bit more fine tuning - cutting, grinding, sanding, test fitting. I've got it to a point where it's going to fit snuggly. So, I bought a Details West snowplow and a new set of Conrail EMD decals since I'll be completely redoing this paint job. I'm also going to look into a detail kit and see what's out there.

I've had no luck finding some compatible trucks (the Intermountains aren't the same as the Athearns), so I'm just going to keep the standard HTC trucks which look great (although Conrail opted for the Flexicoils).