Update 12-26-10

I haven't posted much here, but this is mainly because the projects I have completed will be showing up in O Scale Trains magazine soon.  My first published article will appear in OST issue #56 or so.  Pick up a copy or subscribe to the one magazine any true O-scale modeler should have!

O Scale 3RS NYC U-25B 2506

Here is the unit MTH NYC U-25B I got from justrains.

First, some info on the engine:
U25B Diesel Engine - With Proto-Sound 2.0 (Scale Wheels) - New York Central
Cab Nos. 2500, 2501 & 2506
Product Number: 20-2964-2
M.S.R.P. $ 449.95
First appeared in: 2010 Volume 1

I requested engine 2506.  Info on unit:
Class DRS-15A from order #300-88359 which was built in February 1964.

I am glad the unit had a lot of styrofoam between the shell and handrails as the ends were still bent in, but not as bad if there had been nothing.

Adding the 3rd rail pickup shoes took like 20 seconds total, though it was funny to read in the instruction manual and it already came with them on.  Adding the foot plates on the ends was easy too. Adding kadees took a minute as well since the screws were included in the plow bag.  Takes an 805 no problem.  I had to take off the rear roof plate and set the engine to 3R and turned the smoke unit POT to off as it was not off entirely.

Only bad things cosmetically I have to say are the following:
-metal add-on parts are shiny compared to dull finish on the shell
-marker lights stick out at different lengths for each marker
-Somehow the black paint has some sort of white residue that is hard to remove from the protective foam they use

Negating lengths (as I do not really measure those), model is prototypical for this unit except:

• The ends have an extra set of MU sockets on the left.
• Missing bar above coupler lift bar
• End railings should not have chains in middle, but continue across.
• Should not have drop step
• Missing flag holders on cab roof
• Missing ATC shoe on one truck
• While horn has the right number of chimes, it is wrong. Base is off and the middle chime should be on the outside of the car body

My eventual fixes:

• Add ATC shoe to forward right truck.
• Remove additional MU sockets (this will be interesting)
• Add yellow bar above coupler lift bar
• Add flag holders
• Contemplating removing marker lights and adding red lenses
• Maybe paint right MU cap yellow (can't find a picture of 2506 to determine if its caps were painted, since it seems hit or miss)
• Maybe try to get rid of chain
• Maybe remove drop steps
• Maybe change horn to a better brass representation
• Maybe swap out bell to a better brass representation
• Weathering

I do want to note that MTH got the trucks right.  Rear right truck did not have the extra wires.  Now only if we could get them to invest in ATC shoe tooling and add them on there for us.

Now for photos.  Enjoy.

Yorke Studios Covered Hopper Unloader

This is the unloader that Tom just came out with.  Took about 3 hours to do.  Neat little kit.  Its about $35 when shipping is included.  

You can click on the images for Hi-res shots.

O Scale 2R SOU SW1 404

So this project started when I saw on the OGR Forum that SW1 shells were being sold on Ebay.  Of course I wanted an SW1, but the MTH didn't have fixed pilots and I do prefer TMCC where possible, so I went ahead and used an AtlasO SW7 I had on hand with the shell as the shell would fit on the chassis.

I first found my prototype photo.  From there, I added all of the details that were missing from the shell.  I bent my own brass handrails, matching the shape of the shell.  I tried to reuse some of the holders from the AtlasO SW shell, but I also ended up using brass coupler lift bar holders from Cal Scale as well.  I also bent my own handrails for the side of the shell as the preformed Tichy copper grabs would not fit.

The spark arrest is a combination of 2 aluminum tubes glued together, with a brass wire mesh that was soldered together and glued to the top of the tubing construct.  The bottom tube fits snugly to the smoke stack(which I took from an AtlasO stack piece).

The headlight faceplates were from Cal-scale (PSC makes them too) and I had a piece of brass tubing that fit around the faceplate exactly.  They were soldered together after I cut the brass tube to what I thought looked good and close to the picture.  I ended up making number boards from strip styrene and glued them to the side of the headlight housing.

The cab shell (separate from the body shell) itself was modified in two ways.  There was big holes in the rear for whatever MTH used for the rear grab irons to the door.  I filled that in with Bondo and drilled new holes in the bondo for the new handrails I formed.  I also plugged the hole in the front for the horn and added a brass PSC or P&D 3-chime horn as that is what it looked like in the photo.  The interior is a cut-up/modified AtlasO SW interior and is glued to the chassis.  The cab shell fits directly over it without any issues.

To mount the shell, I put white paint around the housings on the bottom of the shell and while still wet, I placed the shell down onto the chassis exactly where I knew where I wanted it.  This left a residue of the rough area where I needed to drill the chassis to allow me to screw the shell to the chassis.  This is seen in one of the photos below.

ERR SC2 and MC2 were used and mounted to the roof of the shell with plenty of room to spare.  Unfortunately at the time that I write this blog post, the SC2 has been discontinued.  I can only hope ERR brings it back soon.  They had quite a few unique sound chips.

The rear hand rails were modified to reflect the picture of the unit I had (and all SW1s I think).  I had an extra front-side handrail set where I cut the 2nd post off and made it into a 1-post set.

And a side-note:  The SW9 chassis used was an older Dallee, non TMCC system, so I had to buy a new speaker from AtlasO and instead of buying a new TMCC chassis that the parts guy wanted me to use, I instead put electrical tape around the entire compartment of the speaker and I was able to get the speaker to slip down in the fuel tank and then used a rectangular styrene piece to keep the speaker in place.  It is a tight fit.  Then on the bottom of the fuel tank, I put some extremely tiny, plastic mesh over the hole to keep the speaker magnet from picking up anything major into the speaker and ruining it.

My workspace as I was doing this project.  Prototype photo shown too.

Added details to MTH shell.  All brass.

Aluminum and Brass Spark Arrestor made by hand.

How I used the shell to tell me where to drill my holes to keep the shell on.

ERR MC2 and SC2 taped to the shell.

Instead of buying new frame, made the old one work with a new speaker.

Rats Nest.

Note new brass headlight and styrene numberboards.

Brass PSC  horn

AtlasO SW Bell

SCL U36B 1765

Here's a unit I finished over the summer - Seaboard Coast Line 1765.  With the help of online photos and the SCL yahoo group, I was able to figure out the prototypical horn and antenna placement. 

The firecracker antenna is a custom finishes FCA and the horn is a Leslie 5-chime (the exact part name escapes me) brass kit from Des Plaines Hobbies.  I positioned the chimes in the right directions as well.

The original unit was a U33C.  It was kitbashed into a U36B by shortening the unit and installing P&D blomberg trucks.  Also, one of the doors was opened on the side and the pilots were fixed with new handrails.  This work was done by an individual from Castle Hayne, NC.  He originally made this a SBD unit and all I did was fix the patch work he did on the windows by installing new windows, fixing the front headlight, adding the prototype details, and repainting into SCL Bumblebee scheme.

Weathering was done with an airbrush to match the photo I had of this unit in March 1971.

Don't forget - Click on each photo to see the Hi-Res version.

Southern Railway F7B 6167

I took apart a Lionel F7B unit that has the breakdown electronics in it for an easy Southern Railway repaint.  This unit is pretty cool in that you can also just leave off the breakdown sequence and have an extra unit with sound in it further in the consist.  Also has electrocouplers.

6167 was the only F7B that had the right side grills that match this unit and no special spark arrestors on the smoke stacks that were common on SOU units.  Got lucky I suppose in finding a photo in 1968 of this unit.  I weathered it using Bragdon Weathering Chalks as the photo had showed it near its end of life at the time.  The unit was retired in 1971 and traded in.

Interior Electronic Guts

Shell is easy to take apart.  Nothing Attached.

O Scale 2R SCL GP35 1408

My next old completed project is an AtlasO GP35 2R unit that was repainted into SCL.

Prototypical air horn and firecracker antenna.  Placement accurate too.  Weathering to match the photo of various GP35s I have photos of.

As always, you can click on the photos for high-res shots.

O Scale 2R SCL GP9 1051

Been a long time since I last posted.  I will try to find time to update it with old projects that I've already completed.

First is an AtlasO GP9 2R unit that was repainted into SCL.  It is one of 2 GP9s the SCL had with Dynamic brakes.  It came from the Winston-Salem Southbound.

Prototypical horn and placement.  Weathering to match the photo I was using.

As always, you can click on the photos for high-res shots.