Superdetailing an AtlasO Southern Railway GP35 and SD35

So I like to make my trains as close to the prototype as possible without going overboard and using calipers, etc.

I went ahead and found photos of 2 AtlasO units I own. SD35 215K and GP35 2673H. While I was in Chicago at Des Plaines Hobbies, I bought the detail parts needed:

1 P&D 5740 EMD 5 Chime Horn
1 Custom Finishes 905 Firecracker Antenna
6 Cal-Scale Diesel 3028 Ground Lights
1 Cal-Scale Nathan M-5 Horn

Cost: ~$30

So this took maybe an hour or so to do, but I built 2 Nathan M5 brass horns into M5R24 configuration during this time as well instead of just the one I needed. When I rechecked the photo of the SD35, it looks more like a crazy looking 5-chime than a M5.  I couldn't make out the exact horn even using photos of other units, so I chose something close.

This was a simple job. Figure out what the diameter of the peg that holds on the brass part, and then drill the hole where it needs to go. Then CA the part on. Then paint black.

I will edit this post in the future if I figure out what diameter bits are needed to drill holes for these parts.

Here are the photos below.  As always, you can click on them for higher resolution.  Gotta love it.

SD35 with horn, antenna, ground light.

SD35 with horn, antenna, and 2 ground lights.

Finished SD35.

GP35 with M5 horn, antenna, and 3 grounds.  2 of which are in view and only one of which is unpainted.

Custom Rich Yoder 44T in Southern Railway Paint

So I picked up a Brass Rich Yoder Models 44 Tonner.  Its a really beautiful piece.  Ran smooth before I installed TMCC as well.  Rich is known especially by 2-railers for his exquisite pieces that run extremely smooth and are extremely accurate.

I used TMCC products from Electric Railroad.  The Mini Commander 2 to drive the motors and directional headlights.  I also was able to fit in a Sound Commander 2 board with the RDC multichime horn sounds as the diesel generator sounds are the same and the horn I am using will be multichime.

Below outlines what I've done to build his piece into my accurate model.

 

I had to take everything apart.  Unscrew the screws for the shell and the fuel tank. Go ahead and snip out the wires from the electronics as they are not necessary.  I replaced the LEDs with warm white LEDs in the 3mm size.  They fit in the hole just fine.  I soldered a 1kohm resistor in series with the positive lead to get it ready for use with the ERR Mini Commander 2 board.

Using prototype photos of the SOU1951 44T, I determined that I needed to remove the sunshades of the cab windows and the extra detail on the ends by the headlights.  Other details I used from photos was the type of horn used, the air line to the horn, the cab shades, and the infamous headlight shades that were a pain to reproduce.

I used 600grit wet sandpaper to remove the lettering.  To remove the Pennsy tiger striping on the pilots, I used ELO, wet sandpaper, and a lot of elbow grease and time as I didn't want to remove the underlying paint, just the stripes that stuck up from the paint.

I used automobile Bondo to fill all of the holes from where I removed the cabshades, the detail by the headlight, and where the old horn was. I let the bondo dry and sanded it dry and then wet to get it as smooth as possible and unnoticeable.  This took many tries and a few hours to get to look perfect.

For TMCC reception, I used the horn and the airline as the external antenna.  This is key as you need the antenna to make it outside of the brass body so one can get TMCC reception.  The other option is to wrap an antenna around the underframe underneath the underframe.

This is a switcher and I wanted ELECTRO couplers.  Scale ones at that.  The Atlas ones fit the bill, but stuck out too much.  I used styrene to shim the coupler up to the right height and I also moved it back so that the coupler would not stick out that far.  The trucks had to be modified to allow for this.  If using 806 kadees, nothing this extreme would be necessary.

One can see the truck was modified and the pickup roller had to be moved back.

I drilled and tapped new holes using a 8-80 bits from Kadee.  Alot of work, but necessary for the electro couplers.

Looks good to me.  You can also see the screws sticking up from the styrene shim.  The styrene was also held together using 5 minute expoxy from Loctite.

I used walther's magic masker on the windows so I could easily airbrush the black all over.  This is after I made a hole for the horn placement, etc.  Seen being decaled for Southern using photos.  Both sides were different as far as placement of the ACI plate and the words Southern were concerned.  Using prototype photos is a MUST to get things right.

Southern Railway Tiger Stripes.  Much thinner than anything the Pennsy had.

AtlasO SW7/9 switcher speaker is just small enough to fit.  The sound is somewhat muffled and may need the placement to be moved to the front of the engine where the grill is.

The fuel tank was slightly modified to allow the mini commander 2 board to fit into it.  Lots of wires.

Everything assembled.  I believed I used a combination of 4-40 washers/nuts/screws to hold the trucks in place.  The wiring is pretty easy to do if you follow the ERR instructions.

Completed model shown with the correct horn, electro couplers, and the headlight shades.  >20 hours of work depending on how much functionality you want and how prototypical you want it.

With my radio control car kits.

I will probably be the only one with one of these in Southern paint with TMCC and sound.

I hope you enjoyed this.  Its not a hard task to do, just time consuming.  Check out my links on the sidebar to find your way to Rich Yoder Models to purchase your own brass 44T. 

AS ALWAYS, click on the pictures for HI RES versions.

NEW MILW Ribside REBUILT Boxcar Casting

So I was chosen to build the display car for Rails Unlimited's new ribside boxcar they have coming out in March.  It was definitely an honor to be the first to build this casting into a model and for it to be used as a display to help sell the casting to others.

I feel its a pretty good job, but definitely not my best.  I hope Ted allows me to build more in the future for him.

The new car being "released" at the Chicago O Scale Meet. If you cannot make it, please contact Ted Schnepf. His other castings (not only MILW) and contact information are here:

http://railsunlimited.ribbonrail.com/index.html

He has everything you need to complete this car and others! He used to work for the MILW railroad as well. He is considered an expert for sure! Great guy too.




Ribside boxcars were rebuilt during the 1960s. Some more-so than others. Here is an example of one such car that had steel plates welded to patch the worn out sides. This car also furnishes the unique MILW underbody arrangement of the triple valve, AB Reservoir, and Brake Cylinder.

Prototype:

The Model:

 

 

 

 

AS ALWAYS, the photos are click-able to see larger hi-res quality.


MORE Photos:

http://s2.photobucket.com/albu...%20Rebuilt%20Boxcar/


If you are making this meet, you can check out my work on this car in person. Please excuse the decal job as its not my best and I tried a new technique that led to not perfect results. Oh and ignore the chipped paint on the underbody, I didn't fix it before photos, but my screwdriver hit the brass wire while slipping from the screw to keep the truck on. Trying to be a perfectionist is so hard.

O Scale Southern Railway / Norfolk Southern Radio Car Resin Kit

I have finished the 3 pilot models for the urethane kit I have come out with.

Jim King did most all of the work in making the kit.  This included him hand-measuring the original 1:1 prototype car.  Then making the CAD files.  He then had an SLA made where he took molds of each side and then put the castings together to make the one-piece body.  He then molded that and casted that.  From there, one adds the detail parts on, paints it, etc and you have a finished kit.

I have kits available in 3R, 2R, and 3RS.  I can even put these together for an extra cost.  Kits come with Southern decals, but I can also provide NS decals for an extra cost.


As always, click the images to see the HIGH-res versions.

AtlasO Scale 2R SW SCL Repaints

No one paints anything into SCL colors these days.  Don't know why as it was a major class 1 railroad unlike half of the class 2 and 3's that keep getting attention.  I seem to be about the only guy I know painting SCL stuff these days, but that's okay.  I don't like to own the same stuff everyone else has running on their layout. I enjoy super-detailing and repainting equipment, especially locomotives in SCL, SOU, and NYC tradition.

I repainted 2 AtlasO SW's into SCL paint.  SW9 183, SW8 19.  I also had to edit this post, so I threw in some photos of S2m 113.  All are based off prototype pictures and have been super-detailed accordingly.  Finished up #19 last night and #183 has been done for over a year now and is also weathered. 113 was done in 2011 timeframe and had an article done in OST for it.

As always, the pics are clickable for the HIGH-resolution versions of the photos.

St. Charles Model Works ACL K-7 Gondola

So I finished this gon kit since before O Scale National 2009 in Baltimore.  It was on display there.  This kit is produced by St. Charles Model Works.  Their website is here: http://www.scmodelworks.com/  Contact Terry or Sue if you want one of these kits.  They retail for around $105 for the complete kit with trucks/couplers/parts.

Below is the construction process.  Hopefully it will help or inspire others to build this kit.  Its a good kit outside needing to heavily wash the resin to get rid of oils.

NOTE: ALL images are shown smaller than actually are.  Click on images for higher-res photos if desired.

Here is what comes in the full kit:

Simple, right?  Yup. 

First step is to stand down any flash on the body castings.

After speaking to Terry on the phone, I found out the kit was designed for a 1/32 metal plate in between the underframe and the body castings.  I planned on putting load inside and opted for some styrene cut down to correct sizes.

The underframe was put on with CA, but epoxy may have been the smarter move.  I have had no issues with the CA though.

 Below are some tools I used to do this after looking at prototype blueprints, pictures, etc.  I have a digital caliper that I got at York for $20.  One of my best investments.  To the left is also some rivets and small modelers drill bits.  A must for modelers.  Time to put in some grabs and their rivets that hold them in.

I then moved to do the sides, again using prototype photos.  Each hole was drilled with a #76 bit and a pin vise.

Finally some work on adding the AB brakes (intermountain plastic sprues)

I replaced the plastic piping with wire.

Here is a shot of the B end with the brake wheel details and grab irons.  These are roughly done off pictures.  The ends are not dreadnaught, which is a flaw for post 1950, but it will make due on this model.

The above picture shows the completed brake details.  Note that I had drilled holes through the underframe brackets for the brake lines to go through.  Thinking about it, I believe I forgot to add the air line to this car from the air hoses.  Oops.  The end of the brake cylinder leg is attached the the brake wheel via some scale chain.  A good reference for both AB and K brakes that I have used is here:
http://www.steamfreightcars.com/modeling/articles/brakes.pdf

 
The A end.

Completed 3/4 view.

Not sure who made the trucks, but they're similar to weaver/athearn bettendorfs.

Below is the completed car with graceline 2R trucks.  The 3R weaver trucks' flanges were ridiculous and would not work with this kit.  I suppose someone could washer the heck out of the bolster, but that would ruin the look of this car.  2R wheels run on newer track systems like Gargraves/RCS switches, and AtlasO track these days anyways.  No problem.  Almost ready for paint.  Even with 2R trucks, the flanges hit the underframe.  Time to fix that next.

The photo is a little bright, but some more photos of the completed car.

Around this time I added the stirrups.  I added them after the trucks to ensure they wouldn't break off from handling.

Above is the decals and all the tools I use.  I use a sharp metal ruler and a sharp fresh X-acto blade to cut my decals.  I have a special brush I only use to put on the microscale solutions to put on decals.  I have not used the walthers solvaset in awhile.  The paper bowl to the left has warm water to soak the decals in.  The car itself is behind the solvasets.  Note, paper bowls give up structural integrity over time.  Do not use them for water or cereal.  I stick with plastic tupperware now for the warm water I need to do decals.

Next is time to cut the decals:

From here, this is one finished side.  You can see the rest of the decals sitting behind the car.  Again, a photo and blueprints were used to figure out where to put decals.  There are also some markings from a cloverhouse dry transfers on the sides as well.  Also note the decals on the undersill.  That was known by looking at the blueprints.  You can see that I upgraded from the paper bowl to the plastic tupperware and I use a mcdonalds napkin to place my decals after 10 seconds in the water.  I use a pair of $4 needlenose tweezers to move the decals where I want them.  I won't go over how to do decals.  That is explained on a lot of other websites as well as the directions on the solvaset bottles.  The key is to gloss the heck out of the body before putting the decals on.  That and using the sharp X-acto to cut the decals will help blend the edges of the decals into the paint and leave great looking models.  don't forget to gloss over it again and dull cote if desired.  That will protect the decals and help keep them from yellowing in years to come.

The final result:

Again, the kit and the cool granite load can be had from St. Charles Model Works.  They guarantee everything and their kits and loads are top notch.  They even have a ton of coal loads, scrap bails, steel plates, etc for your coal hoppers, gondolas, and flatcars.


Contact Terry or Sue Wellman at scmodelworks@illicom.net or 815-457-2453 for more information. Their website is www.scmodelworks.com .  Everything they make is made in America.