Copper State Railway SD40-2 progress report

[6axlepwr]

Still waiting on the decoders, but I was told the delay is due to the bad weather we have been having around the country. So I figure any day now. So not to waste any modeling time, I figured I could a get a few more things done.

This first photo shows all the items used to create the brake lines. The bottom center item is the paper template I made for bending the brass wire. The middle item is the template made from styrene to make the curved bends in the ends that bring the piping to the brake cylinders. Then of course the trucks frames with the brake lines installed.

Prior to building all this, I first removed the mold parting line that runs horizontally across the side frames. I blended the area around the journal casting. I then cut the brake lines off and cleaned all this up. Then I drilled the holes for the brass brake lines in the cylinder ends. The lines are made from 0.008" brass wire lightly annealed.

To give a breif rundown of how I do all this.

1. Tape the paper bending template down.
2. Starting on the left end, tape the annealed wire down running along the top horizontal line.
3. At the first joint where the angled line crosses the horizontal line, I use chisel tweezers and put the point of the chissel at the joint. I then bend the wire to follow the angled line.
4. Just keep making the bends at each joint.
5. When done, cut the wire at the right end of the template.
6. The middle template was made from 0.040" styrene that was milled down to 0.035" thick. The grooves for the wire were then cut into it 0.005" deep The styrene template has the jog centered in it. On each end is glued a piece of 0.030" rod. I place the bent wire into the grooves in th etool. I tape it down.
7. Bend the end around under the template. Now I have nice 0.030" bends.



Here is a better view of the side frames. The frames have been grit blasted after the installation of the brake lines to clean it all up and to check on the removal of the mold parting line. As you can see, no more ugly mold parting line. If you look at the back end of the side frames you can see I also added the casting hole where the side frame makes it curve back in. At the top center of the side frame I fabricated a clip from 0.008" brass wire. It is annealed wire smashed lightly in a machinist vice. I then curled it around the brake line and put the unsmashed pin into a drilled hole. This will secure the brake line and keep it down along the top of the frames. Everything is secured also with a small dab of CA at each brake cylinder and the top middle bracket pin.

I still need to add the sanding hoses to the rear of each truck. The front ones are tucked so tight under the deck and behind the step wells that I do nto need to add sanding lines there. I also need to add the speed recorder. I already have the speed recorder disk etched from brass. Today I sent in the 3D model to be printed of the piece that fits over the disk that the wire comes out of. Once that comes back, I can finish up the detail work on the trucks and get them painted.



After putting the side frames aside I tackled the long hood end. I was not looking forward to filling in the number boards. I am not good at body work filling/sanding/blending. I always end up sanding to much and after painting you can still see the filled area. So I decided to use the long hood end from the 88" nose model that the "snoot" shell is replacing.

In this photo you can see all the parts that were cut. If you look closely at Kato shells and even Atlas shells and most likely any shell, you can see a natural mold parting line. This is the reference line I use to cut the parts out. I preserved all the detail on the last cooling fan just in case I wanted to use it for a different model. The long hood end was sanded back to the mold parting line. There is an issue though with the shell it is going on. The mold parting line at the top of the shell is above the thickness of the shell. It is not easy to trim up to this parting line so I didn't. I cleaned the "Snoot" shell at the top up to the thickness of the plastic. Basically to the inside of the shell. I then squared up the long hood end in my mill and milled the top down just enough so the long hood end fit perfectly on the back of the shell.



Here you can see the fit up of the long hood end. It is not glued in yet. Before I do that, I will trim off the grab irons and drill holes for the wie grabs. I also need to remove the paint. That little gap yu see about midway up betwen the long hood end and the shell is just that the end is leaning slightly forward. If you look at the point of the hood end at the top, you can see it is out a little also. Push it back and it all lines up perfectly. Once glued in place, it will all look like it was molded that way.

If you look at the bottm edge of the shell under the hood doors, you can see where I trimmed the shell to fit over the blower duct. I will remove the T-vent or DB vent off the top of the shell and replace it with the one from the donor shell that the long hood end was cut off of. Actually, if it is at all possible to get the Athearn F59PHI shell, I will try to design the bulged DB hatch for the Q equipped locomotives and if I am successful, I will cut the DB hatch off and replace it.



Lots to do still, but this build is becoming a lot of fun. Pushing my limits as much as I can. I have another cool thing that I should be getting in for this model in a couple weeks. I'll show that when it comes in. I do not want to spoil the coolness factor of it. And I want to make sure it works.

[6axlepwr]

Today I got a little more done. I thought it was going to be more difficult to get the sanding lines in, but it went rather quick. I thought at first I was going to have to have the brackets photo etched. Was not looking forward to having to wait for that to be done. But then an idea came to mind. If I can smash wire, why not make the shape and smash it flat. And that is what I did. I used 0.012" wire. I bent it in an "L" shape and then smashed it flat in a machinist vise. I then heavily annealed the end that the sanding hose would be attached to. I wrapped the bracket around a piece of 0.015" brass wire and made the sanding hose loop. I then measured out how far the bracket needs to stick out the back of the jornal keeper. I cut it to length. I then cut a notch at the bottom of the rear journal leg on the side frame for the bracket to fit into. I CAed the bracket in place. To help secure it more, I drilled a 0.010" diameter hole through the bracket into the journal leg and pined it with a piece of 0.008" wire CAed in place. After the CA set, I bent the brackets up at an angle and threaded a piece of 0.015" diameter solder through the bracket loop to represent the hose and CAed it in place. At the top of the side frame I drilled a 0.015" diameter hole that the other end of the solder would be secured to.  I formed the solder and glued it all in place. The sanding hoses now set just behind the wheel tread.

I really like how this all turned out. I like using the solder because you can form it and there is no memory for it to spring back. It stays in place. The final step was to grit blast it all to get it ready for paint. Now all I need is my speed recorders.

[wazzou]

Excellent work Brian.

[6axlepwr]

One more item to show before I turn in for the night.

I make my own coupler lift pin bars in HO and knew I would have to give it a try for N-Scale. So tonight I put away the procrastination helmet and made a test run of it. I am VERY pleased with the results and it is a 100% success. These are the type 2 coupler lift pin bars. The center loop is a piece of photo etch. It is of course flat, but then I bend the bar loops at 90 degree to the pin lifter and thread the lift bar through them. Also the bar brackets are photo etch. They are to scale also. The bar is made from 0.008" annealed bronze wire. I have the pototype dimensions for making these and these are prototype size for all the bends.





In this view, you can get a better look at the bar brackets. They have the correct shape and size. I took measurements from the pototype to make these. There is nothing to really give you an idea of the size, but if you see the pencil lines on the card stock. Those are the spacing that will be on the front of the pilot plate. Checking photos of ATSF "snoots", there are only two brackets per side.

The lift pin loop is from a 0.006" thick test sheet. If I make them again, it will be from 0.008" sheet. For now though, I think they are fine. When I make the assembly for the model, I will not cut the horizontal bars off after they go through the lift pin loop. I will make a 180 bend in the bar under the pift pin loop like on the prototype. Who says you can't be prototypical in N-Scale.

[wmcbride]

Wow!

[6axlepwr]

Received the four Loksound Select Micro decoders today. Promptly sat down to install one. I was a little disappointed that it did not have the additional function output so I could wire each ditch light individually. I was really hoping for that, but not going to happen. I should have read the literature better. Would have saved me some work. But at least the ditch lights will be sperate from the head light. No alternating lights when the horn is sounded though. 

In this first photo you can see the decoder sitting under the resistor board at the rear. It sits real nicely under the board. I had to trim a little of the protective plastic shrink wrap from each end to fit the spot. The wires come out of the board at the rear and then route over the top of the board. Only the red,black,orange, gray and brown wires route to the front. The blue, green, yellow & white wires got straight up into th eresistor board from underneath. The Kapton tape is to hold the board level so the rear light is where it needs to be for the light bar.



This view gives you a good idea of the wire routing. The surface mount board at the back under the Kapton tape is my common board. I cut a piece of brass froma sheet of photo etch and soldered it across the pads. On the right side, the blue wire comes from under the board through the pad hole and soldered in place.  On the left side is where all the common wires will come in. The rear most resistor is for the rear light. You can see the wire already soldered in place. Because I thought there would be a fourth output function, There used to be a fourth resistor placed at the center of the locomotive right behind the speaker. That has been removed. It was designated for the rear light. Not now. The middle resistor is for the ditch lights and the forward resistor is for the front head light. Those two will be soldered in place when the model is done and it is time to put the shell in place. The brown and black wires are of course the speaker wires. I isolated two pads on the PC board and soldered the wires to them. This will keep them firmly in place and I do not have to insulate them from shorting against the frame. For that matter, everything is soldered in place. At the front are the track power wires.



This last view gives a good look at everything from the top. You can see the wires running under the speaker. The power to the motor wires are on the pads just behind the speaker. There is nothing to tell me what color wire goes to what side of the motor. Naturally, I wired it wrong  .  That is fixed though and now when I put my direction forward, the locomotive goes forward.

If I were to put the decoder in the center of the model, it would fit perfectly inside the shell with a little room to spare on each side. Mine is in the back as you can see so I had to trim a little out from inside the shell. The shell does slip on perfectly nowwithout the side walls bulging.

All has been tested and I like it a lot. The sound it turned all the way up and it is perfect. It is not loud at all. It gets a little louder when the shell is put on, but still at the perfect level. The room has to be quiet for you to hear it good and my layout room will be that way. The sound will be very nice. Actually, the bell is louder than the engine sound so I need to turn it down just a little. The horn sounds great. Better than my HO one.



The next model will get some changes to the PC board. I'll probably design a whole new one that will be more efficient and stiffer than the styrene board I have at the rear now. But as you can see, everything tucks in nicely.

Now it is time to get back to modeling and get this unit done. Or lets see what else can derail me that I may want to add or change.

[Wutter]

I don't know if its too late, but there actually are 2 separate function pads for doing alternating ditch lights (4 light functions on the board total). The last function does not have a wire attached to it and is covered by the shrink wrap before you cut it. I'll see if I can find a picture or diagram of the board in a little bit.

[6axlepwr]

I don't know if its too late, but there actually are 2 separate function pads for doing alternating ditch lights (4 light functions on the board total). The last function does not have a wire attached to it and is covered by the shrink wrap before you cut it. I'll see if I can find a picture or diagram of the board in a little bit.

No, it is not to late. If ther eactually is an additional pad I can use, that would be GREAT!

[Wutter]

If you look carefully on the right side of the diagram, the purple wire pad is where you want to attach the last wire, you'll see it if you have the shrink wrap cut open in that area. Only reason I know this is because the first time I did an install with the LokSound Select Micro I couldn't find it either until after studying this for a while and realizing it was under the wrap on the underside. Just make sure to insulate the pad from the frame, but from what you have already I don't think that'll be a problem. 

[primavw]

Looks like a nice project. I attempted to make brake lines for the trucks on an SD40-2 I was working on but couldn't get them to stay in the cylinders so I chucked them. Also I was interested in doing a Loksound decoder, but it looks like a bit too much for me...

[6axlepwr]

If you look carefully on the right side of the diagram, the purple wire pad is where you want to attach the last wire, you'll see it if you have the shrink wrap cut open in that area. Only reason I know this is because the first time I did an install with the LokSound Select Micro I couldn't find it either until after studying this for a while and realizing it was under the wrap on the underside. Just make sure to insulate the pad from the frame, but from what you have already I don't think that'll be a problem. 

Wutter,

Thank you VERY much. Now I am happy again that I can have the alternating ditch lights when the horn sounds.

Really appreciate the information.

[6axlepwr]

Tonight I went to my local hobby store. BTW, how far away does it have to be before it is not local anymore  . Is 35 miles to far?

Anyway, picked up some 0.030" fiber optic material. WOW, that stuff is cool! Never used it before. Using my soldering iron I tested how much I need to mushroom the end and it fit PERFECTLY! Making a perfect lens. I never knew how great and easy it is to use this stuff. I'll glue it in with MS Krystal Clear when it is time to seal it in place.

Between last weekend and today, the store got in a box of used N-Scale items. Some good stuff in the box and great prices. I picked up a brand new never run U23B in Conrail for $60.00. I could not help it. I just had to buy it. It runs great. What a cool engine. I really like it. I look forward to the day I start working on it and putting sound in it. There was an undec B23-7 for $55.00, but I like the U23B better. All detailed up it is going to be a really sharp looking model. A couple of Like Like E8/9's in there also and a number of Spectrum Dash8's, but I stay away from anything Bachmann. Lots of freight cars too, but to old for my era.

[6axlepwr]

Some more progress has been made this week and today.

First up is I needed to add a vent on top of the nose. I was a little worried I was nto going to be able to make this, but I think it turned out well. I browsed through a number of photos until I could find some that showed me the location of the vent. After locating the position, I marked it with a pencil. I then measured the vent on the side of the nose so I can duplicate it. I then made the vent with my lathe and a small piece of brass rod. I drilled a hole through the nose just a smidgen smaller than the vent and pressed the vent through from the bottom. It was a nice tight fit. I had cut the vent slightly thinner than the thickness of the nose. It is secured with CA from underneath.



Next up are the lift rings. Not very easy to see, but they are there. Typically there are three standard sizes of lift rings on an EMD locomotive. That is not taking into consideration any additional lifting tabs that the shop may add. I'll start with the smallest and move to the largest.

- 2 3/8" OD x 1 3/8" ID, These are used on the inertial filter hatch and the exhaust hatch.
- 2 3/4" OD x 1 1/5" ID, These are used on the radiator fan hatch.
- 3 3/8" OD x 1 3/4" ID, These are used on the DB and non DB hatch as well as the two located on either side of the long hood end just at the back end of the radiator intake grills.

For this model I used the Sunrise Enterprises rings on the inertial filter and exhaust hatch. They are very small and give a good representation of the small lift ring. For the radiator fan hatch, I used the BLMA rings. These are actually the correct size for the DB hatch, but nobody makes the middle size so I used the BLMA rings for the radiator fan hatch. I used the Gold Medal Models rings for the DB hatch. They are oversized, but I wanted to represent the three different sizes and this is all I have to work with. I thinned them down a bit with a fine grit diamond needle file. I also used the GMM rings at the end of the long hood end.

I believe modeling is not always about scale, but also about getting the correct representation. Definitely grossly overscale things will detract from a model, but slightly overscale will give a good impression of the detail you are representing. When the model is done, as long as the overscale is within reason, the discrepancy will go unnoticed.

If I am successful building a Q-exhaust hatch and bulged DB section, then I will be cutting out the exhaust section on the model and replacing it. The exhaust silencer does not use round lift rings, it uses lift tabs. I will have to fabricate them somehow.



A long time ago I had these etchings done. I have refined them over the years until they fit properly. Never really tested them out until this model. Suprisingly they actually fit perfect. I had to do a lot of cutting from the middle step upward. It is not at all difficult, but time consuming. I like the way they look. The top step is outward a bit from where it should set in, but there is nothing that can be done about it. Due to how the model is manufactured, they sit where they are. It still sits back a bit from the middle step and like I mentioned, appearance and representation can take the place of scale as long as it is done well and cleanly.

The way Kato designed this model, the handrail attaches inside the stepwell. I moved it to the outside and onto the face of the pilot plate. I'll show that when I get to the pilot plate. By doing this, I cleared out the handrail obstruction so I can putin a full middle step.



Here you can see the full side view of the step well and how the plastic has been cleaned out. Also you can see I put in the pipe support behind the pilot plate. Gives a nice bit of added detail. The steps are secured with CA and are in there VERY strong. I did one step well at a time so as I moved onto the next one, I was able to handle the sill unit and also handle the finished step well with out breaking any steps out. Breaking the bridge in the plastic between the inner step well and the pilot is not an issue either. The plastic is strong enough for each part that it does not compromise any of the structural integrity. Also the area that the coupler pulls on is maintained. No strength lost. The original coupler retainer clip will also fit between the pipe supports. Although, I will not be using it.



I think the model is progressing well and I am enjoying this build. I am definitley pushing my limits and learning new things. Next week I should get my LE coupler pockets in so I can get the pilot plates all done. I also need to get some BLMA antenna stands. The Kato ones are just a bit thick. Once the pilots are done, there is really not much else to do. The cab details and then basically paint. My Copper State Railway decals are done being designed and I just need to send them off to Microscale for printing. I can get the model painted though while I wait for the decals.

[Robbman]

If these are going to be post-1980 -2s, you could also add the toilet access hatch.  You can nab one from the Atlas SD50/60 nose... or fab it from styrene.

Edit:  toilet access hatch added late 1980... so there's a ~ a year they didn't have them.

[6axlepwr]

I have not seen any of the snoots with this hatch and I have looked at all of them from the BNSF era.

ATSF 5125-5137 = BNSF 6854-6866 Q Equipped
ATSF 5138             Wreck retired in 1994
ATSF 5139-5140 = BNSF 6867-6868 Q Equipped

All these units are on rrpicturearchives.net. I have browsed all teh photos and none that have high angle shots show a toilet hatch.