Briggs Models 8-40-CM

[craigolio1]

No problem.

Here is the next truck. I've modified the truck and the bearing plate. It should be ready for assembly.

[JanesCustomTrain]

Has someone contacted Jeff already and told him about these problems or did ask him for an explanation or a how to assemble these trucks ? There is a YouTube video out there with a running Kato SD40-2 chassis with his trucks under it. It seems to be possible to build them up so they actually work properly. Thank you all for your input so far. I am still a bit hesitant to spend the money but it seems my time is running out anyway, he will be sold out soon, only 10 kits left.

Jane

[craigolio1]

Jane,

I sent him an email tonight asking what he had to do to get the chassis running right. The instructions are not detailed, stating only that some tweaking will be required to get it running smoothly. This project was about two years in the making and based on the updates we got, I bet the first year was him getting a working design for the trucks. I did not expect this to be a shake the box kit. Kits like these are not for people who want it done quickly. I'm posting all of my findings because I figure it will help others along. On a whole, for the price of the kit and what you get, I'm very satisfied. Sure it's a pain in the a$$ to get the trucks working but I'm only building two units and they are locos that we would never have seen if not for this kit. This is especially true because of the extremely unique truck design. Even if we were to kitbashed the body the trucks would be all but impossible for anyone but the best model builders.  At least with these, while they are difficult, it's at least achievable by anyone with some advanced skills. .....    And time. Lots and lots of time.  I say get your kit while you can. Eventually you will see a bunch of postings about running models and if you are like me, you would wish you had.

If I were building a fleet of these I think it would force me to model some other railway.

I tackled the turning issue. I found that by shaving the bearing plate close to the clippy thing that holds the truck in the chassis, you get even more turning radius than the Kato truck. I doubt it would run that tight but it will achieve the same radius as the Kato truck for sure. He are a couple of pics.

[craigolio1]

Well here it is. My first (what should be a) working chassis. I don't have a test track right now but both trucks are quite free rolling. Hopefully when I do set up a test track my hypothesis is correct.





I did a couple more tweaks.

The top edge of the gear box I shaved down so it's the same height as the bearing plates inside because it hung a little on the chassis when turning.

This may have been caused by my earlier shaving down the semi circle thing under the clips. I think this is what the chassis rests on, instead of the worm on the top gear taking weight. So I actually added some styrene back onto the semicircle thing and shimmed the chassis back up a little. This made the swivelling of the trucks much better. In the future I don't think I'll shave that semicircle thing down until after I test run it.

Craig.

[craigolio1]

I should also add to my reply to Jane, and for others who need assistance, that Jeff is very approachable. Drop him an email and he will respond very quickly. He will assist with any questions which will hopefully solve frustrating issues people may have when building such an advanced kit.

[JanesCustomTrain]

I should also add to my reply to Jane, and for others who need assistance, that Jeff is very approachable. Drop him an email and he will respond very quickly. He will assist with any questions which will hopefully solve frustrating issues people may have when building such an advanced kit.

No problems there, I know. The reason why I did ask was solely to see if someone actually involved him as well as he should best know how to assemble them. This is from his website:

-8 Models are selling briskly! I have sold about half my production run, and it doesn't really look like I will be making more. Watch my website, soon I will be posting some tips to help out some tricky parts of assembly. 

Eagerly awaiting his update.

Jane

[craigolio1]

Oh I see. He did get back to me but by that time I had sorted out all of the kinks so he didn't have much to offer. He did however mention that I should be careful with how much of the ear tower I shave off. It wears in after a while and I have weakened it significantly. That is a good point and since my first chassis pictures here is capable of turning much tighter than the Kato trucks, remove less material in my next effort.

I'm looking forward to any info from him as well.

Craig

[craigolio1]

I finished the other two trucks the other night, which took about 6 hours combined so after one or two it does get easier for sure. 

I moved onto detailing the shells and fitting the body to the Kato SD40-2 chassis.  I measured the chassis and it appeared to be .20" more narrow than the shell so my intent was to add .10" shims on the four corners which would allow the body to sit well on the chassis.  I wanted to use the bumps on the frame that held the Kato shell so I did as follows.

First, the bumps are not on flat spots on the frame so I filled in these spots with some .010" styrene after first drilling a #42 (2-56 clearance drill) for the bump to sit in. These were tacked on to the frame with a tiny spot of CA which will allow then to be easily popped off later.



Next I drilled the same hole in four pieces of .020" styrene and tacked them on over top of the filler pieces.







Then I cut four blocks of .080" styrene and tacked them in place.



Once all three layers were in place I flooded the joints with some Stryene Cement to fix them all together parmanently.

The result is a block .10" thick with recesses for the bumps.



The shell slides nicely over top and everything remains level and centred, but on my shell I found the back end was a little loosed so I added another .010" shim on either side and now everything has a snug, but not tight, fit. 



Later during final assembly I will use a small amount of epoxy to glue the blocks to the side of the shell so that as I fit it in place I can get the perfect level position.  Once dry I'll flood the joint with CA.

Since the blocks were tacked to frame with a tiny bit of CA, getting the shell off the first time will requie a small bit of prying but after that it'll come apart like any other loco.

Craig

[bnsfdash8]

I finally took the time this evening to get those darn Dofasco trucks, well one of them, together properly. I followed Craig's modifications and got this truck to operate somewhat acceptable. I'm hoping over time the gears wear in some and things loosen up a bit.

[craigolio1]

Nice job Reese.  I found that they loosened up even with a few minutes of rolling the gears back and forth with my finger.  It's nice to see someone else having success with this kit.

Craig

[bnsfdash8]

So far so good:

[Scottl]

Hawt

[bnsfdash8]

I got mine sprayed white, along with a BCOL C44-9WL. I need to order the right red and blue, polyscale signal red and BAR blue. I'm going with those as I read in other forums of others using those colors, unless there are more suitable ones out there. These have been a great change of pace over the normal NS units I build.

[PGE_Modeller]

I got mine sprayed white, along with a BCOL C44-9WL. I need to order the right red and blue, polyscale signal red and BAR blue. I'm going with those as I read in other forums of others using those colors, unless there are more suitable ones out there. These have been a great change of pace over the normal NS units I build.

If you can find a shop that carries the TrueLine Trains paints, they have BC Rail red (TLT 010044) and blue (TLT 010033) that were matched to samples of the railway's paint that the former BC Rail Historical and Technical Society made available to members in the mid-late 1990s.  TLT's paints are basically the PollyScale formulation.

Cheers,

[craigolio1]

Those look awesome!

I also plan to do a C44-9 at the same time.

How did you like those tiny Sinclair antennas?  Those may be the most frustrating parts I have ever used.

Craig