NW-5 build thread

[SkipGear]

Why not ditch the screws entirely and make a clip on each end to hold the frames together, take cue from the Kato design book. The body is going to be doing most of the work once it's all together so a small plastic clip to hold it while assembling should be fine.

[randgust]

Way past all of that now.  Body is finished up on assembly, ended up about 9" too long end hood to end hood. 

My biggest suggestion here is to use the low-profile Bachmann chassis.    Really good performer, low, right truck centers, swappable sideframes.   If someone else wants to try to design a printed shell to fit remember the skill and tools that most of your customers will have to shorten the frame on the ends.  I've had several shells, excellently designed, that simply won't work with anything because they are made to exact prototype dimensions.   This rapidly becomes another 'perfect is the enemy of good' exercise.

As much as I'm an Atlas loyalist, the Bachmann design for the universals and truck towers is better, certainly quieter.  If it had true ears/wipers instead of wipers to the frame sides it would be truly excellent.

The photos I was given show that the side taper in is on the same place as the SW shell, the final narrow portion in front of the cab is flat on the side.  Tom gave me an epic series of photos of one of these being scrapped, closeup from all angles along with the historic shots.   I was really hoping that I could snag a Kato NW-2 shell for the taper top, no luck, but Tom supplied quite a pile of hackable SW parts.

[narrowminded]

As much as I'm an Atlas loyalist, the Bachmann design for the universals and truck towers is better, certainly quieter.  If it had true ears/wipers instead of wipers to the frame sides it would be truly excellent.

I have six of these and they do perform very well, as described.  I initially bought one and bought the balance based on the performance of that one. 

The wipers could be better BUT... I cleaned the frame pad with a few wipes with 1000 grit and put a little Conducta-lube on those faces and they've run very well for quite a while now.  The trucks just pull out of the frame so it's easy to get at those pads but also, a little sliver of paper with some conduct-lube on it can be slid between the frame and wipers very easily with everything in place.  A word of caution when pulling the trucks out or gripping them to reinstall, watch your clubby fingers on the side frames as it's easy to squeeze on the wipers and bend them up, out of place.  Rebend back down but I don't know how many times you can do that before the material fails.  Better to grip them on the end faces than on the side.

Now ask me about the DCC boards.   I had one burn out for no apparent reason, just running along, and the replacement board is $60+ from Bachmann and then I discover, after opening up my latest four, that there's a new style that screws to the chassis and the old style, one of the ones that burnt up, that clip in.  Hopefully the new style includes a fix for the burnout issue but it won't matter anyway as they will all be getting sound added when ESU gets their production going.

[peteski]

The wipers could be better BUT... I cleaned the frame pad with a few wipes with 1000 grit and put a little Conducta-lube on those faces and they've run very well for quite a while now.  The trucks just pull out of the frame so it's easy to get at those pads but also, a little sliver of paper with some conduct-lube on it can be slid between the frame and wipers very easily with everything in place. 

Using fine sandpaper is good idea, but I take it a step further. I polish the contact areas (on both, the chassis, and on the phosphor-bronze finger on the trucks) to a mirror smooth finish.


Here a Bachmann 44-tonner with polished contact areas.


I use a multi-grit fingernail polishing stick like this one. I go through all the grits to get a smooth finish.


Finally, I use metal polish and a buffing wheel in a Dremel to get the mirror-like finish.

The metal polish also seems to leave some sort of film on the surface which ******** oxidation. I do not add any sort of oily substance to that area.

I do this for all the locos which use this type of electrical connection between trucks and chassis. That includes Kato and Atlas, where I polish the flat pickup strips (just in the area where the truck's metal finger touches it), and I also polish the top of the truck's metal finger that contacts the pickup strips.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Well, looks like the Bachmann RS3 is sold out so all this is moot.

[randgust]

Well, at least for now, there's 17 of them out on the auction site, if you are so inclined.

One of the odder things about the NW-5 is the reason for the 'double hump' in the long hood; the rather similar design to the NW2, but then a second 'dip' right in front of the cab at the electrical cabinet.

I about wore out a ruler proving this one.   At the END of the sill, the hoods are the same height as an SW.  But if you look at the frame, there's a 6" riser all along above what is a 'standard' switcher frame.   I don't know if it was steel to add weight or why it was there, reminds me of what CSX did with the big GE's to boost tractive effort.  But it goes the entire frame length.   That sill is twice the thickness of a switcher.

Then you check the cab side wall, and the cab distance ABOVE that second sill is 7'.   Hmm.  That's a foot shorter than the LL cab.  So add six and take away 12, and now the 'big windows' are 6" shorter than they started out to be.   I don't know if that's because the entire locomotive looks about 6" taller due to road trucks or what) through the sill height.   I'm guessing maximum locomotive height.  So, with your cab pushed down, you need another 'dip' in the body in front of the windows.   

And I end up sawing a foot off the bottom of the LL cab to get the dimensions right now, after adding the sill riser or whatever that is.  And the windows appear to line up now against the second 'dip'.   And that second dip in front of the cab wall is right down tight on the frame, no extra inside room left at all now.  Any other frame would require significant work in that area.

I enjoy doing kitbashing because you realize that the real designers were 'pushed' to take the existing designs and make something else out of it, take switcher, add a steam generator nose, put it up on road trucks and gear it for the road, make it work.   Most locomotives are very evolutionary, some more obviously than others.  I get to crawl around in the real ones as well, and the design quirks extend inside the sheet metal.  I've seen the one at Duluth only in passing, never actually got close to it.

I also did a double take on the short nose end when you realize that there are doors on BOTH sides of the short nose.   OK, so the long nose is 'front', in front of the control stand no door; normal.  'Fireman's side, normal door.   But behind them (short nose) fireman's side has a door, and so does the engineer.   Can't say as I've seen that before.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Is that riser for traction motor blower ducting? I know that's the story behind it on later units.

[jjb62556]

BLW has them on close out right now!

[randgust]

Is that riser for traction motor blower ducting? I know that's the story behind it on later units.

Confirmed from Randy Stahl (who is working on an NW-5) that the 6" 'step' is solid frame on an NW-5, but there are traction motor ducts as well.

You'd think this thing would weigh more than an NW-2, but an NW-2 comes in at 248,000 and this comes in at 214,000, so that wasn't ballast.  I'm still having trouble believing that one.

And as I suspected, this was the first in a series of EMD exercises in trying to get more out a generator and traction motor set by multiple complicated transition steps, that evolved into the GP30 controls.   

I also got an overhead view from an old MR drawing set that was sent me, and yes, the side hood taper is all on the first one, just like an EMD switcher, the second taper is straight as viewed from the top, and the nose area is narrow and the same width as the narrow taper.   So this approach is still down to two compromises - using the LL SW body for the hood taper instead of an NW-2 hood top, and 9" too long on the body to fit the frame screw mounts on the Bachmann RS-3 chassis.

One of the things that still makes me scratch my head is how far off the ground the bottom sill step is, as a result of jacking up the frame to put road trucks under it.   It was abnormally high on the prototype from my measurements, it just looks 'wrong' on the model and it's not.   This must have been a 'watch out for that last step' when you were a brakeman.

[randgust]

OK, so here's where I'm at, basic body shell is complete.   Cab is just sitting on it because it will be in the way of some drilling for the grabs and rails.

I 'thought' that the one coupler mount pad looked sloped, it is, that will get fixed. 







Now I'm waiting for the batch of detail parts to arrive from Canada (miniatures by Eric).  I'll put on some Archer louvers and grabs but this could take a while.

The old MR drawings that Tom found are better than the other two sources, have both end views and a top view.

I'm reasonably convinced you could do an RS-1325 this way, the lowest point on the body still clears the chassis without grinding, and that's below the window edge now.   And other than that one tight spot by the cab, there's leftover room above the chassis for a decoder, or speaker, or more weight, or whatever.

While there were only a couple of them, the one just ended up at the Monticello Railway Museum in Illinois, where it's an operable unit.  And with that G&W paint scheme, it's not about to blend into the scenery.    You do have to admit it's a little better looking than the NW5 on the short nose end of things.
https://trn.trains.com/~/media/images/news-wire/2020/11-november/rs1325_saved_smedley.jpg?mw=1000&mh=800

[tehachapifan]

randgust, not sure why, but I can't see any of your pics or your avatar. Been that way all day.

[nickelplate759]

It's the old Chrome "insecure site" problem again.  It worked for me earlier today, but somehow my browser got the setting reset.  On a PC you can fix it, on a tablet or phone you cannot.

[wazzou]

Randy, I may have missed it but do you plan to address the top of the hood and the first taper?

[randgust]

I've been debating that issue with Tom since we started.   Kato NW-2 shells are unobtainable, and I was equally surprised that Bachmann doesn't even list the NW-2 on their parts website.   Nothing on the auction sites either.   That's the right first taper rather than the LL shell, although everything else on the LL shell works out nicely and it was easy to modify the radiator, narrow the short end, and transplant doors in there.

The final taper into the cab using laminated .040 styrene was reasonably successful, won't really know until post paint.   We're debating if cutting the first taper out and trying to redo it by the same method is worth it and it's his call to make.

[wcfn100]

It's the old Chrome "insecure site" problem again.  It worked for me earlier today, but somehow my browser got the setting reset.  On a PC you can fix it, on a tablet or phone you cannot.

You can fix this on android tablets and phones too, it's just a PITA.  I'll start a thread on how to do it.

Jason