SW1500 DONE! With Photos

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Thanks to Richie, I now have a mechinism to run under the SW1500. The chassis is a Con-Cor/Kato SW1200 milled slightly thinner. You will notice the engine rides high. This is prototypical. The walkway is higher then the Geep in this photo:
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=319855

Here is a great side shothighlighting the frame.
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=649217

Here are the pictures:








I still need to work out some rough areas. The cab needs work as well as the blanked panel on the left side. The frame will be painted black. I would like to reduce the flanges of the wheels.

[up1950s]

Anytime Dan , glad it worked out . That SW-1500 looks terrific .

[Mark5]

Here's a real one for comparison:



http://www.nslocos.com/main.html

Dan, looks like you'll need to convert the trucks to roller bearings. 

Mark

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh man...
I'm jealous... that's gonna be gorgeous... so what did you do? Just cut down an MP15?

You know what I'm happiest about? The fact that now you've done it, Atlas will make one.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

The hood and walkway was cut down a few feet to match the overal lenth of the hood and pilots. It was actually pretty easy but I'm not all that happy with the cab joint. I can see a bit of the tab slots on the sandbox hump.

[tom mann]

This looks great!  What is the process in a nutshell - apply a MP15 body to a SW chassis? 

[nwline]

Dan

Looks great , did you try any other chassis ?  When I first saw your pictures I grabbed my Kato NW2 to see if that chassis would fit and that looks like it would be a really tight fit , any thoughts ?  ( sure would be nice to have a drop in decoder )

Dave

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I started with the MP15 shell assembly w/marker lights (for small number boards) and the “flat top” filter box. I believe this was the original phase I MP15DC. I cut the area just after the slope off and rejoined the cab mounting channel to the shorter hood. I think I made it just a hair too short as the cab overhangs the battery box just a bit on the left side.

The walkway was cut down using photos and drawings reduced to size. Everything lined up pretty well but you will have to remove a panel on the engineer's side of the long hood and reform the access doors on the conductor's side where the cab steps are located.

Here is the unmodified hood from the atlas site:


The modifications to the frame can be viewed on Richie's Picasa site:
http://picasaweb.google.com/up1950s

I really should have taken pics for the article.

This was the only chassis that could be thinned out without major modification. You need to use a drill press, which is why I needed help on the grinding. On the plus side, the motor is isolated from the chassis ( note the bronze tab sticking up on the motor. There is ample room above the chassis for a decoder. You can also fit one behind the front radiator, in the fuel tank or in the cab.

On my model, I will be using straight DC. I will be filling the battery box/sand hump with tungsten putty along with the fuel tank. I plan on adding a lighting modual to the nose and installing a Kato NW2 interior in the cab.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

What do you think?

[delamaize]

looks great!  ;D how's it run?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

About the same as a Kato/Con-Cor SW1200... a bit too fast but smooth through switches. Pulling power has decreased a bit as I emoved traction tires. This will only be pulling strings of 6-8 cars through a level yard anyway.

[delamaize]

About the same as a Kato/Con-Cor SW1200... a bit too fast but smooth through switches. Pulling power has decreased a bit as I emoved traction tires. This will only be pulling strings of 6-8 cars through a level yard anyway.

Consittered using "Bullfrog snot?"

although I imagine the reason you ditched the traction tire was because of eletrical concern.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

How does it look? Effin beautiful man... effin beautiful.

And you know the best part about this? Now that you've done it, Atlas can announce them!

[up1950s]

Looks great Dan .

[DKS]

Great job, Dan! You should check this out:

http://therailwire.net/smf/index.php/topic,17304.0.html