Best Of New Brass EP-2 assembly & Mod clinic

[FlyGuyB]

I must say Ron, I'm blown away on all the detail work you have done to this model. Absolutely fantastic. Can't wait till the completion.

[u18b]

Thanks James.  It will look better with paint on it.

I'm really hoping the custom springs come in this week.  They said 2 weeks and it has just over that.

[u18b]

The lead-up to Holy week and Easter are one of my busiest and most stressful times in my work.
Now that it's over, time to get back to work.

First thing was to install the front frame grabs on the other cab. (I had already done one).



The springs I ordered came in.

Here is a composite of the three springs (two kinds) in one shot aprox. to scale to each other.
The top two springs go up top.  About 11 mm body with short hooks.
The bottom spring goes underneath.  About 8 mm body with long hooks.



Here is the bottom spring installed.



It is kind of good that I had a pause in construction, because I got to "live with" the model for a little while.
And in so doing, I discovered a problem.

The three spring combo worked GREAT.  Tension was balanced.  I loved it.
But on more than one occasion, the loco was sitting on my layout, and I would just press the pantograph for fun (you almost can't help yourself).
Well, on not one, but a couple of occasions, POW!   
The underspring came unhooked and went flying.   Dang!   

So I decided to try something.  Maybe the underspring needed to be soldered on.

Soooo.......

Make ANOTHER underspring.
Apply a little flux.



And VERY carefully add some solder.  I did NOT want to unsolder anything on these delicate pantographs.



And now the other side.  Got a little more solder than I wanted, but still OK.



WOW!  An amazing thing happened.
Remember (long ago) when I was fretting...... How am I going to lock the pantograph down when it is in the retracted position.  Well, when there is only the underspring and no top springs, the pant lays perfectly flat.
Yay!



Now, I solder the underspring on the second one, but I also install the upper springs.



This places the pant at a pretty good height.



I'm tellin' you.  You just want to press that thing to test it out!



And back it goes.



So per Milwaukee Road practice, the front pantograph is lowered, and the rear pantograph is raised.
If I want to raise the front, I just add the special springs that I will keep in the box.



Finally, I'm ready to paint.

[u18b]

By the way.

These springs are awsome.

I have a good supply if you need any for various projects.

Cost is $2 per spring and $1.50 for mailing (a padded envelope cost a little more than I thought).

Just private message me.
Name
address
and how many you want.

When I don't have any more to spare, they will be gone.

[mmagliaro]

My compliments, Ron, on a wonderful project full of engineering solutions and beautiful assembly.
You persevered through a number of tough spots, even making and locating special parts and tools.
This is true model making.  I enjoyed this thread.

[spookshow]

I forget, which paint scheme is this one gonna get?

Thanks,
-Mark

[u18b]

Thanks Max.  Encouragement means a lot to me.

Spook....  Our final destination is the six-stripe Railroad Fair scheme.

[u18b]

There is just something that has really been bothering me about this photo.



It looks like the boiler room is higher on the B end (right) than on the A end.
When I removed the boiler room and switched it around 180 degrees, then the sides are still at the same height (low on the A end and high on the B end.

That means the problem is not with the boiler room floor drawbar supports.  The problem must be with one of the shells.

I decided the B end looked fine, so I focused on raising the A end.

So I bent the support upward a bit. 



Now it appears to sit more evenly.

These two photos were taken from the same camera at the same angle.
The ONLY difference is that the boiler room is reversed.
You can tell the direction by a handrail up on the top.








Looks much better now.

Onward.

[central.vermont]

Ron,

I have been following this and have loved every bit of what you have done here and learned a lot!! There are a couple observations I have noticed and wondered if you are going to add and change what I am going to mention. Was looking at the above photo's and noticed that the cab shades on the model just don't look right.  The real thing had canvas that rolled up against the cab above the windows. I think with the amount of work and detail you have put into this this might need to be taken into consideration. The other thing I noticed is that there appears to be rear view mirrors on it as well just in front and down a bit folded against the cab.

Keep up the good work!!
Jon

[u18b]

Jon,

Thank you so much for your comments.  I am honored that you're following this thread.

I've been thinking about your suggestions.

1.  The awning.  You're right.  I never paid that much attention.  In fact, I looked at my collection of EP-2 images from Internet research and found that this awning was present on all EP-2 up to the 1953 rebuild.  Usually, the engineers did not use them and they were crumpled up to the roof (retracted position) but every once in a while you can see them extended even on a late photo

This is a tough one.  I don't think I will do anything about this.  What I have soldered by KMT shows "something" up there that roughly approximates an awning.

But to improve what KMT did, I'd have to....
a. Cut off what is there- and do it without damaging the rest of the brass.
b. Put something better looking up there..... but....
c.  The something newer and more realistic will be fragile and will probably break when the loco is in the box.

So I will leave this detail as-is.

EDIT:  Well, I shouldn't have said I won't do anything.  What I will do is make this a painted detail.  I'll paint the "awning" a canvass color near the end of the painting phase.


2.  However, on the rear-view mirrors (or are they wind deflectors so you can look out the window without being blinded by the swoosh of air?).

I in fact had considered adding those.  The challenge here will be....

a.  Drilling 8 more #80 holes in brass.  Ugh.
b.  The holes would need to be drilled now.  But the pieces would have to be applied after I paint the model.  Since they will be silver and glass. (or no glass empty frame).
c.  Since they would probably be made of stainless steel, they would not be able to be soldered in place and would be glued in place.
d.  They would still be fragile like the awning if they were extended.
e.  SO I was thinking if I did them, I would leave them flat against the body- which is the way they appear in many shots.  They would be stronger that way.

I'll have to do some exploring in my etched parts box and give more thoughts to this.


3.  By the way, I also realised one MORE minor/easy detail I forgot for this model.

You can clearly see from those photos above that they just painted over the boiler room window glass with charcoal gray paint.  That boiler room got filthy, and I'm sure the windows were usually dark on the inside.  MILW Rd finally must have said.... The heck with them, and just painted over them.

I need to add some brass or styrene to them on the inside now before I sand blast the loco getting it ready to paint.

[davefoxx]

You can clearly see from those photos above that they just painted over the boiler room window glass with charcoal gray paint.  That boiler room got filthy, and I'm sure the windows were usually dark on the inside.  MILW Rd finally must have said.... The heck with them, and just painted over them.

Ron,

Are you sure they're painted over, or is that just the grime coating the inside of the windows?

DFF

[central.vermont]

3.  By the way, I also realised one MORE minor/easy detail I forgot for this model.

You can clearly see from those photos above that they just painted over the boiler room window glass with charcoal gray paint.  That boiler room got filthy, and I'm sure the windows were usually dark on the inside.  MILW Rd finally must have said.... The heck with them, and just painted over them.

I need to add some brass or styrene to them on the inside now before I sand blast the loco getting it ready to paint.

Ron,

Funny you mentioned that. I almost made a comment on this as well but thought that the windows may have just been getting a different angle on the ambient light and made it look like this. 

Still think you should do the awnings though. I think that would be the Wow factor. 

Jon

[u18b]

Ron,

Are you sure they're painted over, or is that just the grime coating the inside of the windows?

DFF

Dave, Good question.

I'm not 100% sure, but they just have to be.

1.  It would be weird for the grime to be the same exact color of the loco body right there.

2.  This particular locomotive had JUST been painted in this scheme just for the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair celebrating the centennial of railroading in America.  Having been repainted from its original black, the whole loco was spruced up and painted into this new scheme.  The unit did not see any use until about 1 year later.  It sat in Chicago all that time.  The fair ran from 1948-1949.

So given all this, it is just hard for me to imagine that the windows are merely dirty.

[u18b]

OK, Jon.

I've been doing some more research.

I searched through my research photo collection and could not find any black EP-2s with the wind deflectors.

They first appeared in the Olympian Hiawatha days.

The first occurrence I could find was 1948 (probably early in the year) when they painted the first one out of black and into a Hiawatha scheme.  The experimental scheme was placed on E-1.

Here in this photo...
http://www.microcosmologist.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Milwaukee-Road-Bipolar-E1-in-the-experimental-Olympian-Hiawatha-paint-scheme.jpg

you can see the wind deflectors.

I do think they are wind deflectors, because I don't see mirrors, I see clear glass.

Look again at this photo.



Notice how there is no solid shadow in these pieces.  The light goes right through them.  That makes me think they are solid glass.

[robert3985]

Maybe this link will help out: http://www.brasstrains.com/classic/Product/Detail/033350/HO-PSC-Milwaukee-Road-Bi-Polar-E-3-Chicago-RR-Fair-BRAND-NEW

Although the photos are of an HO scale model, it's highly detailed and looks to be in compliance with the photos I've looked at as far as the wind deflectors are concerned.