45 tonner under the knife...

funandtrains said:
Bachmann seem to often do this for some reason; the Connie is 2'6" gauge, Forney 2' gauge, Mallet never existed, some of the shays are painted for standard gauge railroads when they are models of 3' gauge locos, etc. All of these they could of choosen actual 3' gauge prototypes to model instead.
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A case of "We can - so we will" ?:rolf::rolf::rolf:
 
Yes its a nice little loco Ian and the ballast train suits it well. It looks good with conrods:thumbup: Making two locos was always an option but I'm glad I've gone down the road I did (with two locos awaiting contruction it I botched things up:rolf:).

Anyway, I tried to post yesterday's work and today's testing - wouldn't work so here's another go! ....

Shopping this morning - but back in good time to test the (now) slim-line "thing" and find a fault (x 4!).

Yesterday I managed to (quite easily) to alter and fit the side handrails. The front ones are a different kettle of fish. With everything screwed down, cab floor firmly glued into cab and used for securing the latter (two bolts through floor), air tanks cut to size and fitted, lights reconnected and, last (but not least) cab roof cemented in position, I needed just to make sure the lights worked as before.

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I also fit the die-cast step modules, plonked the loco on a couple of R1 curves and noticed there might be a problem. There was! The conrod ends fouled the steps and actually knocked one set off on test. So I removed them for further testing purposes and everything else was as it should be. Need to make some new steps after I have done the end handrails.

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I tried altering one of the originals - cut the correct width, stanchion seperated from the off-cut, and soldered on using Bakers Fluid. Great! Then I cut the middle vertical and centred it and that too soldered up OK. Then I noticed there was a slight bend in the bottom of the soldered-on stanchion (which must have been there before I soldered it). Never mind, out with pliers. However, monkey metal may bend, but it doesn't like being bent back!
"Oh dear" I said - "30 minutes of work down the drain" or something like that. So I'm now going to make them out of brass.

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Managed to create two new end railings. Used lead-free solder and sel-cleaning flux paste (with mini gas torch). Painted silver grey for now - will probably paint all railings white.

Both ends .....

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Next job will be to make some steps. Steve's (Fun & Trains) links have provided a prototype which may well suit my needs for clearance .....

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After that it will be shortening and refixing the 'cut' bars, reducing (or making new) the pilot boards, and then doing something about the drawgear.
 
Thanks Ian. Hope your situation alters soon - although there is some distraction in running trains!
 
Cheers Gareth:thumbup:
 
I think she looks better from all angles, food for thought indeed. Are you planning a change of livery ?
 
Another though I had for these locos is to joint the two motor sections together with a cab at one end, has anyone done this yet?
 
funandtrains said:
Another though I had for these locos is to joint the two motor sections together with a cab at one end, has anyone done this yet?
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yes, but I can't remeber who did it - it's on here :thinking:
 
I think I read somewhere that there where quite a few 44/45 ton diesels converted from standard to 3' gauge since in the 50's and 60's the few US logging and and other industrial 3' lines in the Americas were often run on very low budgets and couldn't afford new diesels to replace their worn out steam locos. These locos were ready available second hand being produced in large numbers from before and during WWII but they soon proved too low power for switching duties on most lines so were sold off cheap.
 
The 45 tonner was a standard GE design, available for delivery on any gauge of truck from 2' - 6" to 5' - 3"

That's why it's such a monster.

But I see that Mick's slimmed down a lot.

It may be wasting away, but it's looking good, Mick :thumbup:

Alternatives that could have saved you some work - Accucraft have anounced a Whitcombe 44 tonner - I think I've seen a guide price of about £900 Great British Pounds - I'll have two then :rolf::rolf::rolf::rolf:

Or the Gall line make a styrene body kit of an electric boxcab with bonnets, somehwere around $250 but you have to find the trucks and the electrics.

Looks like your solution might be best after all :bigsmile::bigsmile::bigsmile::bigsmile:
 
Rhinochugger said:
funandtrains said:
Another though I had for these locos is to joint the two motor sections together with a cab at one end, has anyone done this yet?
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yes, but I can't remeber who did it - it's on here :thinking:
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This'un maybe
http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/afv/topic/aff/8/aft/28978/Default < Link To http://www.mylargescale.c...aft/28978/Default
It's been through similar slimming mill to the loco in this thread, and i think it looks better for it. A conversion I definitely intend to [strike]shamelessly plagiarise[/strike] take inspiration from in future. I've seen another phot of the finished one somewhere, but I can't find the link.

[Edit - just twigged there are two locos here - the grey 'inspiration', which also has the main grilles moved onto the bonnet sides, and the red 'copy' which hasn't. Sure I've seen a thread for the grey one somewhere - 4largescale? - but can't find it now.]

I've got a feeling there was also a red end-cab job, which I think turned up on UK ebay in the last couple of years, but which hadn't had the narrowing/chopping done.

J.
 
Bills dismal rebuild looks quite good too :thumbup: my large scale link. More food for thought.
 
Great job!! Vast improvement over the overly wide original. :thumbup:
 
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