Southern F3 in tuxedo black

[supagav]

Hi,

I just wanted to share with you all the beginnings of the next locomotive project in progress at the Somerville & St. Francis River Diesel Shops.

The next loco I hope to complete is another EMD F3A unit, this time in the Southern Railway`s later Tuxedo Black paint scheme, which was white and black, with gold trim. The loco itself will be a passenger unit with which had the air tanks mounted on the roof, to allow for the addition of larger fuel and water tanks, particularly for the steam boiler which supplied heating for passenger cars. By the late 1960s, the Southern used these kind of units for all sorts of duties, both passenger and freight as business required, so they were beginning to show a little wear and tear.

Here are some prototype photos to show what I`m thinking about, note the lack of side skirts on these engines and larger tanks below, as well as the air reservoirs mounted above:









I`ve already made some progress on this with new truck frames, new fuel and water tanks and work has begun on the body shell itself with the installation of a new 48` dynamic brake fan. I will upload some more photos as soon as I can.

Thanks,
G

 

[garrymartin]

Interesting looking loco (rather than handsome!)I shall enjoy seeing your progress.

 

[Rhinochugger]

No, no, no, no, yes - handsome indeed. [e]66[/e][e]66[/e]

 

[supagav]

I think there is something handsome about these locos in a strange way. EMD, which was the locomotive building wing of General Motors in the US, often called on their GM car body designers to help them come up with the streamlined profiles of the these type of cab units. In that way they do have the feel and air of an American classic car in their body shapes and contours, as well as in the paint schemes of the time which were offered by EMD/GM in-house designers.

Here are some progress photos as promised. The following pictures show the beginnings of the body work, in particular the recessed area which has been cut out for the new cap top 48` dynamic brake fan. The fan was sourced as another USA Trains spare part from the GP7/9 dynamic brake blister (same part as used in the GP18 bash I posted not so long ago).  The styrene insert is currently being glued in place with two part epoxy before I can start filling in the gaps and sanding it all smooth. The USA Trains stock headlight has also been removed as I`m going to use another Mini Maglite AAA reflector and lens to represent the main headlight:







I also have a set of air tanks from another USA Trains loco which I`m currently modifying and test fitting whilst I wait for the glue to dry!

The lettering and other markings will have to be removed and the loco repainted in due course, but I plan to get the worst of the cutting, filling and sanding out of the way before I start on this.

PS: I got hold of these stepped drill bits which I think will come in really handy to drill out a conical shaped recess for the new headlight reflector. I will let you know how I get on!



Thanks for looking,
G

 

[supagav]

And here are a few more mock up shots to give a rough outline of the layout. The black fan is the new 48` dynamic brake fan, and the four air tanks are the roof top mounted air brake reservoirs:







Thanks,
G

 

[supagav]

Hi,

I made some more progress on the F unit today, although with all this cutting, filing and sanding of the body work it really doesn`t look like much! I finished up the recessed mounting pad for the dynamic brake fan and got it glue in placed, with all the holes and gaps filled and sanded smooth. I`ll pop a little coat of primer over it just to see if there any imperfections I missed. Like the GP18 I bashed before, the rivets were lost during the sanding but these will be replaced with 0.03" Titchy Train rivets when I`ve finished off the rest of the body work. (The two holes are for the lifting rings which I removed to file and sand things smooth.)







This photo is included just as a bit of background information (apologies for the quality of the scan). When the Southern received these locos from EMD a lot of them did not have dynamic brakes. The newer 48` dynamic brake fan, as used on this loco when it was upgraded in the Southern`s Spencer Diesel Shops, was offered as a complete unit which could be retro-fitted to a loco, or swapped between units where necessary. The following photo shows how the brake fan and blister were mounted on a curved panel which could be dropped in place:

 

[daveyb]

comming along nicely,,,,,,

 

[Riograndad]

Another excellent build,clean,crisp and precise,just keep us posted on the progress,just brilliant!!! I agree with you Gav,very hansome locos.

 

[supagav]

Thanks for the encouragement folks!

Made a little more progress this morning. With the fan done, I`m now moving on to the rest of the roof detail. I cut up a roof top brake cylinder piece from a USAT GP7 to steal the 4 tanks I need for this F unit. I carefully sliced off all the detail as I`m going to make the strapping that holds them in place out of brass strip. The photos show the first two done, with small brass wire drilled and pinned to keep them in place. I`m not going to glue them in permanently yet so that I can finish off the rivets that were rubbed off. Slow progress so far but I think it is starting to get there...!









Thanks for keeping up with this,
G

 

[Richie]

Looking very nice Gav

 

[supagav]

Hi,

Apologies for the lack of updates to this project, various things and modern life in general seem to have absorbed most of the time over the last few weeks! I sat down this morning though and got a few more things done on the F unit.

I made a push on the roof top details so now the air brake reservoir tanks are all glued in place and most of the piping is done. I still need to put back some of the rivets that were sanded off around the dynamic brake fan, but it`s getting there. Apart from that, the roof is still missing a radio antenna and a five chime air horn but those will be added next.













The next big steps will be the front end, with a new headlight reflector and lens cover as well as multiple-unit connections in the nose and all the related air hoses which were found on the pilots of these locos (similar to what I did on our previous Southern F3).

Thanks for looking,
G

 

[nicebutdim]

Looking good

 

[daveyb]

top stuff gav,,,

 

[Richie]

Looking good Gav

 

[supagav]

Thanks for the compliments folks, it means a lot!

I made another conscious effort this morning to get a little more done as this poor loco has sat in bits for far too long! With the prices of our hobby constantly increasing I find myself now turning to old projects which I had left for a rainy day, and finally trying to get them off the shelf and out in to the garden. Like the GP18 I kit-bashed before, this loco already has a full DCC install and a Phoenix sound board, so I really have no excuse now not to try and finish it off!

Anyway, more progress on the roof top details....

If you were to call me a rivet counter then in the past I would have protested, but this time I think you might just be right! I used Titchy Train Group 0.03" rivets to replace some of the moulded ones that were filed away when I was fitting the dynamic brake fan. Whilst these are somewhat small and foutery, they do give a nice result and match the USAT stock rivets perfectly so I don`t have to worry about being too heavy handed with the file and sandpaper. I also used some small pieces of styrene tube to make little collars on the piping to simulate the joins where the different pipes were bolted together on the prototype.







The next photo shows some of the work I had done previously to the chassis and under-body areas. In particular I fattened up the fuel tank to simulate the larger fuel and water tanks of the prototype that necessitated the relocation of the air tanks to the roof:



The last two shots are just a quick mock up showing progress so far. Still quite a lot more detail to add but thankfully the worst of the cutting and chopping is all done!





Thanks again for keeping up with progress,
G

 

[a98087]

Very nice, and your attention to detail is amazing

Dan

 

[supagav]

Hi,

Apologies for the lack of updates on this thread. I haven`t had much time lately so this project had to be put aside for a little bit. After some more reading I`m research I`m feeling more motivated to get this moving again!

Not much progress to report but I`m still working away on all the little details before I can change the paint work. Here are just a few shots showing the strapping I`m making to hold the air tanks in place. Small strips of thin styrene and Titchy Train rivets complete the look:









Thanks,
G

 

[daveyb]

there coming along nicely gav,,,,

 

[garrymartin]

Absolutely superb modelling, you are capturing the character of the prototype so well! She's gonna be a powerful looking bruiser

 

[supagav]

Thanks for the kind words

This is yet another project that has been lying on the workbench for far too long, so I'm really keen to get this one finished!

There is also a B unit to go with this, again it has DCC and sound already done, it just needs a bit of detail and re-numbering... And of course a gd dose of weathering!

Thanks again,
G