| Author |
 Topic  |
|
MarkF
Engineer
USA
9270 Posts |
 Posted - 11/17/2007 : 11:53:09 PM
|
I forgot to mention that this morning I atteneded our local NMRA Division's meet. While there, I was surveying a few of the 'swap' tables there and what do I see? A Proto 1000 GP-18! I quickly walk over to take a look, knowing this loco is perfect for a late model GP-9. As I lift the lid to see what road name it is, what do I notice? It's a LOW NOSE VERSION!!! [:-bigeyes][:-banghead]
SteamNut was there with me and he also has been planning to do a Winchester & Western engine, so I showed him the model. What we did notice is that the short low hood does have a slight angle to it, similar to a GP-20 but not as pronounced. But, after painting this engine black, it probably won't be very noticable. So, after laying down $20 for the engine, SteamNut walked away with his W&W engine with half the work. 
Just my luck! [:-boggled] |
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
|
 |
|
|
UKGuy
Fireman
USA
5427 Posts |
Posted - 11/18/2007 : 04:55:24 AM
|
Well Mark look at it this way... you will have the satisfaction of doing it yourself, and the enjoyment you have experienced through your accomplishment. Besides the inner pride level of watching a loco go past that you rebuilt yourself has got to be much higher than that of watching one go past that all you had to do was hand over a $20 .
Keep up the great work.
Karl.A |
 |
Edited by - UKGuy on 11/18/2007 04:56:41 AM |
|
|
|
MarkF
Engineer
USA
9270 Posts |
Posted - 11/18/2007 : 10:49:17 PM
|
| Yup, your right Karl. And believe it or not, I'm one of those sick pups that actually enjoys this madness! It's like anything else in our hobby. You see the same engines, cars, buildings, etc., on so many layouts, but when you see a unique one, it stands out. People may ask 'where did you get that', and when you say 'I built it', well, it's a great sense of accomplishment! |
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
|
|
|
|
MarkF
Engineer
USA
9270 Posts |
Posted - 11/19/2007 : 12:58:38 AM
|
The cab is just about finished! The short hood and windshield are glued in place, and tonight I did a final fitting of the head light and number board assembly and glued that in place as well. The trick here was to make sure I had good access from inside the cab so I can get in there later on and install the number boards and lighting. All that needs to be done now is to place the new roof over the cab and headlight assembly.
While this was drying, I decided to start on the rest of the roof. The Proto GP-18 model comes with the 36” diameter fans which are correct for this particular engine, however these fans have a shroud around them, which is wrong. I had to carefully file down each of these shrouds flush. This was a lot of filing and sanding!
|
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
|
|
|
|
MarkF
Engineer
USA
9270 Posts |
Posted - 11/19/2007 : 01:05:28 AM
|
The next big obstacle is applying the air filter assembly to the roof line. Details Associates makes this detail part which is a nice casting, but did require some cleanup.
Looking at the first two pictures of the prototype below, you can see how these filters were mounted.
In the next picture, you can see that while the dynamic brake blister is still on the unit, notice that the grill itself has been covered over with sheet metal. This means I have to carefully file down the details on the model and fill in the grill work. Also notice how the front part of the blister that tapers down has been removed and the filter itself is mounted in it’s place!
On the model, all of these details are molded in. On some models, the dynamic blister is a separate casting and could be removed to perform this work, but such is not my luck! So here is my starting point on the model.
This will really test my abilities!!! [:-bigeyes2]
|
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
|
|
|
|
acousticco
Fireman
Canada
1324 Posts |
Posted - 11/19/2007 : 02:31:17 AM
|
quote:
Originally posted by MarkF
This will really test my abilities!!! [:-bigeyes2]
Well you've already demonstrated some pretty advanced abilities already, so you have little to worry about, methinks.
-Cody |
|
|
|
UKGuy
Fireman
USA
5427 Posts |
Posted - 11/19/2007 : 04:23:33 AM
|
After the reconstruction of the front end you just performed this looks like a piece of cake, a little filing, some putty, a couple of cuts with new #11's and glue in the filters, simple . I know I know, easy for me to say.
Looking forward to this next step.
Karl.A |
|
|
|
MarkF
Engineer
USA
9270 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2007 : 1:10:48 PM
|
| Thanks for the votes of confidence Karl and Cody. I've been pondering how to go about this. The dynamic brake blister is solid material, so I'm thinking if I can mill out the bulk of the material and then file and fit, it should work. One of those tasks though that with one wrong move of the milling bit or file and..., well, let's not go there! [:-banghead] But I'm going to try to tackle it today, so stand by! |
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
|
|
|
|
MarkF
Engineer
USA
9270 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2007 : 1:21:21 PM
|
I decided to finish the cab today before tackling the air filter installation. The only thing left on the cab is to put a new roof on that covers the cab and new head light/number board assembly.
I used some .015 styrene, which is paper thin, and cut a piece out that was oversized. This piece will be laminated on top of the existing roof as well as cover the extension. It is thin enough that it should not be noticeably thicker on the existing cab roof.
Once this piece was glued on, I carefully trimmed the excess of around the details of the number board assembly, then sanded down any excess. (Sorry about the poor quality of this pic)
I am pleased with how this came out. This actually turned out to be easier than I anticipated! The cab is now done! Now I can move on to the installation of the air filters.
 |
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
|
|
|
|
MIKE0659
Engine Wiper
USA
160 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2007 : 8:26:42 PM
|
Hey Mark, it's coming along nicely.
A few things for background on the 575. W&W bought that unit as part of a group of loco's and slugs from Conrail.
575 was a chop-nose when purchased, in fact it was the first chop-nose on the W&W NJ. WWVA already had two that NJ bought from the old Tidewater Grain elevator in Philly. NJ then did some major work to them, repainted them, and shipped them to VA. After sitting untouched for 10+ years inside the building, vandals had stripped a lot of the copper wiring and smashed all the gages while the units were waiting for CR to pull them from the TG siding (All of 2 days or so.). So WWNJ had to replace the electrical cabinet on one unit.
But the biggest job might have been cleaning 10 years worth of pigeon poop off/out of them. A big, dirty job.
An update on the 575, which is now on the WWVA division. Gore shop converted the 575, their slug mother, and their slug to a road slug set. They wired the mothers, one to each truck on the slug, in effect making two six-axles (Think: 2 SD-9's). At the same time, they re-wired them to allow transition as they used to be yard slug sets so were not wired to make transition while acting as a slug mother.
A few weeks ago, on their first test run, they broke the old record for the number of loads taken up the grade out of Gore.
Can't wait to see your engine when finished. |
|
|
|
MarkF
Engineer
USA
9270 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2007 : 11:24:17 PM
|
Thanks for the comments and the update Mike. Yes, I did know that 575 had been moved to Va. I found out quite by accident one night while doing some research on it. I found a video of all things on You Tube featuring #575 and a slug unit. Here's the link;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BAbWNscOCE
I had thought that the chop nose was done by W&W so I appreciate the correction on that one.
There is progress to report. I have managed to get one of the filters in place and almost finished the second one. I'll have some more photos posted in the next day or so. |
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
|
|
|
|
MarkF
Engineer
USA
9270 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2007 : 11:23:54 PM
|
Well, I managed to squeeze in some modeling time today and got a lot accomplished.
I pondered for a while how to approach installing the air filter castings. As I mentioned in a previous post, the air filters are mounted into the dynamic brake blisters. This meant I had to remove material from the model so that the casting fit into the dynamic brake blister.
I started by using a small milling bit to remove the bulk of the material from the area. This picture is from the fireman’s side, showing the area after milling out the bulk of the material from the dynamic brake blister area. You can also see that I have removed one set of louvers from the door directly below the air filter on each side.
Then using an X-acto knife, I cut away more material, and followed this using the dental scraper tool to refine the area, periodically checking the fit against the casting. This required a lot of filing of the casting and scraping of the body before I got a good tight fit.
These two shots show the casting cemented in place on the engineer’s side of the model. All that is needed is a little body putty to fill some minor gaps.
|
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
|
|
|
|
Tim Kerkhoff
Fireman
USA
5869 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2007 : 03:11:39 AM
|
| Amazing Mark, I can't wait to see it all painted and decaled up. |
|
|
|
MarkF
Engineer
USA
9270 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2007 : 12:36:00 PM
|
Thanks Tim, neither can I!
With the installation of the air filter castings now out of the way, I’ve turned my attention towards applying some of the details on the model. The biggest detail is the air intake grids on the car body.
The air intake grids that come with the Proto-GP18 model are incorrect. Several years ago when I first got this model, I found the correct grids, but I can’t remember where I got the correct castings, however, these were designed to retrofit the GP-18 model.
One of the ‘nice’ things about this model is the level of included detail. As it concerns these air grids, the model comes with ‘working louvers’ that are cemented on the inside of the model and in turn, the grids are cemented over them from the outside of the model. What I quickly noticed though is that if done this way, the air intake grids protrude outside the car body. A look at the prototype shows that the grids themselves are flush with the car body. (see pics of the prototype at the beginning of this thread.)
I tried several approaches, including sanding down the working louver assemblies, but I wasn’t able to get them thin enough. I decided to go ahead and cement the grids to the car body and see how they looked. I filed them down on the edges so that they were a nice tight fit. Once inserted though, I realized that I could easily see through the grids into the car body. This can’t be done on the prototype because the louvers are behind these grids! I had to find another way to represent the louvers behind the grids. After scrambling through some of my parts and supplies, I came across some Plastruct clapboard siding material! I figured the clapboards would do a good job of representing the louvers behind the grid. I cut a strip of this material and gave it a quick spray of grimy black.
I then cemented them behind the grid. Well, what you see is what you get! You can no longer see through the engine, but you really can’t make out the louvers either! But hey, I know they are there!
So here’s where I am so far. The cab is finished, the air filters and intakes are now in place. Lot’s of smaller details are left to install, and I still have the pilots to work on. It’s getting there!
|
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
|
|
|
|
Steam Nut
Fireman
USA
1274 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2007 : 1:07:47 PM
|
| Looks good, Your next project should be a steam engine! |
Steam Lives! |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
Kitbashing Winchester & Western #575
