Painting the G scale Engine House

Now that almost everything is attached and glued together, it’s time to seal it with a layer of primer and begin the final process of painting and adding door hardware. The process was pretty straighforward and can be done a number of ways. We choose the most professional way, using a compressed air sprayer with lightly thinned Benjamin Moore outdoor flat house paint. Next we went in and painted the roof with brushes and the white trim with smaller brushes.

About 3 coats of primer had the wood sufficently sealed to be left outside on the garden railroad.

2 coats of Spanish red had the engine house looking really nice.

The Roof was painted carefully with flat brushes in a nice dark brown.

White trim adds a touch of class and sharpens the overall look of the building.

In our final installment, we’ll add the doors and place it on the layout.

Layout Tour: Westside Lumber Company in Sn3

Tucked away in a corner of Ed Loiseaux’s spectacular New York Central Valley Division is a rather anomolous addition: A taste of the Westside Lumber Company of Sonora, Calif. It’s a fairly generic depection of a lumber mill scene using some amazing scratchbuilding skills to create a believable Lumber mill. Around the sawmill structure is a plethorea of scratchbuilt auxiliary buildings and platforms.

A closer view of the lumber mill reveals interesting details. A brass Sn3 DRGW switcher works the plant.

It all starts up at the lumber camp high in the mountains where flatcars and logging skeleton cars are loaded with lumber…

They Travel to the sawmill’s log pond and are dumped into the pond with a spectacular splash!

The lumber is cut to size at the mill, then taken a short distance via flatcar to the transloading dock, which loads the lumber onto standard gauge flatcars which are pushed to the local interchange by a Heisler geared steamer.

Should You Buy a Brass Locomotive?

There’s always that one part of any well stocked hobby shop, it’s probably a glass case behind the cashier’s register, or perhaps it’s a commercial fishtank sized glass case with row upon row of gleaming brass locomotives. Some are unpainted with their meserizing golden-brass hue, some with their meticulously researched and accurately applied paintjobs. What they match in their high detail and impeccable craftsmanship is a price tag that will scare off any sane penny-pinching modeler, but should you be scared off by a high pricetag?

In the Defense of Brass Locomotion

Brass models can provide many things that plastic models have yet to achieve in the 60 years they have inhabited the same part of the hobbyshop. Only recently have plastic models begun to provide affordable, well detailed and accurate competition to brass models, but there are just some things the major manufacturer’s won’t ever make in plastic, and that’s where brass has always held an edge.

For instance, the extremely obscure railroad of the Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek District Railway owned a locomotive identical to the one pictured above, it was apparently built in their shops in 1901, or so the builder’s plate reads. It’s a small and light 2-6-2, and I’d bet the pony and trailing trucks aren’t to distribute firebox weight, but to deal with poor trackwork. The sloped tender suggests a local or switcher locomotive, it ran on coal and sports Carbon-Arc or Kerosene lamps fore and aft. The attractive boiler tube pilot is similar to a road locomotive, but it’s modest footboards at the rear suggest otherwise. This tiny locomotive of an equally tiny and obscure road that barely made ends meet in the quarter century of it’s existance certianly was overshadowed by such fabled neighboring roads as the quixotic Colorado Midland and the much revered DRGW. The only reason this model was produced was probably due to the plans for this little loco being run in a 1974 issue of Model Railroader. The CS&CCD Ry’s story having been enshrined in HO scale brass is one of the reasons why brass is an interesting way to build model locomotives, there’s no chance that would ever be made in plastic by any manufacturer with any degree of sanity.

Because brass locomotives don’t have to worry about the high return on investment that plastic models always have to strive for (think of why in the last 50 years there has been over a dozen models of the Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 big boy, yet there remains only a handful of well-detailed plastic 2-6-0’s 2-6-2’s 2-8-0’s 4-4-0’s and other small steam.) more unique models have been produced to fill in niche markets.

Logging prototypes in both narrow gauge and standard gauge have always been popular brass models. Westside shays and heislers, Uintah 2-6-6-2’s, Baldwin logging 2-8-2T’s, 2-8-2, 2-6-2’s and the wide variety of oddities like the Vulcan duplex, Willamette geared steamer, gypsy winch 0-4-0’s, and the Climax A, B & C models are often found on some of the more involved model railroader’s layouts.

Famous prototypes have also been popular. Southern Pacific Cab Forwards, NYC hudsons, and almost every streamlined locomotive has been produced in brass at one time or another. Smaller locomotives of the larger roads have been popular too, like CB&Q pacifics and Wabash moguls.

Brass is the only way to get some diesels that are too obscure to ever be produced in plastic, like the beautiful Fairbanks-Morse H-20-44’s or the Early EMD TA’s, Baldwin “babyface” cab units, or even small industrial diesels like whitcomb and porter models. SP SD-40T-2’s were popular models in brass for many years until the recent Athearn RTR offering eclipsed the detail of many previous brass offerings. I’m imagining that SD70ACe models are selling quite well as nobody has released one in HO yet.

The quality of the running gear found on the “average” brass locomotive varies wildly so this is where it gets tricky. Some companies were all about the looks and only put a “token” drive inside thinking that the collectors of brass would never run such a highly detailed locomotive as it may hurt the value. These clumsy arrangements often had underpowered open-frame motors flimsily attached with shrink tubing to a poorly built worm-gear assembly like the AT&SF 1950 class locomotive pictured above. This was the most mass-produced brass locomotive ever made, and although the detail is acceptable, it ran terrible. Early Ken Kidder mallets had only the rear set of drivers powered, making them gutless locomotives barely capable of hauling their own weight. Some of the gearing was so poor that it would only be able to attain ridiculously high speeds thanks to a lack of reduction gears. Although not a total loss, they would be worth sending off to an experienced rebuilder of brass like master machinist at DTA Models . (no commercial affilation, but I’m quite impressed with his work.) It seems a great deal of early Japanese brass is like this.

On the other side of the spectrum is the newer Korean brass, like my CS&CCD 2-6-2. It’s built by Ajin precision of Korea and has a fantastic drive train. Featuring a sagami can motor, it has solid driveshafts linked to sturdy machined metal gears with the gear tower solidly attached to the frame. It runs silky smooth. NWSL (NorthWestShortLine) brass has been revered for decades for it’s rock-solid dependable drives and adequate detail. Don’t forget that brass locomotives are heavier and if the drive is solid, they pull much better than a plastic locomotive, especially if the locomotive is small to begin with.

So, should you buy a brass locomotive?

-Yes you should, IF: You’re modeling a really specific prototype or if you absolutely must have an accurate and highly detailed model of a steam or diesel locomotive that would be too difficult to kitbash or scrathbuild. Always comparison shop though, as most brass is expensive, usually more than $300.00 now, with most brass well exceeding this price.

-No you shouldn’t IF: there’s a nice offering in plastic of the same model. It would be a waste of your money. A good example would be a Brass GP7 or SW1500 model, nice detail but unless it was severly modified by the home road (e.g. a unique chopnose like on the WM GP9’s) the Atlas, Proto 2000 or Athearn offering are quite adequate.

Open the Floodgates! Pouring the “Water” for your model scenes.

This is one of the intangible “thresholds” of modeling that modelers have to work up the courage to do, because it’s a one-shot-waste scenario. It’s a tense operation pouring what can be awfully expensive water materials on your nicely painted riverbed.

In the two previous articles, we discussed a new way to research the color of a river, and how to prepare the riverbeds for the coming torrent of “water”. And appropriate landforms to compliment your riverbanks.

Options for Water

For water, Woodland Scenic has been selling a horrendously overpriced product called “Realistic Water”which is actually just Acrylic Glazing Liquid used for painting light layers of paint on a painting. Learn more about Acrylic glazing liquid here. You can get this stuff by the GALLON for half the price of the bottle of WS product at Blick Art Supply.

Acryllic Glazing Liquid
Pros:
-Least Expensive! (Less than $10/Gallon!)
-Easy to Pour
-Non-Toxic, Smelly but not noxious
-Water-Soluble
-Dries CLEAR and looks “wet” and like flowing water (more so than other fake water products)
Cons:
-Smelly for 12 hours after poured.
-Takes 24 hours to dry
-Needs containment if riverbed extends off layout
-If you want to pour it deep, it will take many layers due to the fact that it won’t dry at all fast if you pour it deeper than 1/8″ layers.
-Cannot be colored or dyed (It doesn’t matter if you’re pouring your water shallow)
-It flows through the tiniest gaps in the scenery and like water takes the path of least resistance when poured. Make sure you’ve painted your riverbed properly before pouring.

Woodland Scenics Realistic Water is IDENTICAL to Acrylic glazing liquid, Except 4 times more expensive. (approaches $16.00/bottle)

Envirotex
Pros:
-Dries Clear
-can be poured deep (thick layers) forming bodies of water
-Can be colored with dyes
-Looks nice, but dries dead flat and needs waves added in additional layers.
Cons
-PRECISE mixing may be difficult
-Excessive care to deal with bubbles is time-consuming and boring
-Produces a lot of heat from chemical reaction
-Expensive
-Yellows with age (big problem)
-Creates “fillets” (concave meniscus) and creeps up pier pilings, water weeds, Stone abutments and anything sticking above the water. Looks weird and hard to fix. (Joe Fugate remedies this problem in his DVD’s.)

“Magic Water”

With thanks to Mr. Williams of “Magic Water,” we’ve expanded our coverage of the pros and cons of his product.

Pros:

-Looks realistic
-Can be poured to ANY depth without a need to “layer” pours
-Doesn’t melt plastic or foam
-Can be tinted and colored
-Has a much gentler meniscus around objects and the shore.
-No bubbles
-No Yellowing
-No Cracking
-No Shrinkage over time
-Comes with instruction booklet that shows how to model everything from mud puddles to high waterfalls.

Cons

-Toxic
-Resin-Based
-12-24 hour drying time (Not as bad as envirotex!)
-Needs additional layer to create realistic waves
-Will seep into porous plaster scenery and needs to be sealed.

E-Z Water

E-Z Water (Bag of yellow/clear plastic granules)
-Looks enticing for beginner modelers…DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES PURCHASE E-Z WATER!!! It’s a terrible, noxious, yucky, sticky product that ruins cookware, your riverbed and your modeling confidence because every pour will end in failure.
Did I mention that it’s never actually clear? It’s always yellow.

Preparing the River

If not contained on both ends of the riverbed or water feature it can leak in all the nooks and crannys, this is the same for all other water products.

Building a Dam:

To hold back the heavier products like Envirotex, Acrylic Glazing liquid, and Magic Water, you need a dam. I made mine out of metal plates you use for workshop pegboard. These galvanized steel plates are less than $0.50 apiece at any well-stocked hardware store. I drove drywall screws through the holes to hold them in place.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART TO MAKING THE DAM IS THIS:

You have to take Wax paper or Plastic wrap and seal the side in which the water product is going to sit against to prevent the liquid or resin from spilling all over your floor. THIS HAS TO BE NEARLY WATERTIGHT, as all these products seem to find every nook and cranny just like actual water.

Here’s a photo of the dam in place:

Make sure you have at least a 1/4 to 1/2 an inch over the top of your water surface for safety.

Laying a Riverbed, Step by Step

One of the luxuries you’ll probably have as you build your future riverbed is that you won’t have previous scenery attempts lying in the middle of your project. I had to level out an entire canyon before even starting my river.

Here’s what it looked like BEFORE:

I use a lightweight way to build my hillsides, as covered in Woodland Scenic’s “Scenery Manual” which is basically old newspapers, junk mail etc crumpled up into little balls, taped to the board with 2 layers of plaster cloth and a thick layer of sculptamold atop the plaster cloth. They came down without a fight using a small hacksaw to cut through the plaster cloth.

A great tip I learned to recycle sculptamold is to heat up a large pot of water on the stove, then bring it out to the train room an ladle the hot water atop the sculptamold. The sculptamold turns back to the watery mush it was when you first mixed it, and can be recycled over and over. It even absorbs some of your scenery material like the ground foam and dirt, which adds to texture when you use it for scenery next.

The first part when planning a river that will include any rail or road bridge is to build the right-of-way and get it to a point in which it runs reliably, then begin scenery.

Once the track is laid down, shape your banks surrounding the tracks with care to observe how real rivers create banks. Erosion is typically a large part of the character of a riverbank, and trees are the only barrier to preventing the entire banks from being swept away in a flood. Hard stone outcroppings are also elements that add character to a river.

Looking at the above diagram, one can observe some of the neat features you can add to your river scene to add some more detail.

Other riverbed types would include small stones (don’t use ballast for this) and clay riverbeds.

As you can see in the diagram above, I cover the ENTIRE riverbed in an uneven, but somewhat smooth and thin layer of sculptamold. This makes you river look 100% more natural and gives that neat fast-flowing ripple effect that makes your eye think that the water is actually moving.

This is what the dry riverbed looks like with the layer of sculptamold down and the silty riverbed of decomposed granite in place. Any dirt you apply atop the sculptmold MUST be applied over a layer of FULL-strength white glue to prevent us from having problems when we paint the riverbed next. (It will also create a nice layer between the sculptamold and the acrylic glaze.)

Here’s a closeup of the bridge abutment in place, with low wooden retaining walls on either side to prevent eroding the mainline behind the stone pier.

Using techniques in the PREVIOUS ARTICLE on how to correctly paint your riverbed, we take our paints and paint DIRECTLY on top of the dried dirt. (make sure to use a medium sized 1/2 inch wide disposable paint brush)

In the next article, we’ll cover how to pour the river, it’s easier (and in some ways harder) than you might think.

How to Model a River

Rivers are perhaps the most often modeled item on a railroad next to Depots and Trackside industries. Unfortunately, very few people actually model a river realistically enough to really convince your eye that it actually looks like water. Sure, the glossy surface helps, but it’s also what’s below the waterline that counts most.

Joe Fugate has certianly captured the look of a seasonal creek, with great success. You can follow his progress in his 5 DVD set about his Southern Pacific Siskiyou Lines. I would highly reccomend these sets of DVD’s for anyone wanting to make realistic scenery. (Volumes 4+5 deal with scenery)

For this article, I’ve modified Joe’s methods to produce a wide, shallow river. This type of river can be found anywhere. It typically doesn’t get more than 15 feet deep and has lots of sandbars and silt.

If one looks at the wide variety of rivers across the country, they all have on thing in common: a dominant riverbed color. This varies wildly from the rich oxide reds of Upper Michigan to the Green Swampy mess of the South, from the Clear mountain streams in the mountains to my river, slow, shallow and containing decomposed granite and a bit of clay.

Color Theory.

Color is a make-or-break thing about painting a river. Model railroader has pushed black and sand as the dominant colors for riverbeds, and I disagree with their color assesment for ALL rivers, although the Milwaukee river does in fact have that color grouping.

The Mississippi is predictibly silty with a sandy brown being the dominant color.

The mighty Missouri River is raging in the winter, you can see the difference between the fast-moving winter Mo’ and the levied puddle that once was part of the river.

The somewhat fast moving Susquehana meets up with what seems to be the Juanita creek/river, just north of Harrisburg, PA in a hamlet called Benvenue (no “i” ?)

The Kankakee River is green..

The American River is deeper and faster…

My favorite as far as color is concerned is this one outside Edisto Island in South Carolina.

…Finally we have the River I intend to model mine after, the Salinas River, located in California.

This really gives the modeler ideas to branch out beyond the ultramarine blues and blacks and see what a REAL river looks like.

Next, we’ll discuss how to build a leak-proof riverbed for our water product and discuss how to correctly blend colors together to create the riverbed, then finally, We’ll pour the river and add the bankside vegetation.

I used Windows Live Local’s “Bird’s Eye View” to capture all of those Aerial shots.

Join the Fun! Micro Layouts are a Blast!

Micro Layouts are probably the most beneficial section of the hobby due to the fact that they, in the definition given by Micro Layout compiler and modeler Carl Arendt: “Micro layouts are small model railroads, usually less than three or four square feet in area, that nonetheless have a clear purpose and excellent operating capability. “

FOUR MAIN TYPES OF LAYOUTS

There are four main types of micro layouts, and about 80% of micro layouts are based on these concepts:

 

1. The Pizza Layout is a classic. Originally devised for HO or N scale, the pizza layout is a circle of track, usually scenicked. Rarely are these layouts build with any other trackwork like spurs, but there are notable exceptions. The term originated from either the pizza like look of the loop of track or the fact that some Pizza layouts were built in pizza boxes!

2. The Ingelnook Switching Puzzle dates back to 1978 and is the brainchild of Allen Wright, according to this source. The ingenious 5/3/3 ratio of 5 cars on the main and capacities for 3 cars on both sidings has been lauded as the “perfect” switching ratio. This type of layout is very portable and mentally challenging to shunt or switch cars around with. The Inglenook puzzle exists in real life on some railroads all around the world, like Italy and the US.

3. The Traverser is another very popular method of switching in even less space then the Inglenook. The problem is that a transfer table, a rather unusual piece of railroad equipment that is rarely found outside of railroad backshops, is the hallmark of this plan. This eliminates the need for switches, but realistically limits the modeling subject to a handful of prototype locations. Some variations on this layout can be found on Carl’s site.

4. Ridiculously small micro layouts like the curious “dime layout” that uses a US 10 cent piece as the inner portion of track in what one could term a “bite sized doughnut” layout. (In keeping with the food theme presented by the pizza layout. ) The coin conducts electricity and the outer rail is bent to an improbable radius. Here’s photos of one in action!

5. (Not Illustrated) would have to be the sector plate layouts. I really don’t like sector plates, because they’re not very realistic, and none exist in real life unlike turntables and transfer tables. They do add flexibility through the ability to move an entire train from one track to another, which is interesting.

These are certainly not all of the types of micro layouts out there. Some base their switching maneuvers around a turntable, some are actually small “traditional” loop layouts that feature sidings and the like, somewhat similar to MR 4X8 foot project layouts, but squeezed down to less than 4 square feet. Others offer unorthodox track-work or very complex track age with tight curves and clearances and lots of #4 switches.

THEMES

There are infinite stories a model railroad can tell, and micro layouts push the boundaries of the traditional railroad themes. Some of the more traditional layout themes, like Anthracite coal mining, or modern intermodal terminals would be an impractical. The interesting part of micro layouts is that you can create small portions of large industries and use the micro layout as a small vignette to portray that specific industry.

Some of the more popular themes include:

1. Railroad back shops. Rebuilding cars and locomotives required a lot of specialized switching maneuvers and is one of the few prototypical places for turntables and transfer tables.

2. Wharves and seaside scenes are always popular. From the dock to a point of interchange, or from a mine to the dock. Some layouts even incorporate ”live loads” of coal, ore or soil that dump from the railroad cars into the awaiting vessel. Car float operations are also another interesting facet of this theme. A good number of micro layouts feature lighthouses.

3. Urban Traction is a great space saving theme to explore. It’s one of the few places in which railroading can be accomplished with ultra-sharp curves and overhead wire. The scratch-built trolley cars, street cars and MOW motor flats whizzing around a small layout make for great fun.

4. Mining and Logging operations are popular subjects for micro layouts, although It seems silly to have a lumber mill 5 inches from the stand of trees being harvested..the same goes for most mining layouts.

5.  Using unusual gauges narrow gauge railroads are popular. Examples like Gn15, (1:29 scale using 1:87 HO gauge track, which scales to 15″ industrial gauge in G.) or On3 (1:48 O scale using scale 36″ gauge track) On30 (O scale on HO gauge track representing 30″ narrow gauge) Sn3 (1:64 S scale on their 36″ gauge track, which is almost HO gauge track)   HOn3 (HO 36″ narrow gauge) or HOn30 (HO scale on N 1:160 gauge track)  some crazy modelers even use Nn3 (N scale on Z gauge track)  are the backbone of the Narrow Gauge Movement.

6. Food related industries are popular. Winery layouts, Brewery operations, pickle factories and even a maple syrup factory are all represented among the  cadre of micro layouts.  

7. Brick works, Lime kilns, Railroad Tie creosoting plants and other realistic narrow gauge industrial railroads are very popular modeling subjects, this is another portion of micro layouts in which you can make a realistic layout in a small space.

8. The last main theme is dictated by the package it comes in. I’m building a shoebox layout, which when completed will be a small mining operation in HOn3 (The photo shows the plan in full HO gauge.) The packages can range from an orange crate, to a wine box to a shoe box, or even smaller, like a CD case. The business card layout is by far some of the most entertaining modeling I’ve seen. These unusual puzzle layouts can be excellently designed.

 

 

 

A small mining operation in HO scale is the theme, still a lot to be decided upon. Here are some photos utilizing my shoebox.

The Hopper will go from the mine (above track) out onto the Ore Trestle, where it will be dumped into a barge or equivalent.

For More inspiration, please visit his site, which features HUNDREDS of fantastic layouts that can be built on a shelf, in a briefcase, inside a pizza box or a shoebox, as a traditional diorama, or even as small as a CD case.

http://carendt.com/

Some Narrow Gauge Locomotives Have All the Character

Here’s a series of photographs from various North American narrow gauge operations. Most of these railroads were logging or mining operations.

How about a Mexican Narrow Gauge outside frame 2-6-0 for starters? What a beauty, with plenty of character. I’d like to see this locomotive produced in On3 or On30 soon.

Or a pint-sized Forney? Look at those tiny trailing wheels.

Here’s a countless varation on the venerable H.K. Porter 0-4-0, I hope this may give you some ideas to re-detail your On30 bachmann model.

Here’s an excellent photo of a Shay logging locomotive, and look at all those extra details, from the huge pilot beam to the gypsy winch on the pilot, it would make an excellent kitbashing project.

Godchaux Plantation Railroad No.4 The Pride of the Fleet

The following is an exerpt from the excellent Mississippi Sugar Belt Railroad site. Visit the link for more information on this interesting operation.

In 1904, what was to become the flagship of the plantation fleet, Godchaux No. 4, was purchased from Baldwin_ a majestic little [ 36" narrow gauge ] 2-6-0 with full size tenders, weighing twenty-six tons. this little engine proudly carried a brass eagle just below its headlight. 

In November of 1955, as No. 4 was crossing Highway 61, North of LaPlace, pulling a train loaded with cane to the mill, it was hit by a truck traveling at a high rate of speed and carrying a heavy load of piling. The driver failed to heed the warning by the flagman, and the vehicle plowed into the train, striking the first car behind the tender. The impact was so great it tore the car to shreds, derailed others, and dragged the locomotive and tender into a ditch some thirty feet away. The brakeman riding the pilot beam was killed, and another railroad employee, also riding the pilot beam, lost one of his legs. During the sixty-three years the platation road operated, this was only the second fatality that occurred. The other happened at LaPlace, where a man was killed as he walked into the path of No. 4.

 The engine and tender were lifted back on the track and pulled to the roundhouse. After a thorough inspection by Jones and Cambre, it was determined that the locomotive had a bent axle and a number of other things to be repaired. It was late in the grinding season when the wreck occurred, and there was not enough time to put it back into service for that crop.

To see how pivitol No.4 was to the operations of the Godchaux plantation, read more here.

Godchaux owned a large plantation house that currently needs money to be restored to its former glory. To take a closer look at this classic southern plantation house, visiti their site: Godchaux Plantation House

Kitbashing an HOn3 Centercab- Part 1

 

THIS ARTICLE IS GOING TO BE RE-WRITTEN.

 CHECK BACK SOON.

NEW PHOTOS AND TEXT TO COME.

 

After accidentally discovering a long-abandoned N scale Bachmann F7A from a train set I had long ago, I decided to give it a new life as the centerpiece of a new project: An HOn3 Centercab locomotive. After researching a variety of Narrow Gauge diesel locomotives, of which you can witness an extensive collection of photographs here: http://narrowmind.railfan.net/ <–This is an EXCELLENT reference site BTW. I decided to take styling cues from 1940’s center-cab locomotives, like the Whitcomb, GE and Vulcan locomotives that this locomotive would be a contemporary of (late 1930’s/early 1940’s)

Recognizable parts are the following for this first part of scratch building:

-Bachmann F7A “Plus”, or Cheapie, both run well.

-0.60 styrene (lots of styrene)

-0.30 styrene less than 1/4 sheet

-Small styrene “L” shape

-Two winterization hatches off of Proto 2000 SD60M or GP38 (You can buy cannon& Company hatches instead)

-HOn3 Couplers

-Small gauge metal (non-electrical) florist wire, 16 gauge.

-Cab from Athearn GP9/SD9.

-Thick molded metal roofwalk from Athearn, Front Range, or MDC boxcar.

————————————————————————————

After cutting the cab shell in half on either side of the horn bracket, removing roughly 1 scale foot, make the frame out of 0.60 styrene The Frame is 30 feet long, and 8 feet wide. The cab walls should be flush with the sides of the frame.

Next, I took a small jewelers screwdriver and popped the wheels off. Using a pair of needle-nose pliers I bent the brass electrical pickups outward, to reach out to the newly re-gauged wheelsets.
Then I pushed the wheels in carefully and gauged them to HOn3.

I then proceeded to carefully cut a hole into the solid styrene frame so It can slip over the bachmann chassis, which has cast-metal “lips” on both ends. The front of the locomotive has an angles lip, you you need to sand down the front inside frame to make the frame ride level and flush with the chassis.

Now, your cab is a tiny bit too narrow to fit snugly on the frame. Go in with a flatfile and widen the inside edge of the front and rear cab walls to slip snugly on the frame, adjust until it fits.

In the foreground are the winterization hatches. The Dark Gray one is from an SD60M, and the white one is from an GP38. The SD60 needs to be cut at the seam so you get the correct height hood to put atop your locomotive.

Next, I placed a strip of electrical tape over the split frame to avoid causing shorts in the future.
THIS STEP IS ESSENTIAL…

…because next you add 1/4 and 1/2 oz lead weights to both ends of the hoods, atop the chassis covered with the electrical tape. Make sure to center the 1/2 oz weight over the trucks.

ALSO REMOVE THE LIGHTBULB if you havent already. It isn’t wired in, it just slips out easily using a toothpick or exacto knife to guide it out of the split-frame.

 

Next, you assemble the hood sides. This is made from 0.30 styrene. (0.20 works well too.) Make sure they’re as high as the grilles, or you’ll have to do what I do in this next step.

These hoods are too short in height, but I fixed the problem by layering one layer of 0.60 styrene atop the sides, then adding another custom-cut layer that includes roof vents.

You can scratchbuild your own access doors for the engine. I did this on two of my four hood sides, and wasn’t pleased with the results. Use an aftermarket detail part for this. Cannon & Co, or Details West makes access doors for diesels.

Add a cut-to fit 0.60 styrene roof atop either hood.

Here’s an exotic extra: atop the roof I added a debris shield. Often used in Steel mill locomotives, it can also be useful on mining railroads to keep foreign objects and debris out of the engine compartment, like if the train is loaded by a excavator or steam/electric shovel. The raw ore could fall off the top of the full bucket and foul parts inside the locomotive.

Notice for the second layer of 0.60 roof styrene, I added the roof vent, made from a front range or athearn 40′ boxcar roofwalk. The styrene parts on either side are 0.60 and cut to fit.

The trucks were typical roller bearing Blomberg type “M” trucks (oddly enough, they weren’t type “B’s”), too recognizable to be on a 36″ narrow gauge locomotive. so I filed off the roller bearings and the brake cylinder and using a razor saw, cut off the friction journal bearings off of a mantua caboose truck, also cutting the coil springs off the caboose trucks and sanding that part to half it’s thickness produces a more unique truck, reminiscent of ALCo’s HI-AD trucks. As a final touch, I added small styrene “L” shaped ’steel’ parts along the bottom of each truck to completely hide the EMD Blomberg heritage. To further disguise the truck I also filed off the “wingtips” on each end of the top of the truck.

 

Stay Tuned for PART TWO.