P48 for Cotton Belt: Roster addition SW1200

[Big Train James]

I'm sure I've seen the various Archer details applied directly to bare plastic. Not sure I could put my hands on a specific example off the top of my head. But I feel confident that somewhere in my wanderings I've seen it done that way. Which only makes sense.

 

[Pugsley]

I've found the best way to apply them to plain plastic is to slide them onto the model with water, dab with a tissue to settle them, then apply a small amount of Klear to each one to seal them. It worked well on the 37 - they're less prone to coming off that way.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I have my Archer rivet transfers but yet to try them in anger
Dave, can I ask, did you gloss the boxcar first before applying them, or just applied them straight to the bare plastic? Gloss is usually used to aid adhesion & hide the carrier film* - just wondering how these decals cope if laid on bare plastic..??

I did spray the boxcar gloss first as I wanted to make sure decals adhered. I've never tried applying decals to bare plastic but will give it a go as Pugsley has suggested as I have a nearly full bottle of Klear.

From the rivet decals the layers are: Vallejo acrylic gloss varnish, rivet decals, undercoat, topcoat, gloss varnish, road decals, weathering. Then paint patches for the new data decals, the patches glossed, data decals, Vallejo acrylic matt varnish and finally more weathering.......

 

[Jordan]

Thanks everyone.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I received a parcel today containing these....


Well, actually 6 pairs of roller bearing and 3 pairs of friction bearing trucks and 8 sets of freight car brake parts (handbrake wheels not shown) below.


I had a look at test fitting the Protocraft wheels into the roller bearing trucks and on first the first attempt they are a bit sloppy due to the narrowing of the inner frame to accommodate the wider Atlas wheels. These are only tests with 33'' wheels. I shall be ordering some 36'' roller bearing wheels in the not too distant future. The truck of the left shows the amount of side play and that on the right shows the homemade washers fitted.


To reduce the side play I decided to make my own 1 mm washers from a piece of empty roller ball pen ink tube which happened to have the right internal diameter.

To enable the washers to be cut evenly I made up this jig from scrap brass and a piece of brass tube. As can be seen the pen refill was pushed through the tube until it reached the stop which is 1.1 mm from the end of the tube. The refill was cut with a chisel knife blade using the end of the tube as a guide.


Washers fitted to wheels.

 

[Steph Dale]

Neat stuff, Dave. I think that tube is probably polythene, so it should wear well. Tricky to paint though.

Steph

 

[Jordan]

Neat 'fix', but it does demonstrate why die-hard P48-ers narrow the truck frames as well.
Must admit it does tickle me that all the British 'proto' scales involve widening the gauge, frames, back-to-backs etc - only in America is the stuff so big that the proto option involves narrowing everything...

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

proto option involves narrowing everything...

Shades of a certain railway company I'll not deign to mention here .

I have just seen replacement P48 bolsters for Atlas trucks on Shapeways which I may try though.

 

[unklian]

Shades of a certain railway company I'll not deign to mention here .

I'd be surprised if anyone round here would get the connection with the Gainsville Midland though ........

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I'd be surprised if anyone round here would get the connection with the Gainsville Midland though ........

Thanks for the insight Ian - I knew some of the North Eastern states used wide gauges varying from 6' to 5' 2 1/2'' and that they also had 'gauge wars'.

Your reference certainly got the fingers to the keyboard. When looking up the Gainesville Midland (5' and 3' gauges) I also came across references to the Confederacy railroads adopting 5' gauge before converting to standard gauge. Makes very interesting research. Today only a few US light rapid transit systems still use either wide or narrow gauges.

The railroad I have chosen to model - Cotton Belt (St Louis Southwestern SSW) started as a narrow gauge line but I'm not going that far back...

 

[unklian]

You are quite right Dave, but I was thinking more recently though, as the Gainsville had a few of those 'Russian' 2-10-0's that had to be regauged from the 5 foot Russian gauge . I believe they managed to do it by fitting wider tyres to offset the flanges closer to the frames. The difference only being 1 3/4" either side .

PS this has sent me to the "Must not get distracted thread"

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I've received a couple of sets of replacement P48 bolsters for the Atlas 70 ton roller bearing trucks having ordered these through Shapeways.

Being 3D printed, and as expected, they do not have the finesse of injection moulding or casting but as they will be sitting under rolling stock this is not too much of an issue. In fact the finish looks like they have been roughly powder coated.

Sprue as produced


Parts compared. P48 bolster above with the Atlas bolster below.


Trucks compared both with P48 wheels. New bolster left and original bolster right.


Trucks compared again with the new bolster below and the original bolster above.


Finally here's a composite picture of two boxcar end showing the effect of the narrowed P48 roller bearing trucks under the unfinished SSW insulated car on 29.89 mm P48 track (right) compared to the standard Atlas roller bearing trucks under a P&E car on 32mm O gauge track (left).


Eventually a set of roller bearing caps for the axle ends.

 

[GWR Jim]

Hello Dave.

Sorry only just catching up with the posting, no time to do anything now I'm on this retirement thingy!!

Who supplied your Atlas trucks please as would like to order some to try out a set of P48 wheels.

Many thanks

James

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Hello James

I ordered them direct from the Atlas web store Atlas Model Railroad Company, Inc. Online Store - 009

You need to look at catalogue numbers 7064,7075, 7066, 7067 and 7068 for the narrower trucks. I initially installed a set of P48 wheels in the Barber Bettendorf trucks by drilling the plastic bearing to the required depth. Just enough to ensure the wheels turn.

Please let me know of your results.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I collected a package from the local sorting office tonight containing diesel detail parts kindly obtained for me by Big Train James. The jewel in the crown are these AAR type B road switcher trucks for my U23B road switcher kit.






The other detail parts are also quite exquisite. Which now means I must do now something - probably starting with the GP9.

 

[Steph Dale]

Dave,
Those AAR trucks look good. Who are they made by?

Steph

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Steph.

Overland. Scale width and fully equalized, naturally.

 

[Steph Dale]

Aah, that rather explains it! Very nice indeed.

Steph

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

A start has now been made on GP9. This is the loco I've decided to model and it's my intention to finish it in this condition.



The first job was to convert the skirt/running plate from a phase 1/2 to a phase 3 version as this loco is a SP GRIP (General Rehabilitation and Improvement Program) rebuild of a SSW GP9. Some of the visible changes were the replacement of the 48'' radiator fans with 36'' fans, addition of a Farr air filter box on front of the dynamic brake and new cab/sub-base hatch doors with different louvres (louvers).

The alterations to the skirt were to move the fuel filler and reduce it's depth except from around the re-sited fuel filler. A bit of work remains here to square up the rounded corners



The phase 1 louvres were removed from the cab/sub base hatch, and replacements from Archer decals substituted. My initial concern is that the Archer decals louvres are not as deep as the moulded louvres and would not look right. However this turned out not to be the case as photographic evidence shows a flatter louvre fitted to the new cab/sub base hatches.

The Archer louvres don't look much in the photograph below but after my experience with their rivets on the SSW insulated car they will become more prominent when the first coat of paint is applied.

 

[Overseer]

Looking forward to seeing the GP9 finished. It will have plenty of character even if not much paint. Much harder to replicate than a clean new livery.

The new battery box louvres look close to the real thing and different to the hood door louvres as they should. Standard EMD hood door louvres are quite basic - they are 1 inch wide strips bent out at 45 degrees and with 1 inch flats between the louvres, ie the louvres are at 2 inch vertical centres. Because they are bent at 45 degrees you can see through them into the gloom inside, as the prototype photo shows. I don't know of any plastic moulding which really captures these louvres, in any scale.