As of late I have been working on my Western Maryland diesel roster. My first was just a repaint of a Kato RS2, now decalled in fireball scheme as 183. My second is an Atlas GP9 that I bought, and decided to chop the nose on, utilizing a set of etched brass cab conversion bits I've had for many years. The good news: The cutting and fitting of the new cab front and lowering of the nose went perfect! The bad news: The frame now barely fits inside the shell, and only if I do not install the forward LED board for the headlight and the headlight/numberboard lenses. Dont suppose anyone knows a way short of buying a different mechanism designed for a low nose engine that I can get this to fit?
The 402 is a good idea, I didnt realize LEDs were made so small! Do I need to use a 1k 1/4 watt resistor with that one as well? And I cut perfectly (with regard to the conversion brass bits) it is just the frame was designed for a high hood Geep... though I think there's enough space for dremeling/filing the front down some to make the headlight lenses fit, and then install a teeny LED. Buying a new mechanism is a problem, as I live in Europe, and US prototype train items are both rare and expensive, so I tend to have to import everything. Good thing this layout will just be block wired, I cannot imagine trying to fit a decoder in here too =( Never taken one of these frames apart before... hopefully nothing comes flying out under spring tension or anything!
Yes I just got a 100pack of that resistor on ebay for like $5 or something nuts and so all my projects are covered for a while now that require confined space lighting.
The GP20 may or may not work...…….GP20's have a nose that slopes slightly. I built a number of chop-nose GP9s using LL GP18s (low nose) and the GP18 low hoods would not fit onto the GP20 chassis without filing.That was with the older versions. On the newer GP18 versions, they all use the low hood chassis.....the high nose version just uses an extended LED for the headlight. Not sure if the GP20 uses the same chassis.
You should fully disassemble the chassis and use a dremel or grinding wheel on a bench grinder to take off the excess height on the nose. Never creat metal shavings where gears and electric motors are closeby! It's not a hard job, you could even do it with a fine toothed razor saw. HD sells them for $4 about hand-sized. Just mark the areas to cut with black sharpie, and stay inside the lines!
I'll cut away some of the frame at the nose and see if i can get clearance for the lenses. Thanks all =)
Op success! The headlight lens will fit now, and I have room for a small LED and resistor. Thanks all! I'll post pics when it's done!
