http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...roto-DL-109-Anyone-know-about-DCC-on-this-one http://thecentralstation.myfreeforum.org/archive/walthers-life-like-dl-109__o_t__t_3001.html
I'm surprised Aztec Trains doesn't sell DCC-friendly replacement frames for the DL-109 yet. He's got frames for pretty much all of the rest of the LL/Walthers diesel line. -Mark
If I recall, the last assignment for the Southern Railway DL-109's was in branch line freight service.
NYNH&H worked the Dickens out of these things, especially in the war years. They pulled passenger by day and freight by night. The railroad was quite impressed with their availability rate. ALCo delivered the things with plywood sides, as the steel was needed to build tanks and destroyer escorts. They did their last work in commuter service except for one that NYNH&H and PC, for a minute, used as a generator. PC finally cut it up in 1969 or 1970. It was the last DL-109 in existence. The prime mover in this thing was the 539, which although dated by the late 1940s, was amoung the most reliable of any prime mover built. ALCo used it in their yard goats as well as the RS-1. The last had the longest production run of any North American diesel locomotive. Even the Russians continued to build a copy of it for the State Railways into the 1970s. The cab was somewhat different and it was an RSD-1 with specially constructed trucks for use on the notoriously crummy Russian trackage. The prime mover, however, was a copy of the 539. It was the 244 prime mover that did the damage to ALCo's reputation. The 251 was an improvement; in fact, some roads packed some of their 244-driven power back to ALCo for a swap out, but the damage had been done.
Makes you wonder how bad a Winton engine could have been, given that the RI replaced in them in their NW1s with used 244s transplanted from RS-2s.
I emailed John (Mr Aztec) about it, and unfortunately as he has been unable to purchase frames from Walthers/LifeLike since the change of ownership, he doesn't have the minimum number of frames (at least 25) required to warrant designing the modifications and programming his tooling to those specifications. Doing that 1 frame at a time isn't cost and time effective. I don't think we'll see a DL-109 frame from him. Bummer, but I understand the situation he is in.
Jeesh, chicken and egg. What say we orchestrate the 25 frames here and get this thing rolling? I have three for starters. BTW, I sent him an email as well. Never did get a reply. -Mark
The amount of material to be removed looks like an easy DIY job without the need for a machine shop, grab your files and dremels, that's what I'm going to do when mine arrives.
Well, seeing as there is no B-Unit currently available, I order 2 AT&SF DL-109s. Should be here by the end of next week. Now since Santa Fe only had the one A/B set of these, I've got figure out what 'fantasy' I'm going to come up with that explains an A/A lashup of these. And what decal/font sets are available that could be used to change the "50" of the second unit to some other number? Is there a unit number near "50" that was unused by any other AT&SF loco? With the DL-109s I've just about completed my collection of mid-century AT&SF streamliner locomotives. I love this period, particularly the history of passenger service during this time. Thanks!
Keeping with Santa Fe numbering practice an AA set if they had bought two A units instead of an A and a B would have been numbered 50L and 50A or you could say your two A units are part of an ABA set and number the second A unit 50B. 51 onwards were PA's. I'm just going to say my single A unit is working solo because the B unit is in the shops or team it up with a PA or PB.
The Rock Island did this,also. They would pull a Rocket to Iowa, and spend the night working on a branch line. Recently found a mag photo of one coupled to a BL2 !!! You say the PC had one for a while ??? Hmmm...wheels are turning !!!
About that roof --- does anybody have any drawings or photos of the late version DL109s, which have mostly clear roofs and new exhaust fan screens? Seems that only the early versions had that funky vented roof; most of the NH ones had this later much less-cluttered look. And the Walthers version doesn't fit some other ones the railroads bought. The SF units were actually DL105s, the first model version, with smaller, fewer side windows and vents in place of some, plus a different roof. The Rock Island version had different side window arrangements with only one big square fan grill, and dual headlights. I also saw a pic of what may have been a RI repower with a high peaked roof with big vents -- I'm assuming raised to take a bigger engine. (these all in the April '71 issue of Model Railroader) Another odd detail are the lower side screens/vents just above the trucks - some photos show locos with it, some without, even locos numbered sequentially for the NH. The Walthers has no side screens. However, Walthers NH green ones, Southern, CNW, Milwaukee Road, and GM&O versions existed. So anybody got any info on the late-version roofs? It's not very hard job to re-do the roof, but I'd like to do it right.
