Hi all, I made some progress with the SW1000 shell ..... hopefully I am able to shrink the MTL GP chassis to fit 49 mm internal shell length...
That's a great looking shell! You shouldn't have a problem shrinking the frame down to the right length; it's the width and height at the front of the cab I'd be concerned about. Is it going to fit?
Great looking shell! I always find it challenging shortening or lengthen a chassis, if you are not totally precice it wil cause frustration and scrap. I have ruined not only one chassis.....
David, Width and height are ok. The hood wall is just 0.25 mm with another 0.25 mm for the doors. The top of the door aligns approximately with the top of the chassis. Only the front hood sand fill openings might become an issue. The SW1000 family has a higher shell than SW1200. I will continue working on the shell after I have a working chassis for it. Gerd, Thanks for the warnings regarding the chassis conversion... I will take my time with the chassis and see how it goes. David's description of the conversion looked very explaning so far. I'll guess building Laos SW1 from one of the last frets was a reasonable skill check for me to start this project.
If your chassis has a motor with a ceramic shaft, don't worry; all you need to do is be more careful, gentle and methodical about the process. A broken drill bit and a jeweler's hammer works fine; I've done several motors, and so far haven't lost one yet. The hardest part will be drilling out the worm and getting the fit just right. Patience is the key: I started with a slightly undersize hole in the worm, then inserted a bit in a pin vice, rotated it maybe one or two full turns, tested the worm on the motor, and did it all again. This is a long trial-and-error process that pays off in the end. Plan on spending an afternoon on it, unless you find some magic trick that gets it done in a few minutes--in which case, please share it!
...slow progress with my SW1000. I kept on puzzling about drilling the gp worms needed for the shortened chassis. Than I ran in to next '2mm' site link: http://www.btinternet.com/~two.mm/articles/fonly/fonlypt1b.htm I build a simple lathe: After some practicing I was able to drill a 0.7 mm hole in a 1.6 mm piece of brass rod. I might not be able to start making watches, but it might be accurate enough for drilling the worms for modifying the GP chassis. (Used it also to rurn the bell.)
Nice bell, frank! Clever lathe, too. Your shell looks remarkable. What a beauty the loco will be. D&RGW??
All, thank you for the kind words. Yes David, it will become D&RGW 149. The 147 - 149 have slightly different grab iron arrangement near the cab on the hood. (if I did see it correctly in the pics in internet) Artwork for my decals is nearly done.
Again some progress..., So far, the shell fits over the chassis. The trucks can move enough for my switching layout. ... still have to attach the worms to the motor axle and install the assembly in the chassis... more pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/108766...&authkey=Gv1sRgCNC9qMeI7ZnReg&feat=directlink
It is running! All, I have been able to install the worms on the ceramic motor shaft. My SW1000 is alive. So, an SW1000 in Z-scale can be done! Now I can continue with the shell again. [video=youtube;4PN2EErEkKE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PN2EErEkKE[/video] See the SW1000 progress on my picasa album: https://picasaweb.google.com/108766...&authkey=Gv1sRgCNC9qMeI7ZnReg&feat=directlink
Ok Frank.....just stop it! You're having too much fun ) Congratulations. Looking forward to the painted, finished model.
You need to determine what length of chassis you need and how much you need beyond the truck frames. Doing one end is pretty easy and the unit runs so well you can not tell it is missing one fly wheel. When I did my shortened chassis I sacrificed the smaller flywheel only and for my project I was only concerned with truck spacing center to center and did not need to lopp of the pointy ends of the chassis, but if you remove the pointy ends you can get it down to a pretty short chassis. I also sacraficed the slot for the spring from light board to motor while retaining the light board and redid the slots to fit new post locations and used screws to hold board in place into tapped holes in chassis I have since installed a Z2 decoder.
Hi all, Again some progress, I am now getting close to start with the hand rails...and still one truck to modify.
Frank, the loco is great, but that truck detail is sick! Well done, that will be a work of art when done!
thanks, Joe. the truck modification is actualy quit simple. I did sand off the unneeded mtl details and added the 'gooseneck'. I just did bend a piece of brass wire in shape and filed the front and rear side flat. I was lucky that d&rgw 149 has these trucks.
Construction done! All, Construction is done...an SW1000 can be done in Z-scale. Now she only needs some paint and maybe head lights...
Hats off to you on this one. A one of a kind. Perhaps this is one of the neat things about Z scale, we have so many pioneers in the feild. Makes me think some of the best modeling and bashing is going on in Z because you just can't buy everything.
