Beautiful job Robert,luv the very clean finish on the dynamics,did you by any chance take any pic's to show everyone a 'how to'?
Actually I did take How To pictures, but they did not come out at all. The problem was the shells are black colored plastic, and the plastic I used for the mods is white, so the contrast messed up my camera, and I cannot get a good photo no matter what light level I used, so I gave up. -Robert
Awesome!!! "I do not have the words in my english vocabulary to describe your work! Greetings from Switzerland! Jürg
Thanks for the kind words everyone. Jürg, when do we get to see photo's of the trestle you have under construction? -Robert
to the best of my knowledge ... there are no GP30 shells in Z-Scale. There is the MTL GP-35 and then someone made (at one point) high-nose GP-38 shells ... but that is it.
Amazing work Robert! I must admit You seem to have the midas touch on all your work, be it steam, diesel, or buildings. Wow.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally posted by sapacif: Side by side, you can see there is quite a bit different than the Pennsy GP35 it started out as. No kidding! Considerable bash job, and a nice one, too! Why didn't you use a GP30 shell? Actually, wasn't Rogue Locomotive Works's (the original name of AZL) first engine a plastic standard-nose GP38-2?
Yes Rogue did release GP38-2 for Z. They were injection molded. SP, BN and Conrail units were released. The SP was available in two roadnumbers. A UP unit was planned next but never made it to market. The high-nose casting is actually taken from a Rogue shell. I did test the Rogue shell on the MTL GP35. The 38 shell is longer. It is also thicker toward the interior and will not just slide on the 35 chassis without some filing. The MTL shell is better quality. For instance, the horns on the 38 were rough where as on the 35, they are quite detailed. Rob Kluz
Plans are a dime a dozen. IIRC, around that time, both Rogue and Marklin said they'd make Big Boys in Z.
Correction Rogue never planned on making a Big Boy. They had announced the Challenger which did not make it to production. Marklin has never officially announced that they are going to produce a Big Boy. Could Märklin produce a Big Boy? Just look at Marklin's 2005 release of the 0-8-8-0 steam engine and you should get an idea what is coming since the mechanism is already complete! In my opinion, the Big Boy is coming. It still may be a year or two away, but I have no doubt it is being developed for Z scale especially since Märklin has all the plans from their recent HO release. Rob Kluz
There's also an article in the Jan/Feb '04 issue of Z-track magazine on how he made it. Very, very talented person!
I know about Yuji's work for a long time, I did email him once but never got a response. I also have the Ztrack issue with the article If I'm looking at Marklin's last releases, it seems they're releasing more and more US models. It's incredible they chose to produce the HO Big Boy. Well Robert, when I saw there 0-8-8-0 steamer that was exactly what I was thinking It has to be modified a bit but basicly it's the same technic. I also think it'll take about 2 years before we see a Z-Scale Big Boy. On the other hand I don't really mind it takes 2, because my layout will be ready by then
Robert, I know that you can take off the cab, but have you tried to take off the rest of the shell. I hope Mark4 Design' s GP-40 shell can be a straight drop in into GP-35, and make it a fairly easy conversion.
