Will the handrails on the SD40-2 be made different than the GP's (etched)? I just wonder since the drawing seems to show it. I know MT may not want this, but it would be cool to post photos showing the whole tooling process, like cutting the dies, etc. Just something I haven't seen before.
i've seen intermountains factory in longmont, co and the process is essentially the same. a computer drives a milling machine with a variety of bit sizes. it takes hours to mill away a section. the machine is pretty big (small car size) in a plexiglass like plastic housing. they make a variety of parts that basically combine into a block. styrene is heated and pressure fed into the mould at 1000s of pounds of pressure. it takes about 10 seconds of plastic and the block pops apart shedding the moulded plastic shell, or whatever. from the outside it looks like just another machine, but oh the sweet product that satisfies our lives!!!! woo hoo! maybe MTL will shows us some pics of their operation. that would be great. dave f.
tooling I think showing the process is a great idea. I can ask the guys on the top of the food chain about that. No real secrets as to how we do it, but it's fun to watch the process...especially when you have the opportunity to come up with an idea and then see it show up on your desk a year later all painted and pretty. Amazing honor to be a part of that. Oh..the chunk out of Steve's had is from me when he gave me guff about a snow plow and an air conditioner for the SD40-2. You should see my hat!! Joe MTL
Don, That was me before I had a face lift and reconstructive tooth surgery. Also had my hair lightened, but most of it fell out......too much bleach! We still don't need no stinkin sheriff.
Hand Rails Evening... Picture a Kato Sd40-2 but in Z Scale. We opted to go with plastic railing since we could bump up the stakes here with dimensional round hand rails and rectangular uprights. All in all it makes it much easier to produce and we get a better product. Metal railings have their advantages, but we avoid the cost of doing sheets of stainless, the priming and painting and the bending jigs, gluing them on...you get the picture. I now some folks are going to be upset because they can't cut them up like they can with the brass, but I think the overall effect will really make this important prototype shine. Besides, Steve really, really wanted to do this and as a co worker I didn't want to crush his spirit! Cheers Joe MTL
Hi Joe! The more I read about this forecoming SD40-2 and the more I'm in a hurry that it's released!:shade: About this loco, are there any plans at MTL to release it with a spare snowplow or pilot and the possibility to fit the front coupler on the snowplow support / chassis, like AZL does for its SD70s and GP7s? Furthermore such an equipment should be useful for your GP35s and GP9s!:angel: Dom
SD40 Dom, The Snow Plow will be on the front and back and have the coupler snapped into place...no screws. You can detach the snow plow from the back side and use it on other loco's like the 35 and the 9. You would need to fabricate an insert that supports the coupler for the rear, we don't have much room there even with the new coupler. The Engineers at EMD were not thinking about Z Scale when they put the wheels so close to the end of the walkway! I suspect we can get the snowplows into an accessory set as stand alones once we get into production. Things are moving very quickly now on the project and I'm looking forward to driving some MTL 6 wheel motive power soon. Steve's power chain design is pretty clever and we think this will be our best runner yet. Release date is still working it's way through Marketing, but once I have offical word I can let everyone know. We also have some new stuff on the way that I think will really blow your minds! Hang on to your wallets in 08!! Cheers Joe
One option may be to use a fixed knuckle coupler like the AZL and shorten the solid single arm so it can clear the truck and have at least some swing to it (plus not stick out so far).
The other option that saves tons of space, is to cut the back side of the 903/905 coupler off. Once the coupler is held together by either a pin or screw, you can cut about .050" or 1.25mm off it, The inside parts will show, but the spring will not fall out, and the coupler will still function well!
