I went ahead and put them under the rear doors also. I had to give them a "zig-zag" bend to move them out away from the truck frames. It still struggles around a 11" curve but I plan on using it mostly for NTRAK running with larger curves. I added about an ounce of extra weight and it really pulls. I had the full combined El Capitan/Super Chief with all cars in both sets plus a few extra baggage cars and some Pine series 10-6 sleepers thrown in. Didn't skip a beat going around the outside loop on my hollow door test track. It was about pushing the observation car.
Well, all the tanks are now made and should start showing up here shortly.... I can make more as this thread eventually ages and falls off though. Just contact me at the email address on the www.randgust.com web page. Russell and I are doing the same unit, in case you didn't notice. Not hard to do when there were only six! The 402 became the 8002. Now what I have to do, for better or worse, is be the one that now trashes his with weathering. I think this may have been posted before, but look at the shot of the 8002 here. If these units regularly saw a washer, it sure doesn't look like it: http://atsf.railfan.net/cowls/u30cg.html You can also see on that same page how sharp they looked when new. Didn't last long, but they did look good. The other thing I'll deliberately draw attention to is look at the boxcar in the background vs. the now-faded warbonnet red color on the U30CG 8002. See the 'orange' shift? I still don't know if it was bad paint fade, a mismatch, or whatever but it's NOT the same color now. Don't let anybody ever kid you that all Santa Fe red is the same. The other irony here, if you're paying attention, is that my count is six people working on this project more or less at the same time.... on a thread that started in 2007. This thread has already lasted longer than their career on passenger trains and if it keeps going, their entire service life!
OK, well, for better or worse... I did it. Remember, this is what I'm aiming for - the 'demoted, yet still warbonnet' 8002 in the 1972 'WASH ME' look: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=192023&nseq=6 And, here's mine....now significantly worse for wear...
Looks great to me, Randgust . BTW, thx for the 4 fuel tanks, they look great, I'm slowly working on mine... .
Looks bad, but looks excellent in portraying the prototype bad. OK, that did not make much sense. However, I have to know. Did you remove the steam generator and steam lines?
OK, I'll bite. Supposedly the steam gens were all taken out in 1969 when they were renumbered....supposedly. That's when you'll see the 'water' inlets on the fuel tanks also welded over, supposedly they cut baffle holes between the tanks so it was all fuel. But if you look at the 8002 and 8003 shots, everything is still up there on the roof where it was, and I've never seen any evidence they took any of the roof stuff off or plated it over. And as far as steam lines, geez, even I don't detail that except maybe on the pilot of a leading unit.
I'm still working on mine. If I had Russell Straw in my town I'd hire him and all six U30CG's would be done by now. As it is, the Sing Santa Fe Locomotive Works is slowly chugging along.... At this rate, maybe by the time of N Scale Convention Medford I'll have them finished.
There's also a funky, near-invisible set of rails right over top of the windshield, John. But you can see them from a normal viewing angle on the model (high up) as they contrast against the windshield. http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=78406&nseq=9
That's correct, Randgust. I'd noticed them on your U30CG: and then identified them in the prototype photos once I knew to look for them. Those wire grabs are part of my plan. The wire grab irons on shells still far from done, doing it as my limited time allows. The wire grab irons are a good project to do. It just takes me a while to drill the #80 holes with a hand-held pin vise. Any tips, anyone, on making that go faster? Randgust, I seem to remember that you have a drill press that can take #80 drills? It's my first experience with doing wire grab irons, so going slowly and learning (i.e. measure twice or 3x, drill once -can't move the holes once they're drilled). I've also lost at least one of the yellow handmade handrails launching off into space off the tweezers, never to be seen again, and I'm still learning the skill to use the BLMA template to get the 15" grabiron holes exactly level and even. These are all good skill sets that I'm in the learning curve with. Randgust, thx for your inspiration. It's all your fault, thx for posting your orig pic of your U30CG, if you'd never posted it I wouldn't be in this project. Then, you sent me instructions for wire handrails to help me out. Cool. After grab irons, there's front number boards, then the front wire handrails, the Randgust resin fuel tanks, the Gold Medal Model stirrups, and then weather all three for the time frame when they were still new and still running passenger trains. (i.e. Nov 1967 - Jan 1969) I'm happy with that scope of the project and that'll probably be enough for me. But, if I were to continue on, there's always the Russ Straw job to get LED headlight light down to the nose.... and I could do the wire grab handrails on the side of the shell on the cab door / rear side doors like Randgust's done above .... (here's some super Santa pictures that just showed up on a Google search of those by 'conderail': http://condrenrails.com/Trains/ATSF/target3.html of U30CG 405 in Kansas City in July 1968 Here's conderail's whole collection of Santa Fe passenger pics at: http://condrenrails.com/Trains/ATSF/index.html (Bruce arbomambo, take notice! and his railroad photos as a whole..: http://condrenrails.com/railroad-pages.html Back to the U30CG.... there are also what appear to be sand hatches on the nose under the nose handrails that could be added... and I suppose a cab interior could have been built..... Hey, how about installing a working internal steam generator for April 1, 2012? Nah.......
john, here's a trick to using the BLMA templates {or ANY brass or stainless steel templates)....don't use them! lay them over a strip of masking tape-mark the holes-then use the masking tape as your template... MUCH easier to let the masking tape conform to the surface you're drilling, with the added bonus of your new template staying in place as you drill... no way to speed up the hand drilling process...it is what it is...and you WILL break a few #80 drill bits (i'm currently down to one right now!-next break and I'm SOL until replacing a batch!) put in some groovy tunes or a good movie (i'm revisiting all my British drama and comedy series on DVD as I run through these heavyweight brass side builds) Seeing as how your work in paint detailing and weathering your N scale locos REALLY gave me the inspiration to really get back into N scale modelling, I find it difficult to realize that you haven't made or used seperate grabs and rails yet... GEEZ, your models are REALLY gonna pop now!...can't wait! Bruce
Bruce, thx for the tip. I'll do what you suggest, sounds like a great idea, I'm inspired to give that a go now on #404 or #405. And I'll go get the iPod out..... You're right, the issue is the U30CG (or F or E units) nose's are curved, I *was* trying to use the actual template itself (per BLMA's YouTube video) and in trying to fix the flat etched BLMA template in place, I wasn't able to get it exactly stable / non moving. I wasn't crazy about my first try on U30CG #403, I think my grabs could have been much straighter, was a bit discouraging. (OK yeah, from normal N scale viewing distances and after painting them yellow, only a macro shot with a camera is probably gonna see the difference and you can't really tell unless you're looking closely.... but I know they aren't as straight as I would like). By the way, your Fast Mail thread is really inspiring as well. I wish I was as fast / as productive as people like you.
John.... I use a Glass Technology 12 volt drill I picked up at a yard sale for 10.00. It will fit the smallest drill bit I have...which is smaller then a #80 !!! It runs at a good speed and will actually stall out when it snags something rather then breaking a bit ;-) I took the 12 volt car plug off the end of mine and wired it up to a 12V wall wart...just sayin
I use a plastic-headed straight pin as a center punch, and drill #80 with a Dremel and a speed control. I've found it easier to use a motor tool on low speed than a pin vise, I actually break fewer bits.
Oh, another tip here..... on the BLMA templates. You'll drive yourself insane trying to drill through them. Use them for just marking drill points, using a straight pin as a center punch. Then drill the center punch holes after they are marked. If all you have to hold is a pin in one hand and bend and hold the template in another, you can make it work.
Use .010 or .012 guitar strings for homemade drill bits. Cut at an angle, they make a burr. Just twist and twist, back and forth. Cheap and works.
Very impressive. I just got one of these locomotives today and plan on upgrading it as well. I would like to use the stock Minitrix frame, however the motor on mine is dead. What motors would you recommend replacing it with?
