Diesel bash based on one built by MickT

[Jeff Schumaker]

After seeing a photo of an interesting diesel on MickT's Roving Reporter site, I inquired about it in the thread http://www.009society.com/forum/index.php?topic=2695.0 . It turns out Mick had built it based on the Bachmann brick mechanism and two Plymouth bodies. So, I decided to try the same thing, except this diesel will be in HOn30, rather than 009.

These are the two Plymouth bodies I started with.

[Jeff Schumaker]

I removed everything above the blue paint from the first body. From the second, I removed the hood (bonnet) from the frame.

[Jeff Schumaker]

I trimmed the details off of the hood.

[Jeff Schumaker]

To attach the hood pieces together, I glued some styrene strip to the bottom piece.

[Jeff Schumaker]

Once the glue had dried, I test fit the pieces. Some filing and sanding was done to remove gaps between them.

[Jeff Schumaker]

In addition to sanding the pieces to fit better, I also stripped the paint from both pieces, using 91% rubbing alcohol. It turned out that the yellow body was made of yellow plastic. More sanding was done until I was satisfied (for now) with the fit. This is as far as I have progressed.

Jeff S.

[MickT]

That's exactly how I started mine Jeff - except yours is already much neater than mine ever was! I think I'm going to have to do some shunting on the scrap line to get a space to fit in a new "reject" and start over again!

Looking forward to seeing the next progress report!

Mick

[rod335]

The Brick chassis is a little marvel and will boldly run where no other (rarely) has. However, one irritant , for me at least, is that the cast axleboxes don't actually line up with the wheel centres! It didn't bother me until I noticed it, but since then it really bugs me!

[MickT]

Curses Mr Allcock I never noticed that before, and now I know as well!!

If you make sure you look at the chassis from front three quarter view and not exact broadside, then it looks fine to me.

However, I have a couple of Brick chassis that I converted to 4 wheel (easy peasy 5 minute job for you, about 3 hours for me), and I found that it is quite a simple job to file the centre axle boxes off the casting, leaving it as smooth metal, so if you develop this and file all of the axle boxes off, then you can epoxy or superglue anything you want back on at the correct spacing to match however many axles you have retained, 2 or 3.

Mick

[Jeff Schumaker]

A bit more progress with the build - I noticed that I did not make a square cut when I removed the bonnet from the yellow body, so I glued on a filler piece, hoping to even the sides up.

[Jeff Schumaker]

I wanted to add walkways to the body, so I glued .080 styrene angle to the existing frame. Not knowing where the front and rear buffers will end up, I cut the angle longer than necessary.

[Jeff Schumaker]

I cut the walkway pieces form .020 x .250 styrene strip, with proper indentations. The smaller indentation is for the chassis tabs that clip onto the body. Hopefully, I'll have more to report tomorrow.

Jeff S.

[Andrew Emery]

Reading this series is fascinating, and quite addictive. So where is the best place to get hold of two of these locos please?

[Jeff Schumaker]

Check with Members Sales, Andrew. After that, check Ebay.

Jeff S.

[Andrew Emery]

Jeff,
Thank you, but the members' sales are generally gone by the time I get to see thrm, and Obama (Cameron's Boss) has blocked eBay/PayPal for my part of the world until he gets complete control. Same goes for Walthers. So, what I need is a retailer who is not afraid of the USA. Any suggestions?
Kindest,
Andrew