New life for an old model
DAVID SWEETLAND: DU QUOIN, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 1958; COLLECTION, BOB’S PHOTO
sions. They include locomotives with sound, DCC, and improvements to the carbody detailing and accuracy. While we all want the “next best thing,” some- times we forget or pass up what we al- ready have sitting right in front of us. I had recently been given two E8A units from the original production run and wanted to do some custom work on them. This would involve stripping the original paint, adding some details, and repainting the entire model. As I was looking at the units and making notes as to what had to be done, I no- ticed one major point that needed im- provement. They didn’t sit level. The shell sat low in the rear, like a car with a bad suspension. The unit also seemed to ride too high on the trucks.
Frame
I stripped the models completely down to the frame, and my first thought was that the truck bolsters were not cast evenly. Out came the Dremel drill press with a barrel cut- ting bit. Flipping the frame over re- vealed a raised cast “pad,” or round boss, with the truck centering pin in the middle of each bolster. The nice part of this frame is that it is complete- ly flat on the top, so moving it around on the drill press table is very easy and it stays level. I set the bit so it just re- moved the raised portions of each boss, milling them so they were level with the rest of the underside of the bolster. This lowered the frame nicely, as I found when I placed it back on the trucks. The rail to roof height would come out close to the correct 14′-0½″ (not the extreme height over horns and fans). Everything seemed to be going well until I put the shell back on the
52 JULY 2012
Whether in sunshine or rain, the Illinois Central’s brown and orange paint scheme was distinctive. The yellow pinstripes and green and yellow herald really set it off nicely.
COLLECTION, BOB’S PHOTO; MARCH 1963
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