Building twin critters Assembly and finishing
The only details left to add are the air hoses and an m.u. cable at the cab end, but the twins are already at work on the author’s Great Lakes HOn30 Modular Group module.
plers are installed in them. These have short coupler boxes, so they fit in the space under the end running board. Some shimming is needed to bring the couplers to the N scale coupler height. I use a Micro-Trains coupler height gauge to check this. It is a trial and error process whereby I first mount the cou- plers to the chassis platform by drilling and tapping for 00-90 screws. I place the mechanism on a piece of N scale track, set the platform on top of it, then check the coupler height with the gauge. The platform needs to be shimmed to raise it relative to the chassis ends (the empty coupler boxes mentioned above).
I
wound up using a .060″ thick shim at the front and a .030″ thick shim at the rear to provide the proper coupler height and allow the platform to sit level on the mechanism. The finished plat- form/running board/frame assembly is shown in the accompanying photos. Since I was building two of these lo- comotives, each one was slightly differ- ent. If you choose to do this kitbash, you may need to adjust your model height differently. The shims extend across the width of the platform bot- tom between the side sills (the strips of styrene installed earlier). Once the correct shim thickness had been established and glued in place, the Bachmann mechanism ends and shims were drilled and tapped to receive the 0- 80 screws that hold the platform in
80
place. Styrene gussets were cut to fit be- tween the side sills on the frame and the pilot plates at the corners. Also, small blocks of scrap styrene were glued on top of the platform above the coupler box lo- cations to provide extra thickness for the screws which hold the couplers so there would be sufficient depth for them.
Body modifications An opening in the cab rear wall had to be made to allow the body casting to fit over the mechanism and allow the rear of the motor to extend outside the cab. Therefore, a short cab extension was built from strip and sheet styrene, just long enough to cover the motor. The extension was made from .020″ thick sheet and strip styrene. I also made a tool box to hide the small block of styrene that serves as a mount for the rear coupler box. Made of .020″ styrene sheet and strip, it is glued behind the motor cover. The motor cover was glued to the resin body casting, then the as- sembly was glued to the frame with cyanoacrylate cement. The tool box was attached using styrene cement since all the mating surfaces are strip styrene. The pilot steps were made from the Funaro & Camerlengo parts, but split in the middle to leave space for the Kadee coupler box and magnetic un- coupler pin. Cab steps were installed underneath the doors by gluing them to the side sills.
The body and frame assembly was primed, and three finish coats of Pull- man Green (Floquil) were applied. The lettering and Pine Tree logo decals came from a Maine Central HO decal set by Microscale, and the entire cab and frame assembly was given two coats of Testors Dullcote. An intake pipe and air cleaner were added to the hoods; these were made from ¹/₁₆″ round styrene rod and the air cleaner casting from the Funaro & Camerlengo kit. A brass bell and horns (commercial castings) were added, and bell cords were fashioned from .010″ phosphor bronze wire. Non-working headlights were made from styrene. The lens was simulated by first paint- ing the headlight lens area with silver paint. After this dried, several coats of Microscale Micro Gloss were applied to simulate a glass lens. Cab grab irons, rear handrails, and front hood handrails were fashioned from .020″ diameter phosphor bronze wire and glued into pre-drilled holes using cyanoacrylate cement. The Fu- naro & Camerlengo kit grille guards were cleaned up and sanded thinner before attaching them. Short .012″ wire studs were cut and glued to the back of the grille guards, then the studs were glued into pre-drilled holes. All
handrails and grabs, grille
guards, and the radiator lettering (Ply- mouth) were brush-painted yellow. The cab marker lights were painted silver (front) and red (back), then given a coat of Micro Gloss to simulate glass lenses. Light weathering was applied using light gray acrylic paint dry-brushed to highlight the details and simulate road dirt accumulation. The couplers and sideframes were painted Grimy Black and dry-brushed with light gray and rust paints to simulate dirt and rust. The two locomotives have mecha- nisms that are well matched in terms of speed at a given throttle setting, so they run well as a coupled pair. They were christened Bert and Ernie after the fa- mous Sesame Street characters, who were, incidentally, named after the po- lice officer Bert and the taxi driver Ernie in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart, one of my fa- vorite holiday movies. Bert is No. 5 and Ernie is No. 6. They had their debut as contestants at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Hickory, N.C., in 2011 and won third place in the inter- nal combustion locomotive category. They have performed well on the Great Lakes HOn30 modular layout and have received a lot of attention and compli- ments, so they have become quite “swell-headed” and hard to live with these days. They will get over it.
FEBRUARY 2014
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