Back to paying projects for a while


Espeefan

Well-Known Member
Remember that SD-40T-2 I found at Trainfest? Well I found another one at my LHS, and as everyone knows the only thing better than a tunnel motor is two tunnel motors. Then there was that pair of craftsman kits I bought, and Christmas is right around the corner, well, you get the idea.

I take in the occasional paying project if it interests me and the owner understands my quirks (I’m slow, and expensive). One of these recent projects was a Burlington S4 Hudson. A very handsome model. The SP didn’t have any Hudsons. They leapfrogged right over them from the Pacific to the mountain which is a shame. They have a powerful yet compact look, and their three pairs of drivers make them better suited to smaller layouts than Mountains or Northerns. I get my Hudson fix from the Santa Fe. This project was a little different from this owners usual requests. He usually just wants a re-motor or DCC, or both. This time he wanted alterations to the model itself. I ended up removing the ash pans (screwdriver work), swapping out the solid bearing rods for roller bearing rods (nut driver work with moderate swearing). I didn’t want to tear down the entire mechanism, so I did them with the drivers, cylinders, and valve gear installed, which was a bit tricky. There was also some soldering involved to make sure you stay awake and to frustrate you just a bit. I also did the usual DCC install, which was no big deal since the model had a can motor already. The last two chores took the most time. Remove the original rerail frog and add a matching pair, one per side, and plate over the front side cab windows. Their position (next to fragile details), their odd shape mad this loads of fun. Lots of “file and fit” until everything looked right. Next, solder them in without disassembling or destroying any of those previously mentioned fragile details. I don’t know how many of this model Sunset made, but this one is unique. Handsome devil, innit?
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