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For an early birthday present my wife got me a Kato SD38-2 in the orange EJ&E paint scheme. She calls it the penn-dot engine since its all orange and she is from Pennsylvania originaly. Anyhow, I added a brass firecracker antenna, relocated the horn to infront of the radiator fans, then using one of the small Minitronics LED's in red, square package with the round dome on the top of the square package. Using my pin vise and a #70 drill bit, and using the two factory holes for the horn, I drilled them all the way thru with a slight angle toward the rear of the cab. This brought the holes out on each side of the headlight housing on the front wall of the cab. I then put the two leads for the LED thru those holes, one in each hole and ACC glued the LED to the roof. I set it aside to dry for a few moments while I cut some fine wire to length. Once it was dry I soldered the fine wire to the leads and ran them down to the speaker housing in the fuel tank. The strobe circuit is from Scalelike industries via thier ebay store, they offer most every color of strobe, both single and double pulse. For this engine I used a red single pulse to simulate the Tomar brand red strobe lamps the EJ&E uses. I have the square portion of the LED painted silver right now, and will paint it orange as soon as I get the proper color of paint. The silver will keep the strobe flash from bleeding thru the orange paint. Going by this prototype pic, the square portion of the LED's casting can be used as the fabricated base this strobe sits on. I am working on a way to model the funky EOT antenna at the front left of the roof picture. I also used the pin vise and #70 drill to make two new holes back by the front radiator fan so I could reuse the factory Kato 3 chime horn. The pre-colored handrail ends are really nice and some patience assembling all the grab irons and handrails yeilds a very nice model with no painting needed. I thought about going dual mode DCC, but 99.9% of its run time is on a DC layout, one day I might upgrade it to sound, but not for now, The sound is in my imagination! I will post some model pics later tonight, the digital cam battery is dead at the moment. Almost forgot, I ordered another orange snow plow thru Kato USA for the long hood end, EJ&E has them on both ends of thier units. Mike
Sounds like a nice job making those strobes work, MM. That EOT antenna should be easy to replicate using two different diameters of left over kit sprues and the appropriate size washer. Some 16 gauge wire from the antenna to the elbow should be close enough for what you're tyring to do.
I wonder why the EJ&E uses red strobes? I don't think I've seen any other railroad that uses red. Not only that but the strobe they are using is a really cheap model and not up to the usual railroad standards of quality. I'm surprised they can keep them working. It looks like a cheap Chinese copy of a Federal strobe that's usually used on things like highway maintenance trucks.
Nah, Tomar stuff is top notch, they compete with Whelen brand products and thier stuff definatly isnt cheap! Thier Neobe strobe light bars are big $$$ A few depts back where we live in PA have a couple on thier cruisers, they can put a Whelen Edge light bar to shame. Both EJ&E and C&NW used the Tomar strobes. On the red color, only someone at the J knows that one. I now even the old pyle revolving lights in the 70s on the J were red, as were the ones on the Green Bay and Western Alco diesels. The railroads went to strobes and the electronic Prime Stratolite lights as the motorized beacons cause interferience with the EOT transmissions, and there are no moving parts. This was probably one of the easiest non dcc strobe light set ups I have done. Your ideas for the funky EOT antenna is exactly what I am thinking. I just need to find a round disc to glue to the top of the small box. I have a EOT can antenna, which is whats on the very top. The disc is acting like a ground plane for the antenna. Some have said the disc and bottom box is the remains from a previous antenna that is being used to get the EOT antenna up a bit higher. Its fun to railfan the J, with their non turbo charged diesels, a nice change from the normal whine of all the turbo diesels. Mike
Mike, even Tomar strobes aren't usually up to railroad standards. Federal is the usual standard for railroads and both Tomar and Whelan are are a step below them in quality and durability. We had both Tomar and Whelan Strobes on our patrol cars and they did not hold up as well as our Federals. The thing I did like about our Tomars is they had radio interference filters built in. The Whelans didn't and is was almost impossible to talk on the radio when the strobe bar was on.
The round disk should be easy. Just any flat brass washer that's the right size. I suspect the EOT antenna is mounted on top of the old radio antenna, which was replaced by the firecracker. The large flexible conduit is typical of older Sinclair antennas that were out long before EOT devices.
The use of red lights is a mystery to me. It seems like it could only confuse the public since they are used to seeing red lights on emergency vehicles and don't expect to see one on a locomotive. They also have way less visibility in bad weather than a white or amber strobe. I guess it must be some kind of tradition but not one supported by any research.
From my research, the J use of the red strobes were to locate thier power when it was down in the yards, and not so much for auto visiblity, heck with the strobe right above the headlights, you dont see them till they are ontop of ya. Now from above, the sides or from the rear, you can see the red strobe on dreary days or at night. When I was a fire police Lt for our dept, I was allowed red lights and siren per our SOG's, its hard to find a good red light that shows up in bright sunlight. I usualy ran an old federal 4 lamp revolving beacon on the roof of my K5 blazer. I had an old streethawk with 4 rotators in it, but it killed my fuel mpg and was a PITA to remove when we traveled out of state, was real easy to swap in an amber dome on my beacon for when we traveled. I will have pics up of the SD38-2 in a few min. Mike
Looks good. How is the paint on yours? I have a couple of the EJ&E 38's still sitting in the boxes from when they first came out. Mine have some coverage problems with the orange paint. Nothing a little weathering wouldn't fix though.
I dont see any issues with mine, but its still way to bright, it will get weathered by a buddy soon. Nothing to heavy, just needs some exhaust staining on the roof and road dust on the trucks and fuel tanks. I am gonna miss railfanning the J, alas its not more, part of CN now. Have to see how quick the CN is to change things and displace the SD38's Mike
last I heard a few weeks back CN does not own the engines they just bought the tracks. I think the J was owned by a branch of US steel? regardless, who ever owns the engines and cars they will likely repaint them into the colors other railways they own. this was what I heard from an employee on the J
True, sounds like not many are left that they own, I bet a few shorlines will snap them up quick if they go up for sale. I would love to have one of the red strobes to add to my locomotive beacon collection
not sure what other RR they own. I thought the J was just a small short line. Untill a month ago had no clue that their was a parent company in charge of them. the first story that I heard was that all the J motive power was going to gary. then the next week it changed and they were still running the J with little change. I did hear that the CN has alot of track crews looking at the line. might be improving it??? I cross the J 4 times a day in Lake Zurich.. so far traffic is normal. just coal and mixed freight. Im lucky to get cought by a train once a week
