Finishing a Rail power products GP-35 on a modified Athearn GP-35 frame ?


B

Blues909

Active Member
I made the RP shell into a high hood and used Cannon & Co high hood ends because the RPP were not good and used a Athearn cab because RPP cab is not great either. I just cut off the headlamp and rear over hang used a GP-38-2 cab. The main issue is on the Athearn frame the coupler mounts need to be filed down to almost nothing and are needed to secure the body to frame . Plus the coupler screw due to the design of the athearn frame can't be tapped and fit the screw from the bottom it would need a nut at the top. Once I did a Athearn GP38-3 blue box and cut off the coupler mounts and glued in styrene stock to touch the frame then drilled the frame so I could tap the plastic to secure the body then built up the shell with styrene behind the pilots to mount the couplers. The ideal on the GP38-2 was not mine It came from an old MRR magazine because of the 4 tabs that secure the gp38-2 to the frame are a pain and do break off also did this to a few Athearn SD tunnel ports because I didn't like the pins that held the shell to frame. The GP-35 frame is a bit different yet I think I can do the same thing just use one screw front and rear in the center or possibly two because that part of the frame is not real wide maybe the smallest brass counter sunk screws will work 0-80 I think I used 0-72 on the GP38-2's they may work of this frame.

I have maybe 12 HO diesels I'd like to detail and paint and decal . 4 are Blue box 2 SD40-2 a Gp38-2 low hood a round house box cab and others I kit bashed a C420 low nose and a Atlas FP-7 shell riding on a home made brass frame with Kato Blomberg trucks , a Baldwin VO -1000 I made from two Athean BB Baldwin shells to get the proper hood width riding on a concor SW-7 modified frame which has Kato trucks. A RS-3 hammerhead from a round house RS-3 shell and frame . There are others I forgot.

Any thought's? I'd post a photo yet photo bucket now has their banner covering every thing and my old PC that has all the photo's before PB won't boot think it's a memory card they did work now one of the 2 might have an issue.
 
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All I asked was simply if anyone had any ideas on how to mount a RPP GP-35 shell onto a Athearn GP-35 frame. Some RPP shells have frame one could buy not a GP-35 . The shell needs to mount to the frame to stay there , I can't use the frames coupler pads so I need to remover them and build up coupler pads behind the pilots and then add a plastic bar across the shell so I can drill and tap the frame and screw mount it. Old Blue box athearn had an open area in the pilot so the frame just fit in and had those horrid pin mount tabs , the RPP shells are not open which is a good thing yet requires a modification to secure the shell to the frame. I did this to a blue box SD40-2 by modifying the frame and the pilot so the open space is filled the couplers hold the shell to the frame and did it to a BB GP38-2 this is a bit more involved . I just thought maybe someone had done this with a RPP shell , guess not. So I said I'll figure it out and I will.
 
Sounds as if you have your hands full, but seems as if you also know what you are doing.
Honestly, I don't see much of the scratch and modifying that you are doing except for Dcc boards and sound speakers.
It appears to me that most "old school modeling" of actually creating things has fallen by the wayside.
 
Sirfoldalot said:
Sounds as if you have your hands full, but seems as if you also know what you are doing.
Honestly, I don't see much of the scratch and modifying that you are doing except for Dcc boards and sound speakers.
It appears to me that most "old school modeling" of actually creating things has fallen by the wayside.
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I suppose it has. I've been doing this since the 60's when most model HO trains were simple gear drive replaced rubber band drive. I didn't get back into this until the early 80's and did have quite a few Atlas and Kato and Proto 2000 diesels as well as round house steam. Proto 2000 were the first to offer detailed loco's that I recall. I sold most all of them because they were just sitting in drawers. I just kept a few and most were units I either kit bashed or detailed and painted.

I don't have any photo's to offer, I'd have to take new ones since the old PC they are still on before Photo Bucket has their banner all over them and very few are still on their crap site.

I imagine there are still some who keep the old blue box and still make something great out of them and some who still kit bash. Yet now days I don't see many hobby shops that have much on hand as far as detail parts that seems to have evaporated to the point of past all hope or caring. I know Arrow hobbies still has detail parts to offer as well as old athearn bb parts yet the price is out of reach for me. There were 5 great hobby shops here yet now they all have little to offer making it necessary to look on e bay or dig to locate and order on line.

I was quite surprised when Athearn decided to close and use China as a source as well as just about every other company that made most scale trains.

I have almost all I need to finish what I have left , it's just something I feel the need to do and if not then it won't happen. If I can get one going perhaps the others will follow , I need to start with one that's easy , haven't decided which.
 
I've got several projects - HO and O scale - sitting on shelves and in boxes too that I never finished from the 70's era.

Also have three desktops from the Win98 time frame with photos, tax info, and files that I need to extract ... but the computers are not able to run without some professional help, Have them stored on a high shelf in the garage -- need to destroy the HD's before scrapping them. Too old to quick and too smart too late!
 
If you have any HO loco's BB units mostly the Athearn SW-7 you don't want let me know. I had quite a few yet at the time thought the hood width was incorrect then found out they were not. I have an old NW-2 Model power I think all that is worth using is the shell and a lot of work and a Concor SW-7 I stole the drive out of to power the kit bashed VO-1000 I made decades ago. All I need are the trucks , I can fabricate a frame. Athearn SW-7 trucks are fine by me. Course an Athearn SW-7 frame would be better . I looked on Ebay and some have then yet they seem to feel they are gold plated for what they are asking.

My old PC is an Acer with XP pro and it did work fine yet it's been sitting , it makes a beep sound and the monitor shows no display, it's does on this old office Dell tower I got a few years back . I recall getting more memory cards since I was told it would help and I was sent a few that didn't work then they sent more that did. Went I installed one that was no good it had the same beeping sound. I know all my old photo's are still on it and still have the original memory card I'll try that and see don't need the speed just so I can down load the photo's on a flash drive. I don't feel like taking new photo's and all I have that works is an old "smart" phone. My Cannon camera is not supported by Win 10 PRO was told I need a card reader.
 
Greg@mnrr said:
Blues909: I may have an Athearn SW1200 frame which should fit. Let me check tomorrow and if I have one it's yours for the cost of postage.

I'll PM you tomorrow with my search results.

Or.....https://www.ebay.com/itm/Athearn-HO...330462?hash=item3fcf91111e:g:XfoAAOSwbaxca3tP

Greg
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Thank you Greg. Now all I need to do is locate a pair of power trucks to fit the frame I found three side frames in my junk box. I thought I'd use the old model power shell and build a new walkway it's an NW2 or the Concor SW-7 which has a walk way.
 
Blues909 said:
Thank you Greg. Now all I need to do is locate a pair of power trucks to fit the frame I found three side frames in my junk box. I thought I'd use the old model power shell and build a new walkway it's an NW2 or the Concor SW-7 which has a walk way.
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I also may have the power trucks you need for your project. Will know tomorrow.

Greg
 
Thought it was a model power SW1 but it's a AHM . The shell is not to bad , it is the proper hood width and the details are good enough. It does have a plastic frame and one power truck both trucks have a 9 foot wheel base. The cast on plastic handrails are terrible.

I think I could fit a metal frame so I can maybe use BB Athearn Blomberg trucks and fill in the open pilots . The way the hopeless trucks fit in a big hole I would need either some type of cut sections from some spare Athearn frames I have or make a brass insert so I have a pivot pin for the trucks . If I had one more Athearn SW7 side frame I could make them fit the typical Athearn blue box F7 trucks.
Greg@mnrr said:
I also may have the power trucks you need for your project. Will know tomorrow.

Greg
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Thank you , that would be great , even if not it's the thought.
 
Today just to keep going after the Athearn SD40-2, I decided the solution for the GP-35 frame and RPP shell was to add .030" x1/4" wide styrene to the bottom inside of the walkways where the frame sits. I added one just behind the pilots and three more one each side right under the walkways. This raises the shell up 1/32" which is just enough to slide in Kadee's plus a little filing to make the opening in each pilot above the coupler about 1/64". I measured this loco against my BB Athearn GP38-2's and SD40-2's and they are a bit taller now the GP-35 is the same. Now idea what the proper scale height should be but at least they now match. All I need to do is fit a styrene block between the frame coupler pad and top of the coupler's glue and tap to 2-56 drill a clearance hole in the frame and the shell will stay on. All I need to do is make handrails don't know what I did with the old Athearn ones yet I have the brass wire and Athearn stanchions which are good enough for me.
 
The couplers on the SD40-2 can be tricky. The last one I did, I cut the pad to the correct height and drilled a 2-56 clearance hole through it. I built up styrene on the bottom of the walkway between the endsheet and the end of where the frame sits so when the shell is on the frame the styrene block just clears the mounting pad. I tapped a 2-56 hole in the styrene so now the screw goes into the coupler box, through the metal mount on the frame and screws into the styrene in the shell and holds the coupler, frame and shell together. The coupler box itself is cut back to the bronze centering spring so it will clear the trucks as they swivel.

In the photo, you can see a small gap in front of the frame between the coupler box and styrene pad. That is were what is left of the frame mount is.
SD40-2Coupler.jpg

Extra points if anyone can guess what number this locomotive has.
 
kjd said:
The couplers on the SD40-2 can be tricky. The last one I did, I cut the pad to the correct height and drilled a 2-56 clearance hole through it. I built up styrene on the bottom of the walkway between the endsheet and the end of where the frame sits so when the shell is on the frame the styrene block just clears the mounting pad. I tapped a 2-56 hole in the styrene so now the screw goes into the coupler box, through the metal mount on the frame and screws into the styrene in the shell and holds the coupler, frame and shell together. The coupler box itself is cut back to the bronze centering spring so it will clear the trucks as they swivel.

In the photo, you can see a small gap in front of the frame between the coupler box and styrene pad. That is were what is left of the frame mount is.
View attachment 45224
Extra points if anyone can guess what number this locomotive has.
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Is that one of the newer Blue box models that comes with the couple mount and hex drive? Or did you fill in the pilot of an older model?

That's similar to how I did my older BB SD40-2 only I didn't trim away the gear box on the #5 coupler.

I got most of the GP-35 Athearn modified frame to fit the Rail power GP-35 shell. Drilled the frames coupler pads and made a styrene block for both ends and glued them in. Now it's just a matter of fitting couplers I may use #37 Kadee's since the boxes are short enough to reach the frame pad mounting hole then once the glue is dry I use testors always have. I can set the frame in and file a bit off the plastic pads just a few thousands and drill and tap the blocks. Once it all fits it should be good to go. The difficult part is getting all the plastic pieces the proper thickness at both ends so once the coupler is screwed in place the shell has no up/down movement or the couples if they are a bit to tight tend to pull the pilots in because the lever the pilots. If it's off I can always use plastic shims if it's to loose. Wish I had a machine to mill the plastic sheet or bar stock rather than get close and glue styrene sheet to get the right thickness. I needed .225" and only had .250" so I used a square rod that was under .225 and two layers of thin sheet stock , I can't recall now what they were but it came out to .230" so I have to thin it down on wet/dry paper then will do the final fit. I had to glue two styrene sheets together for the SD40-2 to get the thickness needed don't recall what the total thickness was around .187".
 
Blues, it is a mix, a newer shell on older frame. I don't remember why other than the newer shell had the correct radiator grills. I don't remember why it's on an old frame. It also has steel U joints in the drive train and a Kato motor. Here's a photo pre-decoder and wiring. What's left of the coupler pads can be seen in the photo.
IMG_3433.jpg
 
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