John's Loco Workbench - More Projects Begin...


The SD35 is coming back together nicely:
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All spray paint this one, Tamiya rattle cans throughout including the primer.
 
Ah, that would be the TWRR (or Thomas Wooden Railroad - This Thomas is my mad eight year old by theway!) which keeps having technical issues and often visits my workbench for repairs!

Due to the school holiday's, locomotive maintenance and overhauls have been relocated to my shed where it's getting busy:
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I have also taken the opportunity to take one of my 'planks' scenes out of storage for attention, in this instance Coppertown is getting some work:
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A couple of basic jobs just released, contrasting sizes mind...

First up a late production Athearn Blue Box SD9 acquired cheaply. Given a bit of a detail up and some paint here and there:
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And for the CD&LR, an Athearn Hustler which, amazingly actually works although it really needs new bands, not available in the UK unfortunately.
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Been a while, mainly been working on UK outline N scale stuff for a while but this bargain tempted me:
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A "Spares or Repair" Proto 2000 GP18, in need of some TLC and when the seller offered me a discount off the asking price, I bit... About thirty quid all in delivered, and I even like the colour. This is one of the earliest examples of Proto 2000 model, made by Brawa for them so probably twenty to twenty five plus years old now.

It has been well used, a couple of bits have come off and there are the usual cracked gears to deal with.

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The body just pulls off once the pilots (if they are still attached, one wasn't it was rattling around loose in the box) are removed and now we see the patient.

The wheelsets as they came out, grubby well worn wheel treads and cracked loose gears, typical for a Proto 2000 Geep that has been heavily used:

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My standard repair for these is to replace the cracked gears with Athearn Part No. 60024 which requires a little drilling out of the axle holes to ensure they fit, I also decided to raid the spare parts box and switch out the wheels themselves for some better looking ones:

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Fifteen minutes later and I have four replacement wheelsets all ready to go:

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Reinstalled wheels and tested, the chassis is now a smooth runner. The couplings, or rather what was left of them have been replaced with Kadee's and the missing part on one truck side frame replaced with a bit from an old Athearn Blue Box parts pile.

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Now, attention will turn to the shell...
 
The body shell from various angles as delivered:
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The prototype is Lehigh Valley No. 302, the first of just four GP18's that the road rostered (302 to 305) following on from their previous purchase, a GP9 numbered 301. This small batch of locos is interesting, two liveries carried generally speaking with LV of which this model shows the as delivered version, all four made it into Conrail ownership but 304 had an accident at some point and was repaired as a chopped short hood unit.

It is my intention to keep this model as LV302, thus avoiding any major decal requirements.
 
Issues identified so far:
  • It's dusty (easily taken care of!)
  • Missing a winterisation hatch
  • Long Hood side grilles and radiator fans moulded in black plastic, they should be maroon.
  • a couple of bits of handrail damage.
  • The horn is in the wrong place and the wrong type.
  • Those sunshades...
Winterisation hatch and some replacement handrail parts scrounged from the spares box:
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The sun shades are a problem. This is one of the very first issues of the GP18 made and for some unfathomable reason they went for this truly awful shade in a slot in the cab roof design:

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Indeed on one side, it had already come off and there are signs of a bodged repair in the past:
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This will all need filling, filing and painting.

These parts will also need priming and painting too:
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Much to do!!!
 
bnsf971 said:
From what I remember of those GP18s, the cab doors opened.
Not all of them had winterization hatches, a look at prototype pics would be a good idea.
I didn't know Brawa had a factory in China.
Click to expand...

Yes, the cab doors do open, the yellow moulded windscreen wiper will have to be dealt with too.
Looking at this picture: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2915861 if you can get the website's mouse to pedal fast enough to make the server work, it does seem that 302 did have the winterisation hatch which it still had in Conrail days: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4163311
 
jmupton2000 said:
Yes, the cab doors do open, the yellow moulded windscreen wiper will have to be dealt with too.
Looking at this picture: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2915861 if you can get the website's mouse to pedal fast enough to make the server work, it does seem that 302 did have the winterisation hatch which it still had in Conrail days: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4163311
Click to expand...
Painting the wipers black will make them not stand out so much. Removing the old two-chime horn, and putting what looks like an RS3L horn on the cab will help its appearance, as well.
 
Being in the UK, spare parts are very hard to find so over the last twenty plus years I have acquired various spares or repairs wrecks which have either been stripped for parts or restored with some spare bits coming from conversions and modifications. It's only recently that my supremely excellent well organised wife has got me to sort and organise all the bits into proper boxes, there is another two identical boxes for Athearn and Atlas parts as well.
 
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