An "abused" Proto 1K RDC

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flightops

flightops

Active Member
just picked up an abused Proto RDC. was looking for a relatively inexpensive one to convert to a "Dominion Atlantic rail" car scheme or the VIA version that ran that same route after DAR shut down.

Advertised as run in forward and reverse on the test track, but not a lot more than that. Came from an estate sale. Looks to have been dropped on the end at some point and the steps re-glued, then a not so great paint job. Bit of a mess overall. That's all OK though as I'm looking for it to be a learning project as much as a finished car. Ad pictures of "the victim":

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Hopefully it gets here before Canada Post is back in legal strike position (22 May). Shipping is listed as arriving may 7 to may 21, but I honestly don't trust Canpost to not do something like a work slowdown prior to striking and then it being caught in a "postal purgatory"....:rolleyes:
 
Well, showed up in the mailbox yesterday. Pretty fast shipping.

It was indeed “abused” pretty good. Its either been dropped or its flown off the tracks and fallen off the table:

IMG_8386.jpeg


The stairs are broken off both ends. The good thing is all the bits and pieces are there, so it just needs reworking. The version of the RDC I want to build (VIA) has different “rail clearing” fairing on it, so the broken off original ones are less of a problem.

Under neath it’s the dcc ready proto 1000 RDC chassis:

IMG_8388.jpeg



It runs, so that good. It will just need a good cleaning and lubrication.

The paint is….well, not good. Like someone took a brush and some old testors model paint and freehanded it. Paint strips, so thats not a big problem.

The big problem is someone went absolutely nuts with glue. Its everywhere. And if I were to guess, it’s the old style styrene model glue. Globs hardened on things and plastic hazed and melted. The body is missing its screws and the glue looks as if it was intended to hokd the body onto the chassis. Some careful work breaks it loose and I’m able to get the body off.

Most of it is scraping off and the body now slips on/off the chassis easily again.

But the smoked windows are the worst. They’re hazed and melted. I can sand and buff them back to clear, but I may just fabricate new clear windows. You can see the half passenger seats potion via the windows now:

IMG_8387.jpeg


The front motor area I’ll have to figure something out if I go with clear windows. Theres a little space between the motor and the body, so maybe a printed scene of passengers behind the windows would work. Theres only 5 of those windows per side, so I can have “blonds pulled on a couple, which will help with the illusion.

Should be a fun little project to rehab it.

:)
 
That one is one of the "technically DCC ready" versions. It's about a half a step above having to hard wire everything. It does give you a head start, though I think a decoder install will be the least of your worries with this one--IF you ever decide to get that elaborate with things.

If you have a box for something with the clear display window, you can use that for window glazing. While not perfect, it's certainly better than glue-blobs.
 


Time to knock off for the day.

This is a pile of glue scrapings:

IMG_8391.jpeg


I’ve wiped that much off the table 4 times now. They definitely subscribed to the “if a little is good, more must be better” school of thought! They even had things like the plastic coupler boxes glued to the zinc chassis! Lol!

But, after a day of fooling around, its been cleaned of most of the glue “sins” and one set of steps have been refitted:

IMG_8389.jpeg


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Now to put it away for a little bit and take a break from worrying about an exacto blade slicing a finger open!

;)
 
Good luck with the restoration. I cannot for the life of me understand why some people seem to think virtually embalming a model in a gallon of glue is in any way acceptable or even wise! The number of models I have found that have been comprehensively wrecked like this is bewildering.
 
Last edited:
flightops said:
Time to knock off for the day.

This is a pile of glue scrapings:

View attachment 218983

I’ve wiped that much off the table 4 times now. They definitely subscribed to the “if a little is good, more must be better” school of thought! They even had things like the plastic coupler boxes glued to the zinc chassis! Lol!

But, after a day of fooling around, its been cleaned of most of the glue “sins” and one set of steps have been refitted:

View attachment 218984

View attachment 218985

View attachment 218986

Now to put it away for a little bit and take a break from worrying about an exacto blade slicing a finger open!

;)
Click to expand...
If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing...
 
flightops said:
Time to knock off for the day.

This is a pile of glue scrapings:

View attachment 218983

I’ve wiped that much off the table 4 times now. They definitely subscribed to the “if a little is good, more must be better” school of thought! They even had things like the plastic coupler boxes glued to the zinc chassis! Lol!

But, after a day of fooling around, its been cleaned of most of the glue “sins” and one set of steps have been refitted:

View attachment 218984

View attachment 218985

View attachment 218986

Now to put it away for a little bit and take a break from worrying about an exacto blade slicing a finger open!

;)
Click to expand...
Thanks. It looks like the basic shell is still in half decent shape, excepting the steps and rail clearing fairing areas. Most of the "ugliness" looks to be just a poor paint job.

I'll know more once it's been stripped....
 
bnsf971 said:
That one is one of the "technically DCC ready" versions. It's about a half a step above having to hard wire everything. It does give you a head start, though I think a decoder install will be the least of your worries with this one--IF you ever decide to get that elaborate with things.

If you have a box for something with the clear display window, you can use that for window glazing. While not perfect, it's certainly better than glue-blobs.
Click to expand...
I'm probably going to stay DC, but I also like to keep my options open. So it's nice that there's an option to go DCC if I should go that way in the future sometime.

Hardwiring stuff would be ok with me too. Electrically, compared to other stuff I've done, this wouldn't be an overly complicated task.....;)
 
Anyone know the best (ie: easiest) way to strip paint off these plastic bodies without damaging the plastic?

I know I’ve used oven cleaner before on plastic model kits to remove layers of paint without damaging the underlying plastic, but working with these shells is a new thing for me…
 


Although I do agree with Old 97 (You could even weather it, so the ware and tare blends in), you can repaint it.
You could try buffing it with some fine sandpaper, and then spray it with primer. If you have or know someone with a sandblaster, that can work really well...
 
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