CLASSIC EMD's, Page 1
The first thing I needed to do was to see if I could build the one up/one down flexicoil side frames. I
was successful at this task and you can see how I accomplished this HERE.
After the trucks were finished, I put a coat of primer gray on them and they are now waiting to be
painted black and then weathered. Moving up the locomotive I turned my attention to the fuel tank.
I was successful at staying away from the so called "slippery slope" that I can so easily fall down. I
did the basic details. As you can see from the photos below.
was successful at this task and you can see how I accomplished this HERE.
After the trucks were finished, I put a coat of primer gray on them and they are now waiting to be
painted black and then weathered. Moving up the locomotive I turned my attention to the fuel tank.
I was successful at staying away from the so called "slippery slope" that I can so easily fall down. I
did the basic details. As you can see from the photos below.
I did not get into the full frame detailing on this model. I stuck with the basics. Here you can see the
details on the front left of the fuel tank. I cut the frame just enough to allow clearance for certain
detail parts. Here you can see the Cannon & Co. air reservoir. I plumbed it with Precision Scale
fittings and brass wire. There is a Cannon & Co. fuel filler, sight glass and breather block. The
breather pipe is brass wire. You can barely see it, but if you look closely at the top of the breather
pipe coming up the front of the fuel tank, you will see a fitting just as it disappears under the frame.
That fitting is from the Details West fuel tank pipe kits. I cut is off the pipes, drilled it out and put in
on the brass wire. The brackets to hold the breather pipe to the front of the tank is mashed and
annealed brass wire. After the wire is mashed flat, I anneal it and this allows it to be formed around
the pipe as a bracket clamp. After the pipe and clamp are installed, I drill a 0.0083" hole through it
and the tank and install 0.008" brass wire nipped off to represent bolt heads. The bell is by Railflyer
Prototype Models. It is a beautifully rendered detail part. Also, I filled the fuel gauge hole on this
side of the tank. I also added the emergency fuel cut off button.
The top sheet on the fuel tank is 0.005" styrene sheet. It is secured with a mix of Barge Cement and
MEK. I use a mix of 60% MEK to 40% Barge cement. I want to keep it thin so it does not clump under
the styrene. The end sheets are 0.010" styrene secured the same way and then sanded thinner.
In the photo above also you can see the weld beads I placed along the blower duct. This was done
by scribing a line along the blower duct and then putting in stretched sprue. I also added the
vertical separation seams.
details on the front left of the fuel tank. I cut the frame just enough to allow clearance for certain
detail parts. Here you can see the Cannon & Co. air reservoir. I plumbed it with Precision Scale
fittings and brass wire. There is a Cannon & Co. fuel filler, sight glass and breather block. The
breather pipe is brass wire. You can barely see it, but if you look closely at the top of the breather
pipe coming up the front of the fuel tank, you will see a fitting just as it disappears under the frame.
That fitting is from the Details West fuel tank pipe kits. I cut is off the pipes, drilled it out and put in
on the brass wire. The brackets to hold the breather pipe to the front of the tank is mashed and
annealed brass wire. After the wire is mashed flat, I anneal it and this allows it to be formed around
the pipe as a bracket clamp. After the pipe and clamp are installed, I drill a 0.0083" hole through it
and the tank and install 0.008" brass wire nipped off to represent bolt heads. The bell is by Railflyer
Prototype Models. It is a beautifully rendered detail part. Also, I filled the fuel gauge hole on this
side of the tank. I also added the emergency fuel cut off button.
The top sheet on the fuel tank is 0.005" styrene sheet. It is secured with a mix of Barge Cement and
MEK. I use a mix of 60% MEK to 40% Barge cement. I want to keep it thin so it does not clump under
the styrene. The end sheets are 0.010" styrene secured the same way and then sanded thinner.
In the photo above also you can see the weld beads I placed along the blower duct. This was done
by scribing a line along the blower duct and then putting in stretched sprue. I also added the
vertical separation seams.
Here I am showing the detail on the left rear of the fuel tank. In the shadows you can see the
Cannon & Co. fuel tank bracket. The bracket was modified to represent the type used on the early
units. It does not have that tabs jutting out perpendicular to the bracket on each side. I think those
are break away blocks. I also spliced the brackets to be a tad longer so they would not sit so deep
under the frame. This detail is on both the front and rear of the fuel tank. At the bottom of the tank
you can see the Cannon & Co. drain block. Deep inside I have a series of drain pipes coming down
the back of the tank.
The rear of the air reservoir is detailed again with plumbing made from Precision Scale fittings,
brass wire a another detail part cut from the Details West pipe kits. That detail is the poppet valve. I
cut the valve off, drilled it out and glued it to a tee fitting I made from brass wire. Everything else is
soldered together.
The other detail part you can see in this photo is the deck step light. This is a Railflyer part.
Cannon & Co. fuel tank bracket. The bracket was modified to represent the type used on the early
units. It does not have that tabs jutting out perpendicular to the bracket on each side. I think those
are break away blocks. I also spliced the brackets to be a tad longer so they would not sit so deep
under the frame. This detail is on both the front and rear of the fuel tank. At the bottom of the tank
you can see the Cannon & Co. drain block. Deep inside I have a series of drain pipes coming down
the back of the tank.
The rear of the air reservoir is detailed again with plumbing made from Precision Scale fittings,
brass wire a another detail part cut from the Details West pipe kits. That detail is the poppet valve. I
cut the valve off, drilled it out and glued it to a tee fitting I made from brass wire. Everything else is
soldered together.
The other detail part you can see in this photo is the deck step light. This is a Railflyer part.
Moving around the right rear of the tank, you can see the fittings are fairly simple. The air reservoir
simply has a pipe coming out and angling up to disappear under the frame. There is a drain pipe
coming out over the inside of the truck frame as well.
The sanding hoses are made from rubber. As you can see, paint does not stick well to it. These will
be black anyway.
simply has a pipe coming out and angling up to disappear under the frame. There is a drain pipe
coming out over the inside of the truck frame as well.
The sanding hoses are made from rubber. As you can see, paint does not stick well to it. These will
be black anyway.
At the front of the tank I put the usual detail parts. Cannon & Co. Fuel gauge, sight glass, fuel filler
and blank breather block. The air reservoir plumbing is brass wire and the valve just in front of the
reservoir is by Precision Scale again. The air filter set is from Details West. Under the side sill on
either side of the cab is the ground light detail by Cannon & Co. The jacking pads are also by
Cannon & Co.
That completes the fuel tank and frame detailing. Now I will cover the pilots.
and blank breather block. The air reservoir plumbing is brass wire and the valve just in front of the
reservoir is by Precision Scale again. The air filter set is from Details West. Under the side sill on
either side of the cab is the ground light detail by Cannon & Co. The jacking pads are also by
Cannon & Co.
That completes the fuel tank and frame detailing. Now I will cover the pilots.
This as you can tell is the front pilot. The rear pilot and deck were done the same way. I first cut off
the foot boards. The time period that I am modeling this locomotive has them removed. I then
notched the bottom of the MU pockets to represent where the foot board bracket goes through.
The coupler lift bar brackets are from Detail Associates, but I had my son in law cast them in steel.
The reason I had them cast in steel was because I make my coupler lift bars from three pieces of
brass wire and I wanted to solder them while on the model. Naturally the plastic ones would melt
away in an instant, but the steel ones worked out well for me. The center couple lift pin loop is
soldered in place. The MU hoses are from Details West. I like them a lot. I cut them apart, clean up
any flash or parting lines and then mash the ends into a pin and put that through the holes in the
pilots. I filled the larger pilot grab holes and then drilled them out for brass wire. As you can see I
replaced the steps with Cannon & Co. steps. The MU block and socket are from Detail Associates.
On the other side I built the small kick plate from 0.010" x 0.030" styrene strip.
Moving up to the battery boxes, I replaced the step with a Cannon & Co part and also added the
plumbing under the step. The valve is the smallest one I could find from Precision Scale. There is
also a small pipe that runs just above the valve.
The nose of this model, just the very front part is from the Cannon & Co. nose kit. As you can see, I
filled the brake pump opening. There will be a brake wheel at the end of the long hood.
the foot boards. The time period that I am modeling this locomotive has them removed. I then
notched the bottom of the MU pockets to represent where the foot board bracket goes through.
The coupler lift bar brackets are from Detail Associates, but I had my son in law cast them in steel.
The reason I had them cast in steel was because I make my coupler lift bars from three pieces of
brass wire and I wanted to solder them while on the model. Naturally the plastic ones would melt
away in an instant, but the steel ones worked out well for me. The center couple lift pin loop is
soldered in place. The MU hoses are from Details West. I like them a lot. I cut them apart, clean up
any flash or parting lines and then mash the ends into a pin and put that through the holes in the
pilots. I filled the larger pilot grab holes and then drilled them out for brass wire. As you can see I
replaced the steps with Cannon & Co. steps. The MU block and socket are from Detail Associates.
On the other side I built the small kick plate from 0.010" x 0.030" styrene strip.
Moving up to the battery boxes, I replaced the step with a Cannon & Co part and also added the
plumbing under the step. The valve is the smallest one I could find from Precision Scale. There is
also a small pipe that runs just above the valve.
The nose of this model, just the very front part is from the Cannon & Co. nose kit. As you can see, I
filled the brake pump opening. There will be a brake wheel at the end of the long hood.
Moving up to the cab face. The door handle is from Precision Scale. I chose to stick with the Kato
cab. It is not a bad cab at all. It fits the model well and for reasons of simplicity in assembly, I chose
to not replace it. I drilled the holes over each window for wipers to be installed and I added the
Detail Associates headlight with visors detail. The sand fill hatch is from the Cannon & Co. nose kit
as well. I used the Cannon top nose part as a guide and relocated the sand hatch in its proper
location. The Kato hatch is just a bit to far back from the front of the nose. The holes for the grab
irons on the top of the hood and right side were filled and drilled for wire. I will be using BLMA grab
irons. The cab sunshades are Detail Associates. I cut them in half and shaped them to match what
the prototype looks like. The horn is a Details West part. I had to modify it to match the horn I
needed. I cut the bottom bracket off so the horn would set flat on the cab roof.
The sinclair antenna is by Railflyer. I was very reluctant to use this part at first. The assembly of it
seemed way to delicate and to me it seemed like it would easily get destroyed. I decided to do a
quick test of it though. I used a small sheet of 0.030" styrene. I cut all the antenna parts off the fret
and prepped them. Cleaned up the edges and sanded the faces to give some tooth for gluing. To
mount the base plate, I scribed a shallow trench the same length of the base plate. I then put some
ACC in this trench and set the base plate on top. I then drilled two 0.014" holes though the styrene
using the holes in the base plate as a guide. I used a pair of flat nose pliers and inserted the
vertical part into the holes. No need for gluing. The holes are a press fit. I had to slightly file down
the top leading edge of the antenna. The part just in front of the leading tab. If you do not do this,
the top plate will sit at a slight angle. I then put a dab of ACC on each tab and installed the top plate.
I used a fine pin and added some more ACC around the pins to help better secure the top plate. I
let this dry and then proceeded to abuse the part. I first simply dropped it on the floor. Nothing
happened. I then started to throw the part around as hard as I could against the floor and walls. Still
nothing happened. My final test was a series of hard finger flicks against it and still nothing
happened. Those tests wee enough to satisfy me that this part will be my standard sinclair antenna
for modeling.
cab. It is not a bad cab at all. It fits the model well and for reasons of simplicity in assembly, I chose
to not replace it. I drilled the holes over each window for wipers to be installed and I added the
Detail Associates headlight with visors detail. The sand fill hatch is from the Cannon & Co. nose kit
as well. I used the Cannon top nose part as a guide and relocated the sand hatch in its proper
location. The Kato hatch is just a bit to far back from the front of the nose. The holes for the grab
irons on the top of the hood and right side were filled and drilled for wire. I will be using BLMA grab
irons. The cab sunshades are Detail Associates. I cut them in half and shaped them to match what
the prototype looks like. The horn is a Details West part. I had to modify it to match the horn I
needed. I cut the bottom bracket off so the horn would set flat on the cab roof.
The sinclair antenna is by Railflyer. I was very reluctant to use this part at first. The assembly of it
seemed way to delicate and to me it seemed like it would easily get destroyed. I decided to do a
quick test of it though. I used a small sheet of 0.030" styrene. I cut all the antenna parts off the fret
and prepped them. Cleaned up the edges and sanded the faces to give some tooth for gluing. To
mount the base plate, I scribed a shallow trench the same length of the base plate. I then put some
ACC in this trench and set the base plate on top. I then drilled two 0.014" holes though the styrene
using the holes in the base plate as a guide. I used a pair of flat nose pliers and inserted the
vertical part into the holes. No need for gluing. The holes are a press fit. I had to slightly file down
the top leading edge of the antenna. The part just in front of the leading tab. If you do not do this,
the top plate will sit at a slight angle. I then put a dab of ACC on each tab and installed the top plate.
I used a fine pin and added some more ACC around the pins to help better secure the top plate. I
let this dry and then proceeded to abuse the part. I first simply dropped it on the floor. Nothing
happened. I then started to throw the part around as hard as I could against the floor and walls. Still
nothing happened. My final test was a series of hard finger flicks against it and still nothing
happened. Those tests wee enough to satisfy me that this part will be my standard sinclair antenna
for modeling.