Some of you may recall Maroon posting a picture of this (maybe “doorstop of the week”?) here last fall. I bought it because it appeared to be largely complete, unusually well built (so far) and had a single All Nation drive in it, snagging it off E-Bay for around $120 on a mid-week close as I recall. Surprised that I was the only bidder. caution-glass of cheap lager my appear closer in photo than in real life
As a bonus, it ran out of the box upon arrival; inspection of the casting showed it had been assembled after some extensive milling including most of the fan openings and the inside of the cab windows (a trick that reduces the “Frankenstein” aspect of the thick casting and somewhat eases the chore of fitting-gluing the glazing) Additional bonus included the installation of side walkway railings (albeit EMD GP style stanchions) and fan screens etc. Apparently though, some excessive fragmenting off the edges around the large rear roof and side fan areas occurred during milling and the builder compensated with applying a thin brass wrapper around the screening. Here’s a comparison with a similar U25B that now resides in Jim’s roster (I bought it at Chicago last year as mate for it but after de-greasing the grimy car body decided it was to too nicely done) note the top rear of the respective units though. If you look at lower left corner of the side fan you can see an example of the same kind of damage. The casting halves themselves were epoxied together, and attached from the inside with a pair of brass plates screw mounted through the car body roofs with the excess ground flush and puttied though visible above if you look closely. As Turner will tell you this method can produce a very clean external seam.
So not a bad deal for all the very clever work already put into it, especially given that I wasn't in the same zip code skill or tool-wise to the original builder. To finish it though meant acquiring a drill press, which I did, and so made it a resolution to complete it this year. It’s been a learning experience.
First task was to complete the carbody details, specifically the end platform railings. I rigged up the drill press to swivel out past the edge the bench and drilled the car body ends vertically while secured in a work mate. Then fashioned the railings out of rod and L channel. Ok, but not terribly sturdy.
Likewise, as the original builder had drilled out two small headlight holes for the gyrating light and emergency light nose pack these sported on the SCL, I molded on a housing-sconce out of marine putty for the twin beam plate.
Next, the chassis. The builder built this clever inverted sub frame for the motor and bolsters, weighting it with bundled arc weld rod stubs.
I discarded the weight and added a second matching All Nation drive. Likewise after some lengthy discussion with Jim in determining the most appropriate the kind of light harness; he supplied a very nifty eight diode board to drive a Circuitron flasher for the nose and the headlight leds.
Here’s the result; the Penn Erie aluminum casting has an odd porous quality to it so I employed an aluminum auto body primer that filled over the coarse surface sufficiently to wet sand smooth. The final coat is gloss black Krylon, I do intend to dull coat the roof area as well, but will leave the sides gloss. I’m happy with the results, it runs well so far and has a batmobile like quality to it. I’m pretty sure it will go over well with the “blue team” (CSX vs NS) at the downtown club. Given that “service,” going with Seaboard Coast Line was a fairly easy decision; my only other realistic choices were Auto Train, Family Lines and Conrail and an appropriate SCL Micro Scale set was readily available.
BTW I always use prototype photos for lettering, appliance details etc. when available and located this suitable candidate on George Elwood’s excellent Fallen Flags site before starting this, having it really helps in some of the step-by decision making.
Pete
