Sunday, May 04, 2008

Sunday night live

So, a jaunt back to the workbench, just to prove I'm not all mouth. While involved in a discussion on an unrelated topic, I was pointed to http://www.onlinemodels.co.nz/. While looking at 20 year old master making technology, I also had a look at the pictures of the 3 different phases of Da. My etched kit is a phase 1(http://www.onlinemodels.co.nz/diesel.htm#DA1), but sits on a phase 3 mech http://www.onlinemodels.co.nz/diesel.htm#DA3( which on the model is also a Co-Co rather than AIA-AIA). So, being a 2' modeler, did this bother me? For some odd reason yes. So, off into the workshop. Hmm, no plasticard of the right thickness. Hmm, that brass strip is the right size, and I need to do more work in brass. 4 Pieces of brass strip 3mm by 33mm were sweated together with no burned appendages. These were then marked out and filed to shape. At this point, the flaw in my cunning plan was exposed ( I'll have to find a 6 year old next time to spot it). I was going to need some detail on the side frames. the most important bits were the central brake cylinder, and the sand boxes at each end of the bogie. The side frames were separated, and a piece of brass tube 5mm long was soldered into the correctish position using a good old Mk1 eyeball measuring implement. a piece of brass square 2mm by 2mm was then filed to shape at the top, and soldered into place, cut and then the bottom shaped. this was repeated untill all 4 were done. the SD-7 side frames were modified by carving the old brake cylinders off, and smoothing the surface of the bogie frames. the brake rigging was also removed.
This shows the before and after shots. I think its what I was after it still needs the brake actuators added. Maybe if everyone stands back 2'....

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