Back last summer I posted an overview article on the Nason boxcab, showing a built up example and a nearly complete kit. Since then I’ve decided to start building the kit.

Some puzzling about prototypes also pointed me to building it to resemble as much as I can an early GE boxcab Diesel. For more on those, there is a very handy Wikipedia article here. In short they were produced in several variations between 1928 and 1930, and was the general type of locomotive Nason wanted to imitate (although it was actually a model of a GE New Haven EY-3 electric with altered roof details — among other issues the drive is completely wrong for the GE Diesels).

I love “blue box” Athearn drives, they convert well to OO gauge, and I found a good switcher drive to modify for this engine. The next step then was to build the body. The built up model I have had been soldered together, and that seemed like the way to go.

Wired, not clamped

I tried to clamp the parts together, but they always ended up out of square. I finally opted to wire the parts together.

Backing up a step, my other main hobby is working on French horns. For soldering them I normally wire parts together with 19 gauge annealed steel wire, which is what you see in the photo. I was able to get it nice and tight with the body nice and square.

This close up shows one of the joints after soldering. I used a torch, lead-free solder, and liquid flux like I would use on a French horn.

Going forward, I’m hoping to use only my resistance soldering unit, the one I used for most of the soldering on the etched brass switcher a few years ago. I’ll post again as things go forward. Right now the big thing that will stall me maybe for a while is I have no roof and will need to fabricate that. For now, I think I’ll rework the drive soon, and maybe that will generate enough project momentum to do the roof sooner rather than later.