Continuing this “bronze age of model railroading” project (part I is here), it took a bit of puzzling, but progress has been made!

“Keys” to mounting the drive and the end platforms

I don’t have any instructions for the model, and I’m not building it like Nason intended either. I wanted to use a modified Athearn drive. How to mount it? Also, how do I do the end platforms as seen on the GE prototype?

I hit upon the “keys” seen below. I fabricated them from the same .025 stock used for the roof (more on that in a bit).

I figured out that I could use them to hold the body at the correct height and properly centered.

Adding to the bottom and top

Based on the prototype photos and drawings I found, I needed to add to the bottom and the top of the sides, and make an end insert for the roof. I don’t have an in progress photo, but the one below shows the model after adding the square stock to the bottom of the sides (cutting a recess for a step). I bought an assortment of the square and rectangle stock, which was a good move as I ended up using different sizes than I originally thought I would.

And the next photo shows the inserts on the top. These were all soldered using my resistance soldering set. I also made a point of using a lower temperature solder than was used to solder the body together, I did NOT want anything to fall apart.

The are a little hard to see, but there are two tabs on the ends at the roof, those are soldered onto the roof.

What about the roof?

I managed to not take any photos of making the basic roof. Backing up, the roof casting was missing from my kit, so I had to fabricate something. I used .025″ brass stock that was rather hard. So my process involved annealing the edges (to soften the metal) and then bending first the downward angle, then the overall shape. I then matched the inserts on the top of the ends to match. It came out nicely. The next step will be to add details to the roof.

In this last photo I’m visualizing where I’ll be heading with the roof. I have four of the original Nason air (?) tanks and also the stack. For sure I’ll use the tanks, and maybe the stack. It really should have two, so I’ll ideally come up with a second one that matches.

I’ve also run it around the layout, it runs great and pulls great! Still quite a few things to do, but I should get this done in the next month. More on that when the series returns.

Continue reading the boxcab series