{"id":3673,"date":"2023-05-22T11:53:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T18:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/?p=3673"},"modified":"2023-06-25T15:01:02","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T22:01:02","slug":"a-freelanced-44-ton-switcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/?p=3673","title":{"rendered":"A Freelanced 44-ton Switcher"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Years ago, when I was in high school, I had an idea to build a OO scale GE 44-ton switcher. I figured out that the power truck from an Athearn switcher had very close to the correct wheelbase overall and could be modified as a drive. I actually started a little planning then, but it quickly got too difficult and I moved on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to recent years, and I’ve still had that idea in my mind. I saw in an old issue of The OO Road <\/em>how Bill Johann had done a similar conversion (described only briefly in words, no photo — would have been similar to his GE 80-ton model seen here, but on a switcher chassis<\/a>). Then I was spurred on even more by a recent book purchase on Rock Island Diesel locomotives, as they had a group of Davenport 44-ton switchers. What caught my attention further was the trucks have sideframes similar to those of the uncommon Scale-Craft gas-electric trucks, and I had plenty extra to use a set of the plain back version on an engine like the Davenport, seen below with also my initial work toward a similar cab using AHM S-2 parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have tons of projects I could work on, but for whatever reasons this one spoke to me as one to work on. I think I can make a convincing, if freelanced, 44-tonner using various HO parts as a basis. The hoods will be based on AHM SW-1 hoods, for example, and the frame is from the donor Athearn Baldwin S-12. A more complete visualization is offered by the following photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Davenport is again seen in the background, and the start of my model is sitting on a OO scale sized version of the scale drawing found in the September, 1978 issue of RMC.<\/em> I had Xeroxed it in high school, and found my copy that I had been moving around over all the years. I think I can come up with a model that is proportioned like the GE and Davenport prototypes, and it will operate well, a very important consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings me to the last photo. I’ve written elsewhere (here for example) about how to convert the Athearn “blue box” drives to operation in OO gauge<\/a>. I had to redo my initial work on the model, and this photo is from when I was doing that. Initially, I made the spacers too small in size but also too thick. The new spacers are seen ready to cut out. I also had to replace all the main gears on my donor engine, a part I have purchased easily on eBay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can also see how I have cut down the original sideframes to use them as mounting pads for the new sideframes, which I will super glue on soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drive is a big part of what makes a model look “correct,” and this one for sure that part will be solid. This is going to be an interesting build, and I’m optimistic it will be a convincing OO model of a freelanced 44-ton switcher for my Fall River shortline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[I’ll add in closing though that if you wanted to build a real GE 44-ton switcher in OO, the smart move would be to work out a 3D printed body that fits on a modified Athearn HO switcher drive. Maybe a project for some future day.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue in 44-tonner series<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years ago, when I was in high school, I had an idea to build a OO scale GE 44-ton switcher. I figured out that the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitbashing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/americanootoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/44t-2.jpeg?fit=1280%2C817&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3673"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3755,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673\/revisions\/3755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}