DRGW SD70ACe UP-D&RGW Heritage unit

Part 7

Fiber Optics continued.

Next, you need to calculate where the LED rests inside the main body for the forward lighting. Note this on your shell with a small pencil mark.
Insert the block into the cab and flexibly place the cab on the main body.
On the inside of the shell position the block as within 2-3mm of where the LED sits.

The block/fiber optics should look like this.

Now, carefully push the fiber optics through the cab about 1-2mm more. Using a sharp hobby knife(with backing) or scissors, trim the fiber optics that are protruding from the front of the cab being careful to leave to leave about 3mm's of optics sticking through the holes. Now take your soldering iron and carefully dome about 1mm of the optics. Allow to cool and push optics back inside of cab so the domes are touching the cab.


Should look like this when finished.

Now test fit your cab to the main body. The flexibility of the optics make this ideal for using DCC and wanting to be able to remove the cab without removing the main body from the chassis. Also makes applying LED ditch lights highly possible too.

 

Part 8

Time to work on those sun shades.

Depending on what Railroad you want to model will depend on what type of sun shade you need to use. I model BNSF. I need to use the long rectangular sun shade over the side cab windows.

Cut the shade you need leaving the long attachment points. Boys, were are micro drilling into the cab now!!!

I trimmed off the cast resin shade and then aligned the shade with the window, marked where I needed to drill.


Drilled the holes with a tiny bit that matches the width of the attachment points.

Holes drilled and ready to insert the shades. Glue in place from the inside using CA. Once dry slightly bend down the shades.

Shades all finished. Cab looks good now!!!!!

 

Part 9

Now, let us test those fiber optics.

Carefully assemble the cab and main body. Insert a chassis in the main body and test on track. Watch out for that traction wheel grabbing. It'll get up and go!!!

Front and rear tests out fine.

Now for the next part. Remove the chassis from the main body. You can leave the cab on or take it off. Take the brass side panels labled "L" and "R" and test fit them to the body as shown in the photos. The note the door positions. A half etched strip runs across the top of the doors on both sides. This strip goes on top of the doors. Left of left side, right on right side. Made it easy for you guys by marking the back side. I'm so smart!!! Just kidding!!! I wanted this to be so easy and 5th grader could do it!!!



Glue with CA only when you are sure where they go. Test fit, test fit, test fit then glue. Even I follow my own advise when assembling the shells. Now allow them to dry and we'll proceed!

 

Part 10

Let's start to assemble the walkway to the main body. Start by placing the walkway on an AZL chassis(this is to ensure the main body and walkway dry wide enough to fit over the chassis, some shells have slight inside bows). Make sure the BELL is on the left front side. Then place the shell on top. The alignment pins are crude on the main body but they will mate with the shell. If your walkway is warped, do the very warm water re-heat and cool down trick. I had to do it twice to make sure the walkway was straight and aligned. Then comes the time to CA the walkway to the shell. I started with the front sdies then finished with the back of the shell. Red arrows point to areas where flush alignment is necessary. Blue arrows show where I applied CA next.

Next photo I got the arrow colors mixed up. Blue for flush alignment on this side and red where I glued.

Now for the back half. Make sure the main body aligns with the walkway. You can fill in gaps with CA. Works great!
Main thing you want is a level shell. No Bows here, except HoBo's!!!

Now fill in the cracks from the inside.

Once the CA has dried, you will want to trim/file any small protrusions from the inside of the shell that might hang up on the chassis when inserting it or removing it. Carefull when trimming/filing.

 

Part 11

Now, let's start with the side handrails. Some of you might not want to attach these till everything is painted/decorated. No biggie, just heed the instructions for good alignment.

Now, place the cab on the shell. Either right or left side is good to start with. I highly suggest you start on the back end first when applying CA. Before you CA, test fit, test fit, test fit. Check carefully that the brass is a good fit around the cab area. You might need to fine tune the area where the handrail starts, by the rear steps. Once everything looks good, then apply CA to the back part first. Make your way forward with the glue till entire handrail is glued on. Allow CA to dry on shell and hands, yes I said hands. To many times did I accidentally touch the glue. Ugh!!!! I'm ok, no body parts were removed while building this model.

Do not CA the cab to the shell so remove it before applying CA to the front.

Now let's do the other side using same precautions. Test fit, test fit, test fit then glue!


Now we need to bend and attach the rear handrail post to the steps.
Should look like this on both sides when finished.

 

Part 12

Now for the rear handrail.

Ensure that you assemble this part with the center chain detail out. To bend all handrails I used a small pair of bent needle nose and my tweezers. I pre-drilled all holes in the walkways for easy assembly.

Notice the chain in the middle of the end handrail above!

Side view of bends


Top view close-up of corner bends to handrails.


and a view from higher up.


The front and rear handrails are identical and attach the same.

 

Part 13

Let's start with the front handrail end now. Attach it the same way you attached the rear end. Bend the same too. Remember, chain facing out.







Should be plenty of angles to be self explanatory, hopefully!!!!

 

Part 14

Next let's assemble the Cab Handrails. These are itty bitty. The first two SD70ACe shells I assembled I glued the cabs to the shell so they are one, but this time I am making it so the cab can be removed. This makes attaching the Cab Handrails difficult, or does it. The model will not look good without the handrails so they have to be attached. Either to the cab and free flow to the steps or attached to the steps and free flow at the cab. I chose the latter. I attached the handrail post to the step and had bent it so it touches the cab lightly. Don't want to scratch the cab taking it on-n-off the shell do we? No we don't. Follow the photos. 6 photos of different angles should be enough to show what I did.








Continued in part 14

 

Part 15

Continuation of Cab Handrail photos

Shows handrails with cab removed.




Now that all of the handrails are attached, we can proceed onto other cool projects!!!

How about attaching the horn now.
Drill small hole in mount to accommodate the horn post and glue in place as shown.




Now onto the Pilot/Plow/Coupler installation.

 

Part 16

Let's attach the pilot to the front walkway now. This is an optional piece. If you are going to run this loco in the lead of your consists, then I suggest putting your AZL pilot on your shell or build it just like this......

Take pilot/plow assembly you built earlier.

Attach pilot pins in walkway as shown. You might need to file the back side of he steps from where the handrail posts might have protruded when you installed them.

Snug fit


Back side shows snug fit. If you need to, you can CA the pilot in place. If not leave as is.

Now remove the plow and drill out the hole where the coupler will attach too. I used a 00-90 round head brass screw for this. The screw threads are right at .045" I think. I used a .037" bit to drill the hole. The threads on the screw will self tap the hole. I may be mistaken so use your caliper to gauge all bits/screws before drilling!!!!

 

Part 17

Now, let's modify an AZL coupler for screw fit installation. This is not mandatory, just a way to fill the gapping hole in that pilot. Not sure if an MTL couplet will fit, but who knows. This is your project, I am only showing you how I assembled this shell.

Here we have 2 AZL couplers that were cut from a rollerbearing truck(don't ask) One is assembled and the other shows the gutz.


Shows the 00-90 brass round head screw fits inside of the hole in the coupler housing.


I used a .045" drill bit to drill out the hole. The screw fits snug inside.


Now take the housing plate and with a sharp hobby knife cut the peg off from the middle of the plate. DO NOT cut the end pegs off!!!

 

Part 18

Next, re-attach the plate to the housing. Drill through the hole in the housing into and through the plate. Remove the drill bit and test with the 00-90 screw.

Should now look like this. Now, remove the screw and the plate from the housing. Re-assemble the inner gutz of the coupler and attach the plate. Insert the screw and test the coupler. Should work perfectly. (I used an older AZL coupler, gutz in new might be slightly different but concept the same)


Perfect fit!!!

Now fit the coupler in the pilot hole. Some trimming/filing might be needed. Ensure that the mount is level so when you attach the screw to the coupler it will be level.

Beautiful fit!!!

Now take the brass screw and mark where it needs to be cut to fit the length.

Note the CA dried on my thumb!!! Ok, measure the screw to be just long enough to go through the coupler and through the hole you drilled earlier in the pilot. Before you cut the screw, thread it through the hole in the pilot to tap it.

 

Part 19

Now, take the cut screw and screw it Carefully into the mounting hole. Then re-attach the plow.




Fine tune if necessary.

 

Part 20

Now for the last item. Ditch lights. This was an impossible part to cast into the walkway. Very small and seemed to always have bubbles in it. I cut them off and decided it would be easier to cut some from styrene and glue on instead of wasting $$$ in resin. So here is what I did to make new ditch lights.
I used some Evergreen styrene .020" x .040" to cut and fit small pieces to the front walkway/handrail posts.



I can't tell you exactly at what length I cut them as I trimmed them to fit. They look like the ones in proto photos I have on some BNSF monsters.

An option I honestly thought about was to use the micro white dome LEDs that Kingbright sells. #APTD1608QWF/D 1.6 x 0.8mm Dome White LEDs. That is the number to them. Kingbrightusa.com is the website I think. Register and then you can purchse. If this shell was going to be mine, I would say Heck Yea to installing these white dome LEDs. Yes I have some and they are nice. But I am going to take this shell along with the chassis you saw me using in the photos and place it on ebay. So, what you have seen here is what you will get, whomever wins the bid, or decides to outright purchase the model. It runs great. Need to upload two short videos my camera took to show the speed. Will post the links soon!

Now, BUILD!!!!!!

 

LED conversion

John,

I'll have to do that tonight for tomorrow upload. Nothing more than replacing the bulb LED with a small flat white. I have the Kingbright number at the Hotel. Will photograph for tomorrow. Easy project.

Hobo Tim

 

Whew!!!

20 parts it took, full of photos and descriptin to complete this. Took 4 1/2 hours from time I started downloading photos to finishing the write-up. It's a good thing it is not busy in my office today or I might have finished it tomorrow. Whew!!!

Hope this photo build helps everyone complete their shells.

Please post photos of your builds and especially of your finished paint schemes!!!!

Hobo Tim

 

Hmmmm

I forgot to mention that. IF YOU ARE GOING TO RUN your SD70ACe on unprototypically tight curves(like that!) then you will want to remove the 2 brass sections that hang down from the handrail brass(on each side) where the trucks are. These pieces will interfere in your ACe turning tight radius's. You can use Xurox snips or even a sharp pair of scissors will do the trick. More difficult to cut pieces off when they are installed than in kit form.

As far as fuel tank! I have not done my research on this part. Just the middle man here. I didn't create it, I just molded and copied it!!!! I like it!

Hobo Tim

 

I've been following along silently here but man oh man do I wish I would have seen this in time to put my name on the list. Incredible work by everyone involved in this project! :thumbs_up::thumbs_up:

I have a feeling the ACe for eBay is going to sky rocket way past anything I could afford.

I look forward to seeing tons of pictures of all the ACes!