Operation Brass Locos

[alcoRS1]

For my birthday which is in May, I have got a Alcos model Brass RS-1 used with bad paint job, one missing part. I also order 2 other brass engines for $65 a piece with slight tarnish.

 

I do not care for motors or gears, seeing all will have NWSL direct powered trucks.

 

My first loco to work on will be the RS-1, the other 2 I need to order some parts to complete them, it will take a month to get the custom made trucks.

 

RS-3

 

 

RS-2

 

 

RS-1

 

 

this is all I keep from the loco, rest is discarded

 

 

the loco will now be bathed in 91% Isopropyl alcohol , with in a small time it will be striped, then it is a vinegar bath, warm soap wash, dry and base coat.

[alcoRS1]

stage 2 with the Alco RS-1

 

I had alot of trouble striping the paint of, the alcohol got most of it, but some of it was really stubborn, in the end I used lacquer thinner.

 

Now it has the undercoat on.

 

[alcoRS1]

 

This is a far as I will go until the new trucks arrive. Number 53 is also a brass loco, I did this one over Christmas.

 

next on my list is to prepare and paint the RS-2 and RS-3.

[signalmaintainer]

Very nice! For brass models, I would have skipped the isopropyl alcohol bath completely and gone straight to the hotter (but more thorough) lacquer thinner. Iso (and brake fluid for that matter) are safer to work with, though they take more elbow grease.

 

Did you use the DuPont enamels from the SP&S Historical Society for the color or another conncotion?

[alcoRS1]

Very nice! For brass models, I would have skipped the isopropyl alcohol bath completely and gone straight to the hotter (but more thorough) lacquer thinner. Iso (and brake fluid for that matter) are safer to work with, though they take more elbow grease.

 

Did you use the DuPont enamels from the SP&S Historical Society for the color or another concoction?

 

I live in Vancouver, 1 mile from the guy that sells the paint for the SP&SHS, but they never answer emails, I joined the Yahoo group of the SP&S and ask questions, they never responded or post them in the group. I was thinking about joining the society but, guess it will be useless seeing they never want to answer any questions.

 

as for the SP&S broad stripe green, well it is a guess, I based the color on 100's of photos in a SP&S diesel book my father purchased. I have noticed that there are 3 different versions of the paint, life like and Atlas both have a green similar to my concoction, then overland had a more brown/black color, which I have never seen in any picture. I believe the green painted inside the Vancouver Amtrak station is the SP&S green it looks like most of the locos I have seen in print.

 

These photos seemed to have the better lighting, other the colors were off leaving it more brown looking.

 

SP&S green EMD E unit

SP&S Green Alco RS-3

SP&S Green Alco RS-3

SP&S Green Alco C425

SP&S Green Alco C636

SP&S Green Alco C636

 

if down the road I found I am wrong I can always respray.

 

The yellow is easy, it is the same as NP yellow.

[JWB]

It seems to me that there's enough variation in batches, weathering, lighting, and film that there's a good deal of leeway. In the photos you link, the dark green seems just as dark as PRR "Japan green" (which was the Henry Ford "black" Model T color, too). I've heard of people using UP Armour Yellow for SP&S yellow, which doesn't seem too far off, either, and GN Empire Builder green, which is lighter than what's in the photos. I've always wondered about the pretty light green on the old P2K SP&S FA-2s, but there are photos in some of the standard SP&S books that suggest maybe this color is also OK.

 

I love the technical and hysterical society folks in general. The PRR T&HS provided color advice to Walthers for the tuscan red on its PRR R50 and B60 models; in the PRR Yahoo group I asked if they could let us know what the paint mix was, because it seemed pretty close to my memory. Their answer was that it would be "premature" to let anyone know, because it might not be completely right. In other words, it was OK for Walthers to run thousands of models in that color, but to let anyone know what the mix was might be to promote incorrect info! (Meantime, they sold color chips of PRR tuscan, which someone had decided were also incorrect -- not that they stopped selling them, of course!) Maybe the SP&S guys were just as smart not to answer!

[alcoRS1]

I will just wait until I go to the next swap meet, and talk to them. The color of the locos is like the Douglas furs we have in the area, the same dark green. I cannot remember what colors I mixed to make this batch, but I made over 1 fl oz, so it should last me a while.

[alcoRS1]

here is the RS-3 (number 94) and RS-2 (number 62) painted.

 

[CraigZ]

I can't imagine that the NWSL custom trucks will be inexpensive. And despite your dislike of motors and gears I'll post this anyway. I have retrucked several brass engines by using the trucks from Athearn or Atlas models. The plastic sideframes are typically have much better depth of detail than the Alco Models coined sideframes and it goes without saying that they run much better. The most recent one was perhaps the most involved, repowering a NJ Custom Brass Models Lima centercab transfer model with a Sagami motor and a pair of trucks from a Stewart AS-616. The NJCB had the same coffee grinder drive as your Alco models with the big open frame amp-pulling motor and the open gear tower trucks...it was simply awful. The work involved raising the frame bolsters to get the engine to sit at the correct height - cutting and soldering to gain 0.125 inches. But now...it runs and runs beautifully...repowered for under $50.

 

I have another project on the simmer right now to repower an Alco Models T6 switcher with the trucks from an Atlas S2 and a Sagami can motor...I did one about 15 years ago that involved a fair amount of cutting and so forth, but it ran superbly when done.

[thnksno]

I've had good results with setting up Athearn locomotives, however the biggest pain in doing so is the lack of space and having freakishly large hands.

 

The nice thing about the NWSL powered truck is everything to power the unit ends up in the trucks, leaving a canyon of space to work with lighting, decoders, etc.

[alcoRS1]

I can't imagine that the NWSL custom trucks will be inexpensive. And despite your dislike of motors and gears I'll post this anyway. I have retrucked several brass engines by using the trucks from Athearn or Atlas models. The plastic sideframes are typically have much better depth of detail than the Alco Models coined sideframes and it goes without saying that they run much better. The most recent one was perhaps the most involved, repowering a NJ Custom Brass Models Lima centercab transfer model with a Sagami motor and a pair of trucks from a Stewart AS-616. The NJCB had the same coffee grinder drive as your Alco models with the big open frame amp-pulling motor and the open gear tower trucks...it was simply awful. The work involved raising the frame bolsters to get the engine to sit at the correct height - cutting and soldering to gain 0.125 inches. But now...it runs and runs beautifully...repowered for under $50.

 

I have another project on the simmer right now to repower an Alco Models T6 switcher with the trucks from an Atlas S2 and a Sagami can motor...I did one about 15 years ago that involved a fair amount of cutting and so forth, but it ran superbly when done.

 

 

I've had good results with setting up Athearn locomotives, however the biggest pain in doing so is the lack of space and having freakishly large hands.

 

The nice thing about the NWSL powered truck is everything to power the unit ends up in the trucks, leaving a canyon of space to work with lighting, decoders, etc.

 

the NWSL cost $85 for each powered truck, and $45 for a dummy, but you really only need one truck. I do not know how much a quality motor cost or how much atlas/athearn trucks are. athearn motors are garbage unless you are using the genesis series motors.

 

 

The motor that come in the alco models are big amp drains, and fry decoders, so the motors have to be replaced.

 

The re-powering and doing the gears is not a problem, what I want is to leave the internals empty so I have room to add quality sound Soundtraxx Tsunami . The extra space allows for better and speaker with more base. In my first model I put a Mega base speaker, which has the dimensions of 1.1 inches square by 0.44".

 

speaker

 

 

I also used an enclosure with it.

 

The next one I will use QSI with this speaker and enclosure

 

qsi speaker

 

 

the other 2 locos I will try different speakers and enclosures to then I can work out which one is the best.

[CraigZ]

Atlas truck assemblies with worm gear etc will be under $12. The Atlas motor with flywheels are $21.50. Another source would be to buy a new Atlas engine off ebay or the HOyardsale list for $50 and pillage parts from it. Either way you'll have a super smooth runner. Are the NWSL power trucks going to be PDTs? I personally have not like the running qualities of those...found them noisy and rough. I had much better luck with Tenshodo spuds.

 

But I will be eager to see how your project works out...always interested in seeing new ways to go after things.

[alcoRS1]

Atlas truck assemblies with worm gear etc will be under $12. The Atlas motor with flywheels are $21.50. Another source would be to buy a new Atlas engine off ebay or the HOyardsale list for $50 and pillage parts from it. Either way you'll have a super smooth runner. Are the NWSL power trucks going to be PDTs? I personally have not like the running qualities of those...found them noisy and rough. I had much better luck with Tenshodo spuds.

 

But I will be eager to see how your project works out...always interested in seeing new ways to go after things.

 

yep, they are PDTs but these are a new version, at the moment they are custom built but NWSL plans to make them a product. They are very smooth running, run better than any of the other loco I have, they are also quiet.

[thnksno]

Been thinking a PDT and an ol' athearn hustler might be kind of neat?