Best Of My Children have gone into the world (sniff, sniff) - Bearden Models

[u18b]

I am very thankful to Bryan Bussey.  Over Memorial Day, he looked thru his collection and found the last Bearden locomotive for this thread - of which I had no photo documentation.

It's a  Fairbanks Morse C-Liner 5 axle passenger version.  Atlas/Rivarossi made one in the early days of N scale, but it is a seriously poor locomotive.

What I did was place the old shell on a new kitbashed modern chassis.

In this photo, the bottom is Bryan's Atlas/Rivarossi chassis.    Then my stock SP shell.   And up top, is Bryan's great New Haven custom painted shell on my kitbashed chassis.   Note that the distance from the sill to the trucks is a bit high.

[u18b]

So earlier in the week, I received a package from Bryan which included the original 5 axle C-Liner.

During shipping the pilot broke off and was damaged.

The great irony of this model is that only a few railroads owned these (NYC, New Haven, Long Island, and CN) and the models were all fantasy- none were painted for these roads.



I made this 30 years ago at a time when options were very limited.

I started with an Atlas/Kato SD7/9 chassis because I could kitbash the trucks and the modified trucks would work together.
The chassis was too long, so I shortened it, cutting at the front flywheel.



The axle spacing for the 3-axle truck was perfect.   I shaved the SD7/9 sideframes and glued the Rivarossi sideframes on.



I then made a 2-axle truck by chopping the other SD7/9 truck.   You can see that the axle spacing was not perfect, but was "close enough" since my options were very limited.




Here, you can see that the truck tower and main drive gear are off center.   I cut the truck in the fatter portion up top just inside the pick up brace.



Because the front truck was now not very balanced, I added a styrene stop (white block) to prevent the truck from tilting too far the rear direction.

[u18b]

I decided to continue working on this locomotive when I got it back in my hands.

Because it rode high, I used a motor tool to shave the top edge as far as I could so the shell would sit lower.   However, the superglue was breaking free from the stress of grinding.
So I added an extra u-channel brace on the outside.



I happened to have another C-Liner, so I swapped shells, and rather than gluing the pilot, I glued a plate to the shell and then screwed the pilot to it.  I also added TrueScale couplers up front.

The back has the very old original Kato E8 couplers.

[u18b]

And here is the final (new) product.    It sits much lower now and looks much better.

A better running 5-axle passenger C-Liner.



Because the chassis is so hacked together, it is a bit noisier than I would like.  I would rate the running qualities as a B.
EDIT- now runs as an A.

This was the best I could do back 30 years ago when there were very few high quality resources.
Thanks again @bbussey  Bryan for finding this.    This was a very complex piece of work and I had no photos of what I had done.   It was amazing to look at it again this week and see that I had forgotten some of what I had done to this unique piece.

[OldEastRR]

THANK YOU for all the photos and modification instructions for the C-liner. I also used an Atlas/Kato SD7 as the chassis, but didn't include all the work and mods you listed. I will do so now for my NH version, with shell modified to NH instead of NYC specs.

[u18b]

This thread should help you make one the way I did.

But I was thinking about starting another thread where we explore modern ways to build one.

[OldEastRR]

Tonight I rebuilt my previously-worked (many years ago) Kato/Atlas SD7 chassis for the Atlas C-liner shell, following your steps -- and it runs!! The problem was I cut the front truck at the wrong end -- the coupler end -- and not the back like you did. And I didn't put in a stop on the frame to block the now-shorter truck from tilting in reverse. A had already cut off the top of the frame -- not as far as you did -- just short of the motor attachment clips. Plus I'd added a fixed Tru-Scale coupler to the shell. I won't be shortening the frame like you did... I don't have the equipment to do that (pull flywheel and worm gear, then re-press them on). And since I already had a friend modify the frame to add a decoder, I didn't want to mess with the wiring he installed.

But thanks again for the info and pictures of the rebuild. I did modify the original Atlas shell to match a NH prototype (removed the dynamic brake grid, reworked roof vents) and filled in the too-deep depression for the horns. And I applied the stripe-heavy NH markings on it and a dummy unit.  I plan on adding a glass windshield, windows and light pipe for the headlight (now w/LED). After years of working on and trying to make it run well I'm glad it now not only runs but can actually pull a string of cars.

I did have to sacrifice the truck from another K/A SD7, but maybe I can sell that one for parts.

If you are going to look into making a state-of-the-art C-liner I assume it'll have a 3D printed shell, but would you consider making a new frame that could use readily-available stock trucks?

[u18b]

If you have a true Atlas/Japan (made by Kato) chassis, then the flywheels are not a problem.   Not as hard as you think.
That's because the brass flywheels have a plastic center insert.   So they are simply pressed onto the shaft by hand.

You don't even need a puller to remove one.   Just hold the motor poles and twist the flywheel off.

[John]

Ron - your contributions to the hobby have been truly amazing .. I'm always learning new stuff from your work .. thanks

[OldEastRR]

If you have a true Atlas/Japan (made by Kato) chassis, then the flywheels are not a problem.   Not as hard as you think.
That's because the brass flywheels have a plastic center insert.   So they are simply pressed onto the shaft by hand.

You don't even need a puller to remove one.   Just hold the motor poles and twist the flywheel off.

Good to know. Tho I'm loath to break down the entire unit to chop the frame because of the wiring and mods done to make it DCC. If I have to disassemble everything to cut the frame, I'd most likely send the basket of parts back to the guy who did the DCC install to rebuild.

[u18b]

Ron - your contributions to the hobby have been truly amazing .. I'm always learning new stuff from your work .. thanks

Thank you John.
That's very kind.

[OldEastRR]

One  last question: how did you affix the long brass contact strips to the chassis to keep them aligned and correct tension? On your final picture, I don't see the SD7 fuel tank on that held the contacts in place.

[u18b]

One  last question: how did you affix the long brass contact strips to the chassis to keep them aligned and correct tension? On your final picture, I don't see the SD7 fuel tank on that held the contacts in place.

I'm sorry I didn't see or answer this question.
I just put some strong bends in the brass strip to make it fit more securely in the slot.

[u18b]

I bought my wife a high speed photo scanner for old family prints and decided to go thru my big box of train photos and digitize them.
And in so doing, I discovered yet four more children that have gone out into the world.

First, earlier in this thread, I verbally described the very first brass Shay I was gifted.    But this is apparently the only photo I have of it.   It is an original run version 1.


And then wow!   I totally forgot this one.   I purchased a big box of N scale in about 1988 and it had a BL-2 in it.   Original owner had used a low quality F7 (really F9) for the roof and fans.   The slopes and nose are balsa wood!   He actually did a reasonably good job.... and this was years before the Life Like model.   But his model was on a terrible chassis and would not run well, so I repowered it.


I also totally forgot about another steam repowering project.   Earlier, I documented how I placed a Bachmann Spectrum C40-8 motor into an Atlas/Rivarossi 4-6-2 Pacific.
Well, here is a 2-8-2 Mikado made by Atlas/Rivarossi. 


Here you can see that I managed to get a Kato GM-5 motor in there.   With that new motor, it ran really fast, but it also ran really well.


And lastly, I can't believe I missed this locomotive in this thread.    This was one of my very first kitbashes.    I took a Kato GP38-2 and created a C&O GP39 by cutting off the filter box , removing the twin exhaust, adding a turbo exhaust from a Kato SD40 and a vent.



Well, assuming I don't find yet another.... that takes my children up to around 100 pieces that went into the world.... (though a few have made it back to me).