Atlas SD60M's

[ljudice]

Anyone know why the sill on Atlas SD60M's is so high? Is this just a difficult part to make the correct size or what?

[oakcreekco]

It's for extra clearance. They don't want that "hopping" center axle to hit it

[Walkercolt]

Take one apart and look at their gear tower design. That's what makes them seem to be "high-riders". How much is one scale foot in N-scale? 1.92mm, a tiny bit more than 1/16th of an inch. Many, many HO engines are farther out-of scale than that. For durability's sake, most desiels hoods are thicker plastic, and they are a little too wide too. Until working with tungsten becomes practical (I don't see that happening right away), it's darn near impossible to get enough weight in N-scale locomotives, so an extra mm of Zamac frame is the price we pay. In many cases, it boils down to perfect scale accuracy vs: cost effective/good running mechanism. BTW: I've never seen all the bad SD50/60's I've heard about. We had a couple of DOA's and one with a "locked-up" truck, but all the "war stories", I've never seen one of. I don't know- my four run perfectly, always have.

[bigford]

bachmanns dd40, if i did not read about the body being to wide
i would have never known

[ljudice]

thanks Walkercolt, I figured it was something like this... 

It makes the frame stripes on BN units look really wrong though....   

[jsoflo]

I had some similar issues with the SD60's not looking right- somehow they always looked off, discussed a ways back in this trainboard thread:

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=99302&highlight=SD60

[Mark5]

I'm confused. Are these taller than other N scale EMDs?





Just the facts, where is it off? Or is it just the SD60M? Though I'm having a hard time imagining that the sill on the M would be different that on the "standard" cab ...

Thanks!

Mark

[ljudice]

Mark - it's the engineer's side that has the bigger problem...

It's especially pronounced on BN, CR and NS units with the white frame stripes...


Lou

[Bob Horn]

Lou, I have 9277 in my hands, it is on an old high speed motor chassis, do not know if that is the correct chassis. It is one I am decodering for a customer. I can't see what you mean. Bob.

[ljudice]

Take a look at this loco - the width of the frame stripes and the frame and compare to the model:

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Interesting! Are the standard cabs the same way?

[Mark5]

Interesting! Are the standard cabs the same way?

If I get a chance I'll take some pix of my standard cab. Meanwhile I posted the stock Atlas pic above.

[Mark5]

Here's a better comparison on the BN unit:

[Bob Horn]

Interesting. I never noticed it before. Bob.

[bnsf971]

That over-height area is for the brass pickup strip to reside in.
Personally, I would rather have something a touch oversize, if it meant a big improvement in operation and reliability.