Copper State Railway SD40-2 progress report

[primavw]

This IS turning out nicely! Keep the pics coming!

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Man this is a great build.

[Robbman]

I have not seen any of the snoots with this hatch and I have looked at all of them from the BNSF era.

ATSF 5125-5137 = BNSF 6854-6866 Q Equipped
ATSF 5138             Wreck retired in 1994
ATSF 5139-5140 = BNSF 6867-6868 Q Equipped

All these units are on rrpicturearchives.net. I have browsed all teh photos and none that have high angle shots show a toilet hatch.

Yeah... all the ATSF units were built before the hatch was added... I think only MKT, SOO, SCL/L&N/CRR had them... of course, none of those are snooooooooots.

[6axlepwr]

Finished detailing the fuel tank. The kato underframe for their new SD40-2's is pretty nice. It fills in an otherwise empty space and gives a good representation of what should be there. I wanted to add just a bit more. Most of it will never be seen, but I wanted to do it anyway.

The fuel tank hanger bracket is a photo etch kit I designed last year. I was a little skeptical of how it would assemble, but with patience and a steady hand and optivisors, it went to gether rather well. The break away lugs were made with styrene strip. The breather pipes are 0.015" bronze wire. The brackets holding it to the fuel tank are smashed 0.008" half wrapped around the 0.015" bronze wire and soldered in place. Kato did not put the breather pipes in tehe correct location in relation to the blower shute so when bending the wire, I moved it to the correct location. The correct location is right along the back inside of the blower shute. One other detail I have added is the end sheet. I trimmed the hump from the underside of the plastic frame. I then glued on a piece of 0.005" styrene sheet and contoured it so that there is just barely a lip sticking out beyond the fuel tank edge.



The back of the fuel tank has a few more additions to it. Again, the fuel tank hanger bracket. Also is the fuel drain block running along the bottom edge. Then there is a waste retention tank as well as the sump drain plumbed to the waste retention tank. The overflow pipe is a piece of 0.008" bronze wire and the sump plumbing is a piece of annealed 0.015" bronze wire. You can barely see it in the photo, but I have also added the round tank gauge to the waste retention tank. It is located on the outside face. For the sump drain, I measured the HO scale Cannon and Co. part and scaled it down. Everything fits and clears the truck swivel including the sanding lines I have added to the side frames. This part is now ready for paint.



The other night I bent up all the grab irons. Now I cannot find them. I put them in a small baggy and left them with the model. I just cannot find them. I'll have to spend some time bending up new ones. Most of the detailing is done. I have only two items left. The pilot plates and the cab.

[ednadolski]

Truly amazing work.  I'm especially impressed with the tank details, cut levers, and steps, not to mention the degree of precision that you are putting into the entire project.   Are you going to be doing other  underframe details, e.g. traction motor cables & air filters?

Ed

[6axlepwr]

No need to do traction motor cables and filters. The new Kato SD40-2 that has ditch lights already have those details and they look pretty good when the model is all assembled.

I did make a mistake. The sump drain is not supposed to be like the one I put on. I removed it last night and replaced it with just a pipe. I failed to do thorough research and took it for granted that all units had the sump drain block.

[6axlepwr]

Just received notification that my LE coupler pockets and speed recorder units have been shipped. I should receive them tomorrow. With those parts in, I can get this project much closer to being done.

[Smike]

What a great thread, and very clean and detailed work. This is pushing me closer to installing sound. Can't wait to see a video of the results.

[6axlepwr]

I is a bit cold to work out in the garage the past couple days. Even my little space heater struggles to warm it up.

But, I did get a couple things done.

1. I designed the oval or rectangular shaped cab vent and sent it to the printer. Should get a quote back today to have a few made. The bolt flange on it is to thin to print, so I added the flange and a base under it. Now it can be printed. I will sand the back down so the bolt flange is just a very thin piece.

2. The other thing I did was download a PC board design program and designed a new PC board for the Kato SD40-2. I'll order a number of these boards so it will be very easy to do a sound install. The board has all the connections for wires. Just need to solder the appropriate wires to the landings and install the board. Off the back of the board after the rear LED light solder pads, I added the front LED light board. Simply cut this portion off and install it up front. This way I do not have to have two boards made. None of the custom board makers I found offer single sided thin boards like the Kato units use. All my circuits are on top so I will simply mill the board to match the thickness of the Kato board and it will fit right in.

Today I will get delivery of the LE coupler pocket and the speed recorder unit. I checked the tracking number and the package is on the truck out for delivery.

Yesterday I went out and purchased a pressure pot for casting. I already made the master for the extended range bulged dynamic brake hatch and need to make the mold. Now I can pressure cure the mold so there will be no air bubbles ruining it. I am really looking forward to playing around with the Hydrocast 400 to shrink the part. When I get the F59PHI roof part from Athearn, I will try my hand at casting the Q-fans. Maybe put together a Q-kit.

The last couple things I did was design two photo etch frets. One is for scale lift rings. Three sizes. Also two sizes of lift tabs as well as the welded on washers and the two lift tabs that will go onto the Q-exhaust. I have measurements for all this and the parts were drawn to scale. The smallest lift rings I had to oversize by about 0.001" to 0.002" to make them manufactureable. Not really noticeable. The other fret is for wind deflectors/ mirrors. I know BLMA offers wind deflectors, but only in two styles. My fret has four different styles. I needed the other two styles.

I hope to have more photos posted this weekend of the buffer plates and the speed recorder installed.

[Philip H]

A new PC board to do sound installs in a Kato SD40-2 huh?  interesting . . . .

[6axlepwr]

A new PC board to do sound installs in a Kato SD40-2 huh?  interesting . . . .

it is not exactly a drop in installation. The board makes it easier to manage all the wires coming from the decoder. I have put provisions on the board for surface mount resistors and pads for the light and speaker hookups so I do not need to route a bundle of wires. Basically the decoder will piggyback underneath the board. The decoder wires pretty much go straight up to the solder holes in the board and the board routes the circuit.

When I can get the design finalized, I will see if there is any interest in something like this and if so, I will get enough made to sell a few as well.

[jdcolombo]

Hi Brian.

The board is a great idea.  I might try the same thing for the GP7, since I've still got quite a few of those to convert.   A board with LED dropping resistors on it would make wiring 1000 times easier.

John C.

[peteski]

A new PC board Brian? You are entering yet another aspect of this hobby (and really, a hobby in itself).  You can find companies which will produce thin single-sided glass-epoxy printer circuits, but it will be pricey. All the low-volume rapid-production PC board manufacturers (as you found out)  do not offer that service.

I etch my own circuit boards all the time. Thin blank boards are available from several sources (inexpensively).

Here is a small example:


For simple one-offs, I draw the artwork by hand on the copper-clad blank, then etch. For multiple boards, I design the artwork in Corel Draw, print in on transparency using my Alps printer, then use that for producing the PC boards.


While it s a bit more work, it is quicker and cheaper than having it done by a PC board manufacturer.

[6axlepwr]

Peteski,

Are you doing ultra violate light etching?

I do not have a printer at home, but could use one at work. I have done my own etching for my HO stuff. I used the acid bash agitation method.  My brother does some of the light etching and likes it a lot. I guess I would need to invest in a booth which he says is not all that hard to build. Transparency paper is easy to get at a office supply store and I have a cad program at home to draw the board.

Sometimes I am just lazy and do not like doing the work and would rather have it done professionally and get all I need in one run. Other times I enjoy the work.

[peteski]

For one of and simple boards I just clean the copper with a copper cleaner (powder used for pots and pans).  Then I degrease the surface (lacquer thinner).  Next, I draw the circuit traces using an old fashion technical pen filled with slightly thinned Testors PLA enamel (from the small square bottles).  The paint acts as acid resist.

For the more complex ones, or boards I make in multiples, I start with a cleaned copper clad board. I then apply the photoresist lacquer. It comes in a spray can.  Next I place the artwork over the resist-coated copper (with a piece of glass placed over the transparency to make sure the transparency is tight against the copper).  That gets exposed with UV light (I made a light box for that).  The exposed photoresist gets then developed in an alkaline bath (lye dissolved in water).

Last part is copper etching. I simply pour some Ferric Chloride etchant into a shallow tray placed on a temperature controlled hot-plate (adjusted to about 40 degrees C).  The heat is strictly for speeding up the etching process. The etching at room temperature simply takes longer time.

Ferric Chloride is really dense. I simply float the board to be etched, copper facing down, on the surface of the etchant. That way I can see when the etching process is complete. It takes between 15-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the copper cladding.


As far as laziness, I wouldn't call having to mill down professionally made circuit boards being lazy.