Briggs C636 kit questions

[Sharky_McSharknose]

I finally got the time n' gumption to start building my Briggs PC/Conrail C636 shell kit. I've figured out where most of the parts go on my own. However, I still have two questions for anyone who has already built the C636. Anyone who has build related Briggs kits like the M636 might also know.

1) How do I attach the Hi-Ad truck sideframes? I have the version of the sideframes that are designed to mount to Atlas SD35 trucks.

2) There is a black wire included in the kit. Was it for wiring up the more prototypically-accurate Hi-Ad truck kits, or is it there for some sort of detailing?

I apologize if this belongs in the Product Discussion forum. There is a thread on the C636/M636 project there but I am hesistant to necropost in it again.

[craigolio1]

I don’t have any experience with the M636, but I have built a few M420 so there a possibility the two would share some similarities.

On the M420 the body sits high and the prototype has frame details visible where the pick up strip would normally be, so it had to be removed, and another method had to be used to collect power from the rails.  The black wire was to solder onto the truck pick ups and run up into the loco to the decoder/circuit board. On the M420, the instructions were to Drill four holes into the corners of the locomotive frame so that the wires could come up through the frame and attached to the circuitboard. Later people devised new methods. One of which is to run those two wires to the end of the frame and solder them onto either side of a double sided PCB board that is then sandwiched between the frame, to transfer current to the frame. I can’t recall where but that has been discussed here before.

To use your side frames on the trucks, you cut off the factory side frames and use a flexible glue, like micro scale crystal clear or canopy glue, to glue the pick ups to the side of the trucks. Your new side frames are then glued onto the side of the trucks after painting.

In the past Briggs Models has included a link to instruction files which can be accessed through the parts page, however I don’t see one for the C636. I have included a link to another loco which uses a similar process on its trucks.

http://www.briggsmodels.ca/resources/C415%20Instruction%20sheet-compressed.pdf

If you would like, I can scan the parts of the M4 20 instructions that I have printed out where it describes drilling through the frame to run the wires, but honestly on my future locomotives I would use the sandwich method so that the trucks are removable for maintenance.

Craig.

[Sharky_McSharknose]

Thanks for the advice on the sideframes. My hope is that after reading your reply I can simply remove the Flexicoil sides from the truck frames and add the Hi-Ad sides in their place. I'll keep the wiring in mind when it's time to mount up the trucks.