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Anyone who knows me probably knows that I am a fan of those Florida trains of the Atlantic Coast Line (ACL), Seaboard Air Line (SAL), and Seaboard Coast Line (SCL) that ran from the 1930s up to Amtrak in 1971. I was fortunate enough in 2014 to ride the AutoTrain from Florida to Virginia along the very rail lines that some of those trains plied many years ago. So, over the past two weeks, I built an HO scale ACL E8, which has been fully decoderized with sound and new LED lights, including a Mars Light in the upper headlight assembly.I started with a Life-Like Proto 2000 E8 that I bought used on eBay, which was clearly from one of the earliest runs, so I'm guessing it dates from the early- to mid-1990s. Unfortunately, the ACL's purple paint on the shell was horribly light, which might work if you want a sunbleached E-unit from the late 1950s. But, mine is supposed to be a rebuilt survivor now in excursion service in the 1980s, so I wanted a better paint job. I found a second E8 on eBay, which was clearly from a much later run, and used the parts from each to build a good-running locomotive. Obviously, I used the shell and separately applied pilot from the newer E8, and I also used much of the drive line and trucks from this locomotive as well. I did break the motor mounts on the newer unit during disassembly, so the older motor was salvaged. I used the older frame, which required transplanting parts from the newer locomotive, but, thankfully, I only had to unsolder/resolder about six wires to transplant the decoder, speaker, and lights to the rebuilt model. Interestingly, the frames are slightly different, and the older frame has a much better mount for the front coupler. Beyond my understanding, the older frame has a pilot that mounts to the frame with a gaping hole for the coupler. The newer frame has a more prototypical pilot that mounts to the shell, but this frame has a swiveling coupler. Huh?! This is why I chose to swap frames. This thing's literally a Frankenstein's monster!DFF
I started with a Life-Like Proto 2000 E8 that I bought used on eBay, which was clearly from one of the earliest runs, so I'm guessing it dates from the early- to mid-1990s. Unfortunately, the ACL's purple paint on the shell was horribly light, which might work if you want a sunbleached E-unit from the late 1950s. But, mine is supposed to be a rebuilt survivor now in excursion service in the 1980s, so I wanted a better paint job. I found a second E8 on eBay, which was clearly from a much later run, and used the parts from each to build a good-running locomotive.
Thank you for going to the trouble of getting the color right. I don't know where the myth of that blu-ish color on ACL equipment comes from, but one assumes that early on, somebody involved in manufacturing chose a "purple" (almost blue) color at random, and that became a standard that persists to this day with some manufacturers. One of my first "pre-orders" was for an ACL car- and main one of the reasons I HATE pre-orders. In that case, the color was right in the artwork (easy enough- there are Pantone numbers out there) used to solicit orders, but the delivered car had paint that was probably left over from some run of "Lilac blue" subcompacts in the 1970s. A pretty good match for your reject shell.
@thomasjmdavis,Was your preorder an N scale ACL baggage-express car from Wheels of Time? I've got one of those. It's a really nice car, but, unfortunately, it's too blue, too. DFF
Getting back to my core competency - obsessively recreating piles of junk Very nicely done Mark!!!!!But I do notice a tree missing. Jon-Mark
Proof that this old E8 lives and has been brought reasonably up to 21st century standards.
Well, crap. Did you pull a UP-style repowering? EPA-compliant prime movers like the turbo 710 just don't sound the same as the good ol' original 567s, with that dual-motor chatter they setup. You would need the memories of a brace of five pulling out of San Bernardino on the eastbound CoLA to really appreciate "glorious noise".
But I do notice a tree missing.
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Topic: Weekend Update 5/9/21 (Read 7805 times)
