Part 8 - New Haven DEY-3 (Alco S-1) #0967: Painting

I don't know about you, but painting - specifically airbrushing - is something I've always feared. In fact, I put it off for well over 30 years(!) Click here for THAT crazy story (it's a fun read, if I don't say so myself). Thanks to my friend Ralph, I've since become a convert of Badger's Patriot 105 airbrush. Now I almost look forward to painting. Almost all of the time. Especially since painting and lettering make all the difference in converting a nondescript/undec model into Your Very Own.

So here - if only to document it myself for future reference, and perhaps to give some of you the extra push you need to try - is the process I'm currently using, step-by-step:

First, I remove the truck sideframes. On the P2k model - as with most - the gearbox cover retains the sideframes, so remove the covers first.

Here's my prep setup: ultrasonic cleaner for the small parts, basin of soapy water (Dawn preferred), toothbrush & tray for larger parts, gloves for handling cleaned parts, towel for quick cleanup of spills.

Ralph encouraged me to get an ultrasonic cleaner (I got mine at the local Wal-Mart), and now I don't know how I did without it. Add a few teaspoons of Dawn to the water and run it for 3 cycles. Cleans all those little bits thoroughly and safely (though keep a VERY close watch on those tiny uncoupling levers!)

Cleaning the larger parts is more straight-forward - just use the toothbrush (gently!) and your sudsy water - and be sure to plug the sink when rinsing(!). Here's everything all cleaned and ready to go (once thoroughly dry)

I use a variety of homemade stands, reversed clothespins, tape and cardboard to secure items for painting.

And since my friend Randy gave me a version of the cab interior that had the gauges preprinted (apparently you get the gauges with a decorated model - the undec just comes plain), I masked those off so they wouldn't get painted over.

And now we're ready to actually paint!

For my DEY-5, I used Tru-Color Pullman Green. You can see in the photo above how it (top) differs from the Atlas S-2 that was custom done for the NHRHTA (bottom). And - to my colorblind eyes - the NHRHTA version looks closer to the color prototype photos I've seen. Or maybe the DEY-5 just looks faded... In any event, I decided to use Badger Pullman Green for the 0967.

I started by priming everything with Badger's Stynylrez primers - which I love. They go on VERY easy, right out of the bottle with no thinning required. I used black on the frame and railings, and gray on everything else. BONUS! The black Stynylrez primer can also act as the "top coat" color.

Next, I shot the green parts with the Badger paint thinned with just a few drops of water, building up the color slowly.

While I was waiting for all of that to dry, I remembered I needed to paint the sides of the wheels, so I took advantage of the fact that the mech was disassembled already to solder the truck pickup wires to the sideframe contacts. I know Colorado Bill will be proud I'm no longer relying on those little plastic retainers to keep the wires electrically connected to the sideframe contacts and wheels(!)

Now that the 0967 is painted (and you'd be hard pressed to find an easier paint scheme :^), the next step is decals! Then it'll REALLY start to look like a New Haven locomotive. . .

Till next time!

Part 7 - New Haven DEY-3 (Alco S-1) #0967: Low-Profile Cab

FINALLY! we get to The Most distinctive feature of the New Haven Railroad's Alco switchers (well, the "low" hood ones anyway) - the "low profile" cab, necessary due to the railroad's extensive overhead wire.

Diagram from the NHRHTA's Shoreliner magazine, Vol. 35, #1, p. 15

As mentioned many times before, but in case you missed it :^) Mike Redden provides 1-piece resin castings of this distinctive feature of the New Haven's DEY-3 and DEY-5 switchers. And you can get them here. The resin he's using now is a more robust and less brittle than past iterations - but you still need to handle them with care (especially that front roof overhang. Ask me how I know...).

And there are a couple of pro-tips which I'll share below. . .

A bit of good news is that you can use the P2k upper cab grab on the Redden cab. The bad news is that the pilot holes are positioned just slightly too narrow for an easy fit.

Fortunately, it's an easy fix - just remove one leg of the grab . . .

. . . and glue in place as normal. The handrails next to the door have to be custom made from .015" wire since - due to the lower roof - they're shorter than stock. Thankfully, pilot holes are provided and Mike has a bending jig available to make it easier to form the wire.

With the pilot holes provided, you have only to locate 3 holes on the cab - and the one above is for the engineer's side handrail. I figured the height by test fitting cab and handrail to the frame and eyeballed the horizontal position, not wanting to drill too close to the corner.

While the handrail looks similar to a stock handrail on an Atlas S-2 (since the factory hole is similarly located), in hindsight I should've tried to drill the hole a bit closer to the corner. It's a matter of looks versus risk. YMMV.

The other two holes you have to locate and drill are for the step-to-cab handrails. You use the P2k handrails and I'm test fitting/positioning them in the photo above.

Marked, then drilled (you can see a false start on the left)

Fortunately, the bracket/bolts covered the mistake.

While in future iterations Mike may provide those 3 additional pilot holes, even more importantly, he'll hopefully provide a way to secure the cab to the frame/body. Fortunately, the cab slides easily over the rectangle of the P2k body casting. Unfortunately, it just as easily can slide off - or, at the very least, leave an unsightly gap between the cab and the frame. So I took advantage of the fact that the interior of the cab walls have bracing for strength . . .

. . . used my calipers to locate a point where two braces crossed one another . . .

. . . and glued a bit of styrene to act as a retaining lug.

I then tapered the lug to allow the cab to press down over it and lock in place. And, yes, I can get the cab off :^) But you'll want to be sure you've filed the lug down to the point where it just grabs the side of the cab.

And that, my friends, concludes the "build" portion of the project! I did one more quick test fit of everything . . .

. . . disassembled it all again to prep for PAINTING! Which is next.... So stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday #468

 

Part 6 - Proto 2000 Alco S-1 becomes New Haven DEY-3 (Alco S-1) #0967: (another) Test Run

(this is part 6 in this conversion - click here for the post containing the list of the others)

Before starting on the cab detailing, I decided to test run the engine again, this time with the cab interior in place. I'd test run the engine before and it worked fine, but for some reason, this time it ran like absolute garbage.

Turns out, "something" was touching at least one (or both) of the flywheels.

With a decoder (ESU v5 micro), "keep alive" capacitor (ESU Power Pack), and a Scale Sound Systems speaker all stuffed under the hood, it's a pretty tight fit - even with the stock weight removed.

My first line of inquiry focused on the speaker being pressed down to the front flywheel due to the speaker wires being routed between the speaker and the hood, as you can see above.

So I used a Dremel to rout out a channel for the wires. As you can see, the recess for the fan protrudes below the curve of the hood so part of this material can be removed with no problem.

I also made a spacer to be certain that the speaker couldn't be pressed down past horizontal.

Unfortunately, while that helped, there still seemed to be some binding somewhere. So I turned my attention to what I should have before - but was too scared to admit might be the problem . . . My decoder install itself . . .

YIKES! That's a lot of excess wire! (the power pack is temporarily mounted out of the way)

I untaped everything and decided to trim some wire. First thing to trim back were the wires for the lighting. Daytime headlight use on the New Haven didn't start until c. 1950 - after my era (yay!) - so I opted not to bother with working lights (and the attendant challenge of figuring out how to route them to the top/back of the cab without them showing, not to mention the hassle of the wires themselves). I'll use MV lenses instead.

Ahhhh....THAT's better! Much more tidy - and the Power Pack is mounted to the underside of the hood with double-sided tape.

The Power Pack is nicely hidden in front of the cab interior, which I can still use. But will the loco still work?

First off, let's dispel any concern that the Proto2000 S-1 won't pull much since I removed the stock weight to make room for the speaker and electronics . . .

As you can see in the video, despite losing 1.5 ounces of weight (which is all that big, clunky weight weighs), it can still pull a train up a 2 % grade - with a 24" radius curve!

And as for how it runs with the hood and cab interior in place . . . well, you tell me :^)

Suffice it to say, I'm VERY happy with how this model is turning out - it now runs and sounds as good as it looks. If you want a Proto 2000 S-1 with DCC & sound, fret not . . . You can remove the weight and make the room you need to do so. Just be sure to isolate that motor first!

Now that the 0967 is running nicely (again), we're in the home stretch on this project - next time, we'll finally get to that low-profile cab and finish up this model for final prep & painting!

Part 5 - Proto 2000 Alco S-1 becomes New Haven DEY-3 (Alco S-1) #0967: Water Filler, Bell, Cab Signal Box, Whistle, Fan Grate

I have a confession to make . . . I'm lousy at keeping up with this blog. But I guess it's not much of a confession since you've probably already reached the same conclusion some time ago. Unfortunately (in so many respects), the Valley Local Facebook Group is far easier to update. So often, I'd love to kick FB to the curb (as many of you here have already), but the ability to post quickly - and get feedback just as quickly - makes for a compelling mix.

But you're not here to hear me gripe about FB - you've heard it before - and hopefully your patience isn't worn out and you still look forward to and enjoy reading these blog posts when they come up. FAR too much time passes between posts and things I want to be sure to document (which is the main reason for me to even have a "web log" aka "blog"), so I'm going to try harder to post more regularly.

John Wallace photo of New Haven class DEY-3 switcher #0967 with Valley Local freight southbound at Fernwood Street, Wethersfield, CT - 5/1949.

Case in point: NHRR DEY-3 0967. Some of you already know it's finished - or at least surmised from the Wordless Wednesday pic I posted last week. But I haven't finished documenting the build - and for those of you following along (and also to preserve this effort for future reference), here's where we left off . . .

Background

• Click here for prototype information for both the DEY-3 (Alco S-1) as well as the DEY-5 (S-2).
• (Part 1) Click here to see how I made the Proto2000 S-1 model DCC ready, as well as where to put a LokSound PowerPack (capacitor) and Scale Sound Systems speaker (be sure to check out Randy's blog too, which has more detail).
• (Part 2) Click here for the actual installation of the PowerPack as well as an ESU v5 decoder.
• (Part 3) Click here for the body modifications I made to the P2k model to make it into an authentic version of DEY-3 #0967.
• (Part 4) Click here for information on adding the stock details (what came with the undec model), including some helpful hints.

Whew! We left off with the stock details, and with a promise to go over the additional details that convert this S-1 to a DEY-3. So, without further ado . . .

Water Fill Cap

The Proto 2000 S-1 model is VERY detailed and was on the cutting edge when first introduced in the early 2000s. It's the only HO scale Alco S-1 available in plastic that I know of, so thankfully it still holds up very well detail-wise compared to today's models.

But, inexplicably, the fine folks at P2k failed to include a water fill cap on their body casting. You can scratchbuild one like my friend Randy did here, but I decided to improvise using a Details West part I had on-hand...

Modifying a cab vent into a water fill was as easy as flipping it over and sanding/filing until it looks like the prototype photos I had on-hand - though I have to admit, Randy's looks a bit better so be sure to check out how he did it.

Bell

You may recall from the the bodywork post that I'm not using the P2k stock bell that would have been mounted on the top of the hood, just ahead of the cab. Instead, again relying on prototype photos, I mounted a bell under the walkway, just ahead of the fuel tank on the engineer's side.

Another DW part I had on-hand

I had to trim the bell mount back to the bracket, and I scraped the paint off the frame where the bell would be attached.

Since the frame is angled in this area, I had to angle the bell bracket in order to get the bell to mount properly. Lots of filing and test fitting give you the best result . . .

. . . as you can see here. Believe it or not, I just mounted this with some thick CA and a quick touch of CA accelerator. This combo creates a VERY strong bond - click here for more info.

Cab Signal Box

The 0967 had Hartford Line cab signals. I know enough to know that the cab signal boxes varied a bit, depending on whether they were Hartford Line, Shoreline, or Dual - but there's only one NH cab signal box in HO that I know of . . .

The Custom Finishes box (B-125) is the one I used on my DEY-5 #0604, but it didn't look quite right for the 0967. 

So, again, I improvised a bit.

I used the exciter from the Custom Finishes part (the exciter is the cylinder mounted on top of the box above), and used a Cal-Scale part I had on-hand for the signal box itself (part #CB252). I did some guesstimating on the conduit, but I think it came out pretty good.

Air Whistle

Other than the low-profile cab, the feature that really distinguishes New Haven RR DEY-3 and DEY-5 switchers from off-the-shelf Alco S-1s and S-2s, is the 3 chime air whistle the railroad used in lieu of the standard Wabco E-2.

For the whistle, I used the same Custom Finishing part I used on my DEY-5 (part #103), but didn't have another pipe elbow in my scrap box. So I cut up one of these instead:

For a much more detailed description of how I made the bracket, be sure to check out my DEY-5 post here . . . But here's a summary:

First, I trimmed and filed the bottom of the whistle casting, then ACC'd the pipe/elbow to it. Unlike last time, I didn't bother drilling holes for a mounting loop - opting instead to just glue the whistle & pipe directly to the bracket (again, using CA and some accelerator for a strong bond). The bracket itself is made up of styrene strips (.011" x .066") glued at a right angle. Credit to Joe Smith for the idea of using a 1-2-3 block and tape to hold everything together during assembly.

Once everything is glued together, I test fit it to the hood (that pipe on the side conveniently held the extra-long strip in place), making sure the horizontal part of the bracket is truly horizontal and that the whistle is perfectly vertical. Then I marked where to trim the bracket by eyeballing it, comparing to a prototype photo.

You can see that mark above, but the bottom of the bracket is about even with the top of the hood doors.

Fan Grate

The P2k model comes with some really gorgeous metal fan grates, complete with walkways. Unfortunately, I can't use them for the 0967 . . .

The early DEY-3s had a grate that was made up of two frames that had a crosswise bar. You can barely make it out in the prototype photo above. And, incidentally, as far as I've been able to determine, the walkways were typically added after my chosen era (1947-49).

Again - and thankfully - Mike Redden over at New England Model Works has us (and our DEY-3 fans) covered with the right replacement part. And it drops right in, in place of the stock part.

And with that, the bell and the rest of the hood details are done. Next time, we'll tackle the MOST distinctive feature of the NHRR DEY-3s & 5s - the Low Profile Cab. And, again thankfully, Mike's come through again - and this time with a one-piece casting!! No more having to put a 5-piece flat kit together (as I had to on my DEY-5).

But first, I needed to do a road test to see make sure all of this was going to work . . . Stay tuned to see how THAT worked out . . . And be sure to check back every day this week since I'm hoping to get through this build asap! :^)

Wordless Wednesday #467: Looking Back & Looking Forward