Alice Springs construction milestone: The final board completed

Hi All

Just to give you a quick update, The final board for Alice Springs layout was completed today.  Last Sunday, Doug give me a hand building the other three.  I finished the last one off and have placed them in the rough location.  This is all a bit too far forward, as I still need to thin down the board to the fiddle yard.

 The peninsula sticking out will be Bow Creek cattle sidings

The power drills are sitting on the "turn back" curve which will go back into the fiddle yard.

enjoy

Scott

FMG SD70ACe the initial build Athearn Genesis

Hi All

I have had this Athearn Genesis SD70ACe for awhile, its an undecorated kit BNSF.
I did originally purchase this to convert into a BHP Billiton SD70ACe, but this model I am going to convert into an FMG SD70ACe.
This "kit" is a little more involved than I first thought.

 Here is the model partially built

 the nose and ditchlights.

 The Radiator section is a separate casting, with lots of add ons.

 The FMG fleet is fitted with the latest design cab, However I have to change the lift points, (old design)

 This is one of the more fiddly bits of this job, making sure the bulbs are placed into the footplate, the anti-climber also needs to be modified for the FMG model.

 The fame sides have to be glued into the frame, and then the lifting points etc have to be added.

 The B end before modification, I need to add the correct grilles and marker lights

 A close up of the radiator grilles and dynamic brake

 A close up of the fireman's side of the frame.

 This will give you an idea of complexity of the model, here are some of the parts, and not all parts are used.

 This is what I did to ensure that the right parts are used.

 the model comes with a booklet, which outlines where the parts are meant to be, you have to be really carefull with your selection of parts.

So I will let you know when I get it finished.

Possible layout pending....

Enjoy

Scott

The Bachmann Spectrum CM39-8 how bad can it be?

Hi All

In the process of doing some paint stripping, I decided to add as many locomotives to the bath as I could.  I purchased one of Spectrum's CM39-8, this is part of the Bachmann "outback hauler" train set.  I had this for a while and thought that I would disassemble the model for repainting.  Only when I compared it against my CM39-8 did I start to see that things were NQR with this model.

Let me just say considering, there is an article in AMRM with a scale plan and an article on how to build one, the result of the Spectrum CM39-8 is to say the very least poor representation.

If you think I am being too harsh, let me show you.

 A first glance looks like a reasonable representation, my kit bashed CM39-8 is in the background.

 Then I looked at the cab, its way too long, and the side window end up in the wrong place!

 It got worse, at the ends I noticed that the whole locomotive is way too low.

 Apart from the roof being the wrong colour, the extra long cab an be seen in this shot.

 Has double rung handrails, tick!

 Compare the grilles, bup bow!

 The roof, bup bow again!

 The roof panels, bup bow again!

 Note the height difference, I just don't know why.

 Here are the cabs compared.

 More panel mistakes on this side too!

Panel mistakes on the radiator cab!

 There is a location for a handbrake wheel, starting to look suspiciously like a CW40-8 re tool.

 The B end has the sanding indent that does not exist on the prototype.

 Here is the reason for all that height problems, the engine and radiator cab sections are too low, CW40-8 re-tool?

 side by side compare the Atlas C40-8, Spectrum CM39-8 and my CM39-8, not good.

 My CM39-8 against the Atlas model.

 My CM39-8 against the Atlas CM40-8 nose to nose.

 The Spectrum model nose against the Atlas C40-8 nose, not the footplate heights.

 So by its-self the Spectrum model looks OK.

 Sitting next to anything close, it looks bad!

 I don't know where they were going with the steps, the angles are all wrong, possibly from a Dash-9?

Given that this is aimed at the toy market, I can't be too harsh, but considering the data that is available on the prototype, and all you needed to do, is read an article, and it could have been a much better model.

So I am happy, I have a few of the Atlas C40-8s spare to covert in to CM39-8s and CM40-8s, because to get this model up to scratch looks like too much work, against just scratch building a proper cab.

I could also throw in \, that the colour is all wrong, but you already know that!

On the plus side, it is the cheepest model of an Australian outline locomotive available today, that looks even close to what it should look like.  If it inspires one person to model Australian models then it has done its job.

Sorry for the bad news, if you purchased one!

Scott