Problem solved and some work done
After a few online discussions, measurements, comparisons to photos and a little detective work, the problem with fitting the Railflyer electrical box was solved.
There's nothing wrong with the Railflyer part. It's the Athearn shell.
As previously noted, when Athearn made the SD40-2 they shortened the wheelbase so that the units could negotiate an 18" radius curve. When they shortened the wheelbase, they also did some minor shortening in the clean air room behind the cab. It's about seven inches off, and the duct is a bit wider than it is supposed to be. I could have replaced the entire section with Cannon parts, or waited until Railflyer brings out their clean air room, but I decided to work with what I have.
I used strips of 4"x4" styrene to build up the clean air room behind the original cab, until I had 8" of space in between. Then I sanded it down to make the seven inches I required. I then installed and glued the Detail Associates cab in place. The electrical box fit perfectly into the newly created space. Problem solved.
I added diamond treadplate from Railflyer to the shell. The treadplate is amazing stuff, able to cover over my many mistakes and scratches I inflicted on the poor units. Because of the dimensional errors on the Athearn units, the treadplate has a gap near the ductwork. I will use a small portion of the leftover treadplate (yes, Chris includes a lot of extra treadplate in his kits!) to fill in that small gap.
The rear door on both sides of the long hood was reduced by 1/3 of its height. I used a chisel blade in my XActo knife to scrape the door down, and then covered both areas with scale 2x2 foot pieces of .005" clear styrene. I would have used white styrene, but I had none on hand that were the appropriate thickness. Once the squares were glued in place, I positioned a Plano louver in the middle of each square. What a huge difference this one detail made! By the way, the rear door on early CN SD40-2W units has the hinges on the opposite side of what they are on my model. Am I going to change this detail? No. Way too much work to do that really won't be noticed once all the detailing, painting, and weathering are done.
I will try to get photos onto the blog at some point.
Next up...assembling the ditch lights, Sinclair antennas, windshield wipers, horn, bell...and finding the 0402 white leds (Digikey) and a new chassis for each unit.
There's nothing wrong with the Railflyer part. It's the Athearn shell.
As previously noted, when Athearn made the SD40-2 they shortened the wheelbase so that the units could negotiate an 18" radius curve. When they shortened the wheelbase, they also did some minor shortening in the clean air room behind the cab. It's about seven inches off, and the duct is a bit wider than it is supposed to be. I could have replaced the entire section with Cannon parts, or waited until Railflyer brings out their clean air room, but I decided to work with what I have.
I used strips of 4"x4" styrene to build up the clean air room behind the original cab, until I had 8" of space in between. Then I sanded it down to make the seven inches I required. I then installed and glued the Detail Associates cab in place. The electrical box fit perfectly into the newly created space. Problem solved.
I added diamond treadplate from Railflyer to the shell. The treadplate is amazing stuff, able to cover over my many mistakes and scratches I inflicted on the poor units. Because of the dimensional errors on the Athearn units, the treadplate has a gap near the ductwork. I will use a small portion of the leftover treadplate (yes, Chris includes a lot of extra treadplate in his kits!) to fill in that small gap.
The rear door on both sides of the long hood was reduced by 1/3 of its height. I used a chisel blade in my XActo knife to scrape the door down, and then covered both areas with scale 2x2 foot pieces of .005" clear styrene. I would have used white styrene, but I had none on hand that were the appropriate thickness. Once the squares were glued in place, I positioned a Plano louver in the middle of each square. What a huge difference this one detail made! By the way, the rear door on early CN SD40-2W units has the hinges on the opposite side of what they are on my model. Am I going to change this detail? No. Way too much work to do that really won't be noticed once all the detailing, painting, and weathering are done.
I will try to get photos onto the blog at some point.
Next up...assembling the ditch lights, Sinclair antennas, windshield wipers, horn, bell...and finding the 0402 white leds (Digikey) and a new chassis for each unit.
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