I am considering purchasing a 1988 release brass SD45 in n scale as my first brass locomotive. It was made by Samhongsa and imported by Hallmark. According to the N scale locomotive encyclopedia the frame is a near copy of the Kato drives used in the same era.
I am wondering about is suitabillity for conversion to dcc. I have just converted an older 1995 release Lifelike GP18 so I have some experience doing hard wired installs. Has anyone in the MR forum community converted this unit. How difficult is it?
Also just wondering about ideas for window glazing and number boards as this unit does not include them. For 125.00 this seems like a good place to start for my first brass loco.
Thank you for any input!!!
Modeling the CNW and BN in N Scale in the late '70s midwest.
$125 for a brass locomotive? JUMP ON IT!
Yes, $125.00 on brasstrains.com. It's the CNW unit thats been listed there for quite awhile. Makes me wonder if something is wrong with it but it looks perfect in the photos!!!
I know nothing about their N scale brass, but their HO stuff earlier (in the 70's) definitely had some issues. They always were a bit less expensive than some of th eothers at the time, but it also showed - the worst one I saw was one of their HO Geeps, the sideframes on a 50's era Tyco were better examples of EMD trucks than the ones on this brass model. I know it was in a Trade Topics review in MR, late 70's or early 80's. I think it was a GP40. If they cloned a Kato drive for the N scale brass it should be pretty decent though.
Actually, if you have the All Access Pass, might be worthwhile looking it up, perhaps they reviewed this loco.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.