Here is a HO unit I just did, a new Bachmann RS-3 in the Boston and Maine. The Bachmann unit comes nicely painted and detailed, but it lacks a lot of details, mainly that it has no end grab irons. I wanted it to look as close as possible to the Boston and Maine prototype, so I also added a lot of other details.
Looking at a lot of photos, showed a lot of variation, but I think I got it pretty close. The things I added were the end grab irons, cabinet equipment box, pilot beams, mu hoses, pilot grabs, roof grabs on the ends, steam intake and exhaust stack, marker lamps and lenses, windshield wipers, and roof lift rings. One thing I found is that of the detail parts available for the RS by manufacturers like Cal West and Custom Finishing, none were correct for this model. For the end grab irons, I did find some conventional ones that were the right size, so I bent them to give them the curves they needed to wrap around the shell. I used Google Sketchup to create a template for the hole locations. Fortunately, I was able to add these grab irons to the shell with only some minor damage to the maroon paint. For the lift rings and end roof grabs, I made them by bending wire around a fine tip pliers. For the steam intake and exhaust, I made them from styrene strip bits. With the black roof, it was fairly easy to blend in these parts.
I also removed the stock Bachmann horn, and replaced it with a Cal Scale M3-RT1. I modified the horn a bit, made the necessary bracket and attached it to the cab. I also painted the exhaust stack silver, and painted other areas that needed yellow safety paint.
For the DCC decoder, I removed the Bachmann unit and added a Soundtraxx Tsunami. The Bachmann comes with a speaker housing in the bottom of the fuel tank, but it is very small, so I added a small oval speaker above the front truck. I made a speaker enclosure out of styrene, and hollowed out the frame some, so that the sound waves would have better airflow through the truck. I also added some styrene skirting to the sides, to cover the big holes there. I also replaced the stock orange colored Bachmann LED's with golden white LED's
Very nice pirate. The details you added really add to the model. I like the weathering. Looks like a used but not over used loco.
Joe
Very nice work. Convincing looking weathering.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
The shell and handrail style of mounting looks very suspisiously like the old Atlas/Kato yellow box RS3's that its not funny. Great work on detailing it!! I think I would have gotten an old yellow box Atlas myself, the truck side frame details are better, along with the ubber smooth Kato chassis. But you would have had to shave off the old molded on grab irons. One has to wonder if Bachmann got the old Atlas tooling and Atlas replaced with a fresh new tool when the RS3's were reissued with Chinese drives. Other than the poor side frame castings and lack of molded on grab irons, that shell is a drop dead ringer for the old Atlas shell. I am a closet B&M fan being originaly from Maine and my mother still lives there. Makes me want to go get another yellow box Atlas and do the same thing! My N&W RS3 has to much sentimental value to repaint to that paint scheme. Great work!!! Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
Thanks! I don't think the Bachmann shell is the same as the Atlas. If I remember correctly, the Atlas shell was a foot short, and it had that weird angled exhaust stack.
Excellent work!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Very nice work mate.
Modelling HO Scale with a focus on the West and Midwest USA