Building a Dinosaur

[Eastern Roads]

I've often been amazed and surprised at the gigantic variety of motive power that once existed on the Standard RR of the World, the late Pennsylvania Rail Road. the steam was in itself quite unusual, and since I am into the diesel era, I've been seeing a lot of models that only existed on the PRR.

I found a locomotive, which turned out to be one of the very last types built by Baldwin of which all examples except one wound up on the PRR, and that was the RT-624. I found a pic on RailPictures.Net - The BEST railroad photos on the 'net! with this photo by Michael Sirotta, taken in Philadelphia in the mid-60's. Sadly, all of these were scrapped, and no prototypes exist today.



They were only built in the mid-fifties, and the variants were just everywhere, even in a production run. An earlier version built by Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton was a near copy with even more differences, and a third type existed as well. I thought they were out of reach, as the only models ever built were brass for around a grand, so it was out of my league, and they've been history as well. That is, until I visited the first Railrats (Ron K) layout which was featured here on TWP. When I looked at his locomotive fleet, I shot this pic:



Some differences, but a lot of it was close enough to get me asking who built it. After the inquiries, I got some parts together, and two other members, Paul and George (Paul's layout was also featured here with it's eclectic assortment of double-enders) guided me along.

The project is only about half done, but I've been so excited about it, I showed some pics at the Sunday Chat, and thought I would show you what I've been working on!

So come along as I take a perfectly good locomotive, and do a "Shake and Bake" and make like a Mad Scientist!! The idea is to get as close as I can without going into "Rivet-Counter-itis". I've been finding I could probably just about nail it, and have it running on the layout within six months at the current rate if I do. If I went overboard, the thing would be on my shelf for about two years. I opted for sooner than later!

Here we start with a BB Athearn SD-40 in Ugly Pacific colors. Since this was my very first kit-bash, I didn't want to drop a huge chunk of change on something like this the first time out, and the plan is to drop a can motor into it when we're done. Sound is also being strongly considered, even though I'm hanging onto DC currently. We will probably show that as well before we get done with the thread.



I've read and seen all the techniques for sawing off bodies from the under frames, and quite honestly, I just wasn't comfortable with the idea. If you look at the pic, on the left side you'll see a line from the end of the body to the edge. That was where I started with a saw, but didn't like what I was getting. So I pulled out my breakaway blade knife, and started scribing along the edges, working my way down till I got this:



It turned out pretty clean!! And I'm really happy with the result. In our next post, we'll take a look at some parts I got in for the shell, and some of the styrene work as well. Until then!

[ak-milw]

I have seen those built using two baldwin switchers back to back. Only using one cab from both. It looks like the model in the picture was built that way.

[MikeC]

This looks like a fun project. I'll be following along.

Mike

[Sawdust]

This looks like a real challenge & a fun one to follow. Will you be using the same cab that you cut out? I looked around & found something that might be easier. How about two of these.
PRR H-12-44 8708

[gtwfan]

Hi ER
I'll be following your build with great interest as I'm about to embark on a similar project. The GTW did a number of old high nose GP-9 rebuilds in the early eighties rather than buy new GP-15s. A few are still in use as yard engines and soooo, I just have to have one. Hope you won't mind my "looking over your shoulder" to see your techniques. Gerry S.

[Steve]

Great project! The prototype looks like it could really get some work done!
It will be fun to watch

[North Coast Railroad]

Looks like a fun project...I will be watching and learning! THanks for sharing your progress.

[Eastern Roads]

WOW!! I'm glad to see there's a fair amount of interest in this little project! I'll try to answer a few of your questions, and what I've been thinking and considering as I put this engine together.

Basically I will use two other locomotive shells and put them together to make one BIG engine. The SD-40 chassis is actually a little short compared to the RT-624, and so instead of the switcher body, I opted for using AS-616 shells (basically six axle Train Master bodies). The reason why I went with those was the body was the closest to the prototype. The AS-616 has the same radiator vents on the sides, and the roof pattern was also very close.

On the prototype pic, you can see I had to accommodate a few changes to the chassis, and in this post, I'll show you what I did to the Athearn chassis to look closer to the RT.

In this pic, I'll show you my most well-worn tool in my collection:



I also recently picked up the saw to get in the tight spots, as I had more control over it compared to the bulky Dremel.



I had picked up this cool little set of files at a Train Show, and they came in super handy to clean things up a bit:



And here we are all done chopping the chassis.



If you notice on the prototype pic, these engines had pretty small fuel tanks compared to an EMD SD-40-2, and so the fuel tank on the chassis needed to be cut down a bit. I also trimmed some protrusions on the front upper part of the chassis, as the new body would not set in where the EMD body did.

This weekend I got a chance to visit a hobby shop about an hour away, and I picked up the majority of the detail parts I needed for the rest of the project. At some point, I will make up a parts list to share with you.

So thanks much for the interest, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

[ak-milw]

The 616 shells will be a lot closer. You had me worried for a while there Mike, I thought you were going to try and make the SD shell work and it isn't even close.

[Sawdust]

Whew me too Andy! Looks good Mike & will be interesting to watch. Good choices on the victims.