Model Railroading > Atlas Trainman Plus Genset Upgrades...

Finally had some time off today to purchase some detail parts and do some work on my PHL Gensets. The biggest eyesore are the thick handrails and I've started to correct that. First by removing the stanchions, drilling them out with a #78 bit, and replacing the thick plastic handrails with some hand bent .0125 phosphor bronze wire from Tichy Train Group. Not a fun chore, but well worth the effort, IMHO. I've also started replacing the generic plastic horns with brass equivalent Nathan K3s from Details West. The pilots have also been helped out with some modern cut-levers from Details Associates, followed with MU cables, trainlines, and air hoses from Details West.

I had to shave off the spare knuckle holders off the front and rear pilots, and fill in the sand hatch on the nose. A little Engine Black and Silver paint were then applied to match. I still need to cut out the correct sand hatches on either side of the nose. A little silver paint was also applied to the ditchlight covers, per prototype.

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Not so evident in the photos are some corrections made to the cab roof. I had to trim off roughly 6" off the front and rear edges of the roof, I don't know why the Atlas roof overhangs so far, the PHL Genset photos I've seen show the lip of the roof just about even with the headlight. The various roof antennas were then painted silver per prototype, and the GPS dome removed. I still need to tackle the other long hood handrail and the end handrails, should be another couple hours work, then paint. The difference in handrail thickness is startling when the models are placed together.

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A couple final photos showing the differences in the stock and modified ends, other than the cab rooflines and sand hatch, which have already been corrected on both PHL 30 and 31.

I'm also not so impressed with the cool white LEDs in the models, I will be replacing them with Miniatronics bulbs eventually.

Mr. MRL - time to burn some midnight oil...

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Sweet. Can't wait to see how the front porch handrails turn out, chain link and all!

MPY

looking really good.

Nice work! The handrails definitely need to be thinner. What about the vertical stanchions? Those suffer the same problem as the main bar?

Fizzboy7 Wrote:
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> Nice work! The handrails definitely need to be
> thinner. What about the vertical stanchions?
> Those suffer the same problem as the main bar?


The stanchions I can live with, they aren't any thicker than my defunct Tower55 ES44DC stanchions, which were also on the thick side when released five years ago. Besides, it is enough trouble drilling out the little holes in them as it is. I wonder if Railflyer's (future release) stanchions would work for Gensets???

Mr. MRL

Robbie;

Nice work. The hand rails on this model are a big draw back. (In this day and age of accurate models...why Atlas did this is beyond me)
When drilling out the handrails, how did you keep from having the drill drift to left / right or up / down? This has been a problem for me in the past when using the same technique.

Regards

Jere Ingram

Nicely done.

With all the junk handrails coming from Athearn and these Gensets, I would think there would be a market for replacement handrail sets. Not sure if the business model works but for the right person with the right skills and tools, it could be a cash cow.

Nice work.

Bruce

That is a lot of sweat equity to bring the models up to your standards and the results are worth it. It was kind of Atlas to save you a lot of nasty decal work, though.

Thanks for sharing.

Wow, those stock handrails are really big! What is the advantage to using the bronze wire opposed to using brass?

Thanks,
Dennis

Looking good, Robbie. I've got to say, the Gensets are starting to grow on me. They have a gruff, no nonsense look to them, especially in the PHL zebra stripe scheme.

Just from my experience using it, it's a bit more resistant to "dings" than regular brass wire. To me, it combines the desirable qualities of steel and brass wire; it has the ease of bending like brass, but the resiliency of steel.

PE

CNW Wrote:
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> Wow, those stock handrails are really big! What
> is the advantage to using the bronze wire opposed
> to using brass?
>
> Thanks,
> Dennis

UPWPFan Wrote:
> Robbie;
>
> When drilling out the handrails, how did you keep
> from having the drill drift to left / right or up
> / down? This has been a problem for me in the past
> when using the same technique.

Not Robbie, but if you don't mind me jumping in here, when I used this technique in the past I *carefully* started by poking little pilot holes with the tip of a new #11 Xacto blade and twisting slightly. The whole project was a little tedious, but not as bad as I expected.

Joe

UPWPFan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> When drilling out the handrails, how did you keep
> from having the drill drift to left / right or up
> / down? This has been a problem for me in the past
> when using the same technique.
>
> Regards
>
> Jere Ingram

Jere, I used the sharp point of a push pin and poked a small pilot hole on each side of the stanchion, then drilled 1/2 way through each side, meeting in the middle. Similar to Joe's (IAISfan) technique described above. Yeah I was stressing out about that bit wandering around and running out the side crooked too... I used a pair of needle point tweezers to securely hold the stanchion steady as I was drilling too.


CNW Wrote:
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> Wow, those stock handrails are really big! What
> is the advantage to using the bronze wire opposed
> to using brass?
>
> Thanks,
> Dennis

Dennis, I went for the .0125 phosphor bronze wire based on the past experience from other fine modelers who used it including Donnell Wells and Paul Ellis. I essentially remembered a topic on TO.com from a few years ago and adapted it for use with this project. I'm not a metal expert, I don't know if there are any real advantages to phosphor bronze over brass.


Thanks for the words of encouragement folks. Funny, I just noticed the stripes go down on one end, up on the other...

Mr. MRL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/10 14:15 by MrMRL.

I meant to congratulate you on your work when I replied earlier Robbie. Those handrails alone were a huge improvement, and your detail upgrades were great too.

Joe

Wow, great work! It's always fun to see someone turn a pretty decent model into a great one with some creative modeling. It's handy that the paint scheme makes it easy to patch the colors after the modifications.

CNW Wrote:
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> Wow, those stock handrails are really big! What
> is the advantage to using the bronze wire opposed
> to using brass?

Dennis - Phospher bronze is stiffer and more resilient than brass. I find it to be much more durable and use it almost exclusively now for grab irons, brake details, etc. It's a good compromise between steel wire, which is hard to shape, and brass, which tends to get "squashed" when handled roughly, especially the smaller sizes. When brass details bend and get deformed, phospher bronze flexes and returns to it shape unless you're really trying to mess it up.

Dave

Finished the front handrails, and painted the others already installed, now have to do the rear set... Need to get some wiper blades installed too.

Mr. MRL



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/10 16:16 by MrMRL.

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Looks a lot better Robby, thanks for the step by step photos.

Handrails are a bear...one of the many reasons I have so many locomotive projects gathering dust. I hate the thought of bending rails! You certainly nailed it on the genset though. Very nice work.

PE