Painting A Brass Locomotive for Erieman

[ACL1504]

I was talking to Frank Baker, Erieman, the other day and we were discussing how busy we are in retirement. I'm really not sure when I had time to work but that's another story.

Anyway, I told Frank I would fix and repair one of his brass locos. The loco is a D&RG RR Class M-78, 4-8-2 Mountain. I mentioned to Frank I would also repaint it and he asked me to letter it for the Erie Railroad.

Also, Frank mentioned that the loco didn't run very well and/or doesn't run at all. I said it sounds like a great challenge for me.

Well, that initial conversation occurred two years ago. So time to go to work!


I forgot to take a photo of the engine in whole but here is the loco ready for some work.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

The next photo is for your information. Many people take a loco apart and don't remember how it goes back together. So, take a photo of the area of your weakness and you have a great start on getting it back together.




On the other forum, I did a highly detailed thread on a brass repair and paint on an old 0-8-0 I got off Ebay. I documented every step needed to repair, paint and install DCC sound. You may refer to that thread here.

http://www.kitforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2726


I see that many of the photos from that thread are missing. If anyone is truly interested or has any questions I'll just copy and paste the thread in another thread on this forum for your convenience. I'll leave out all the comments so you get just the meat of the thread. Let me know here or in a PM and we'll go from there. I'll need more than a few requests though to make it worth posting.

Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

This loco has a large tender so I'll be using a 1.5" round 8 OHM speaker from PFM. The tender will act as a baffle for the speaker and will have nice rich base tones for the sound.

However, the speaker is to large for the tender. This was the case with a great majority or speakers PFM had for installing sound in brass locos. About 1/4" of the speaker sides was removed. I'm using a used speaker for the purpose of the install.

The next two photos show you the speaker is still to large for the tender.





In the above photo you can see the speaker it doesn't fit as the speaker cone is up against the bottom of the coal bunker.

Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I determined where the best placement for the speaker would be and then marked the inside of the tender. This particular tender has a "L" angle bar soldered to the inside of the tender for support. I had to remove a short section of the support bar. I used a Dremel and cutting disc for this.



Now the speaker fits in the tender on the sides but the speaker cone is still hitting the top of the bottom side of the coal bunker. I used a pencil to mark where the coal bunker needed to be cut to allow the speaker cone to fit. After marking the tender I drilled a series of small holes in the circle as shown.





Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

When I could drill no more holes I cut out the remaining portion with wire nippers. When the inner circle was removed I used a Dremel thingy to remove and smooth the burrs. I said thingy because I can't think of the name of the Dremel attachment I used. Old age I guess.



In the next photo the tender is now on the tender deck. You can see the hole is now large enough for the speaker cone to fit.



Continued in a few.

[Erieman]

Tom,
Happy New Year!!! I like this thread. In case you forgot what the engine looks like, here is a photo of the engine taken several years ago. I'm sure that it will look, run and sound much better that it did back then. Thanks, my friend.

Frank / Erieman

[ACL1504]

Frank,

You are welcome my friend and thanks for checking in and for posting the loco photo. This is a fun project and the before and after photos will really be quite outstanding.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Well, I just did more on the narrative of this thread with photos and hit the wrong button and lost it all. So, I'll start this posting once again. Old age again I'm sure.

Damn, old age is definitely not for sissy people. Can I say sissy here or is it a PC issue. Oh well, I'll blame that on old age as well.

So to continue, you can see the speaker is in place. It may appear that the hole is to large but I cut it larger so the speaker could be moved if needed.



Once the speaker was in the proper location I marked the outside edge on the tender deck.






Later in the week if not tomorrow, I'll cover drilling the tender holes for the sound.

Tom

[donatode]

I am really enjoying this thread.....please keep them coming and if you can Re-post the other brass loco thread you mentioned, I will devour it.

[BandOGuy]

Second the motion!
All in favor?!!

[tct855]

Here! Here!  T...

[Zephyrus52246]

Doesn't cutting into the speaker ruin it or at least decrease the sound volume?  Wouldn't it be much easier to get a speaker that fits?   


Jeff

[ACL1504]

I am really enjoying this thread.....please keep them coming and if you can Re-post the other brass loco thread you mentioned, I will devour it.

Donato,

Thanks for following along. I'll work on the re-posting of the other thread.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Second the motion!
All in favor?!!

Chip,

Okay, I'll work on getting the re-post ready for this forum. I should get it going with the next few days. Thanks for checking in.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Here! Here!  T...

Thom,

Thanks for checking in and posting your interest in the other brass repair job. I'll start it in the next few days. I need to get the old photos ready for this forum.

Tom