Large Scale Central

A dismal bash

Modeling
#1

Hi all I’m not sure of the protocols of posting here vs the “other” forum, so apologies if I’m doing the wrong thing, but I like the more friendly, warts and all feel of LSC so hope you don’t mind me sharing. Recently, my two young lads convinced me to buy a Bachmann 45 tonner for the railroad. Now, I’m a bit of a died in the wool steam man, but can appreciate that the younger generations relate more to these infernal combustion devices. I really didn’t like the look of the 45 tonner, much preferring the single ended style of diesel like a GE 70 tonner. Now after doing a little digging, stumbling across another bash that Tony Walsham had posted some pics of, and finding some lovely pics of SP’s “Little Giant”, I managed to convince my two lads that a razor saw and a 45 tonner is a good combination… So, after much sawing (well a little anyway), here is the result so far: First, a shot on the railroad of the front end

One of the back end that shows the charging jack (and a slight misalingment of the bottom of the cab, oops!)

Now, a side on shot

And one on the road under the watchful eye of Lilly, our mini fox terrier, who has also recently taken to earthmoving, especially on some of the embankments.

Under the hood, my first battery and radio install, using an RCS Evo B2 coupled to a 4 channel FM receiver from an electric heli that has since “passed on”

Here is a shot of the hood itself and the cab showing a) my messy antenna install, and b) how the two short hoods were joined.

There are still a few jobs to be finished, with some new steps and side sills on order, plus a battery box and handrails, then a visit to the paintshop and finally a crew, so it’s a little ways off being finished. I’m fairly happy with the way it turned out, but I don’t take the credit for it being anything original, just something with the feel of a smaller GE diesel. I also can’t decide on a colour scheme as yet, as I’m sort of following the NCNG as a prototype, but they never had any diesels this big and I don’t have any ideas as to what they painted them anyway. Some more picture digging is required perhaps. It was a good bash though, and the Dizzie is an ideal candidate, with lots of nice lines in the right places to help the razor saw cut straight. Cheers Tony

#2

Looking great so far Tony.

We’ve got no rules. Your post is great. Picture size is big enough to see details, but not too big, and just enough compression to make the dial-up guys happy without loosing the detail.

So welcome to LSC. I look forward to updates when you have them.

I have several of the “Dizzies” bought at fire sale prices a year or so ago. One is still NIB waiting for the right bash idea. This long hood conversion looks pretty basic from a skills standpoint and turns out to be a well proportioned loco.

Jon

#3

Nice work, Tony. It’s a great bash!

#4

Pretty nifty!

-Brian

#5

Amazing what razor saw and some glue can accomplish…looks great.

#6

Neato.

I sold mine but now I regret it.
Much more total room to put “stuff” in.

#7

Cool. I’m planning to do something like that with mine too. I like the end cab/long hood look, plus I want to make it a bit smaller to better match the rest of my rolling stock.

#8

Thanks all for the messages

Ray, I agree with what you say about making it look smaller, I have mostly 1:22.5 stuff, so it dwarfed them in its unmodified form, and even looked big against a Connie. Now it looks a little more “vest pocket” sized and fits in better amongst the Annies and other rollingstock and that was the main reason for doing it. That, and it looked butt ugly before, now it looks only sort of ugly…

Tony, you are right about more room. I nearly thought of changing the AA’s to sub Cs, or even two lots of 10 AA’s in parallel, though the 10 x 2400’s have given me at least 4 hours running so far, and that’s hauling 6-8 cars up and down 3% grades, so it seems to be sufficient.

Cheers
Tony

Cheers

#9

Tony,
much along the lines of the Southern Pacific ‘little giant’. This loco would look excellent, regauged and running on mainline rail with standard gauge rolling stock. Remember the ‘little giant’ was regauged to standard gauge later in its lifetime.

   Tony previously posted some photographs of a modified centre cab that had been downsized to a hooded diesel,  with short hood as well. You have provided inspiration for all those who picked up several centre cabs when on special and thought - I can do something with that one day.
#10

Neat. Im working on a 45 tonner bash like that myself. Need to unbury it from the mess on the workbench…

#11

I’m a steam person myself, but I would have to say that’s not dismal at all.

#12

Thanks all for your comments, much appreciated.

Bob, if you look at the “undressed” pics, you will see a similar “busy” workbench cunningly hidden behind a sheet of styrene. I find pushing it usually clears sufficient flat space to work, though make sure nothing important falls off the edges…

Richard, thanks for the nice remark, coming from a steam man, it makes me feel a little less traitorous to the steam cause.

Tim, yes, those photos Tony Walsham had posted previously were want inspired me in the first place, then finding the pics of the Owens Valley No.1 kicked things along nicely. I’d encourage anyone who has even a modicum of modelling skills to have a go at kitbashing, especially on a relatively simple conversion like this. There’s nothing like hacking into a new loco with a razor saw, very therapeutic!

Cheers
Tony