A USA Trains GP-30 arrived from the USA yesterday. Works fine, but some of the cosmetic pieces in the cab have come loose.
Has anyone removed the plastic shell on one of these? I’ve had a go, but it’s not obvious.
If the GP-30 is like most other USAT diesel locos the screws are deep inside their holes.
Unlike AC locos which use only 6 - 8 easily accessible screws, the USAT locos have 10 - 12 with some only accessible by removing the fuel tank.
You will need a quite long thin phillips head screwdriver to reach down into the holes.
Thanks, Tony - I noticed the holes, but only have a short shank Philips that fits into them - not deep enough.
One of the blokes on G Scale Mad reckons it can be done from the top. He’s offered a photo, and I’m keen to see it.
There is also a couple screws that usually require you to remove the truck side frames. If you have a long enough screwdriver with a really thin shank and a little luck you can snake it between the sideframe and the power brick and reach the screws. A couple appropriately spoken cuss words usually help too…
You can remove all scews with out haveing to remove the side frames on the trucks. You will find that the truck can be turned enough to get to the screws that are located there. If I recall about 12 screws. Big trick is a long narrow philipps screw driver. Make sure to remove the hand rails from the cab also. Later RJD
Ended up using a top-down approach on the recommendation of Allan, a G Scale Mad member, rather than the bottom-up method with a screwdriver. It worked very well. See http://www.gscalemad.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=8392&st=0& in the Engines section of GSM if you’re interested; Allan posted a couple of helpful photos.
Thanks to everyone who posted a suggestion. Don’t know any cuss words, Warren - could you teach me?
Why is my nose growing?