Back in November Ken Brunt posted a RT bash he had just completed and mentioned that Train World had them on sale. I had never bought one because I already had a couple of home made rail trucks but for the price I couldn’t resist.
Soooo,
A couple of weeks later these showed up on the SP. I had plans to convert one to a school bus and the other to an ambulance. I decided on the school bus as the first project.
The first step was partial dis-assembly and getting the correct KD mounting height/platform and cutting it into the cast bed.
Next I dis-assembled the RT cab saving just the firewall and windshield for reuse. Then I did a card stock mock-up of the body to get the feel for the look I was trying for. I removed the plastic sander cans only to discover that the inner form is part of the chassis casting so they will have to be ground out.
By the way, what is up with these sander cans, if that is what they are? Over the front non driven wheels, really. What was the driver supposed to do, get out and use his coffee cup to scoop out some sand and walk back and throw it under the drive wheels?
Anyway those cans had to go. While I was at it I shortened the pilot deck as much as possible and still be able to get full swing on the front truck. Re-mounting the pilot turned out easier than I thought it would be, later pictures.
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The “frame” completely stripped and all electronics gutted, ready for the build to start. The wiring that you see is the motor leads and the headlights. The factory LED headlights just weren’t bright enough for me so I ended up replacing them with some after market warm white color that dropped right in.
That’s all for tonight.
Thanks for taking a look.
Rick
