I did a thread last year on an AristoCraft FA 1 rebuild, but lack of materials and life got in the way for awhile and I never got back to it. I got restarted over the winter and was able to finish the “A” unit plus a “B” unit and a couple of my passenger cars (Aristo flute sided streamliners) as well.I wanted to keep the flow on the paint scheme I chose and minor adjustments had to be made as I went along. I will get an overall picture of what I have gotten done before I finish this thread and I will try to keep updates going throughout the build. To refresh what was done before: The “A” and “B” units received the following modifications and improvements along with repaint for my road. !. Engines were broken down completely and wiring diagrams made. 2. Axle centers were wrapped with 10# monofilament to avoid future problems. 3. Bolsters were cut off and after turning half their thickness,I think 29 thousanths, were reinserted from the top and glued in place as described in George Schreyer web page. 4. After searching the web I came across a few drawings of the equipment placement for both units and decided to mock-up interiors for them. 5. The plastic insert screen pieces were removed and the openings were first trimmed with .010 plastic strip 2 scale inches wide. Then I cut a material called toile for the openings to simulate screening.Then trimmed wih more plastic strips. 6. Plastic pads were made for the interior s to sit on. these span the high sides of the frame leaving room for the mounting screws. This also allowed the wiring to be fed underneath and out of site. 7. I also added a through feeder wire as suggesed by George Schreyer for enhanced pick-up. 8. As real roads sometimes run their engines alone I decided to add lights to the rear of the “A” unit and both the front and rear of the “B”.Remember sometimes the “B” unit had to be serviced and the hostlers had controls in the side door for minimal movements,therefore lights, 9. Circuits were done for the lighting that was also changed to LED’s and diagrams drawn. 10. Water fill pipes were added to the roof as well as some lift rings. 11. Ladders were added to the rear of both units. 12. Units were reassembled and I then decided to lower the fuel tanks .125" as the fill pipes were not low enough for use. These were painted red. Brake pads were painted dirty black. 13. Interiors were secured with 2-56 nut/bolts 3/4" long as was the fuel tank which I also filled with 1# of lead secured with caulk.Hope thats not too much. 14. Cab interior was painted honeydew green by krylon and then the seats got brown and the control tower blue. Dash received a few dials and a little black paint just to add some color to the inside. 15. Coupler mounts were cut down and front was reinforced Passenger Cars: In order to make sure the paint scheme I decided on worked out between engines and cars I pulled out my coach, baggage, and diner and got to work on changes. 1 The cars were fully disassembled. 2. I searched the web for cars and found an auction site for Arcadian rail cars. These seem to be a reasonable match and I have included 1 of the pictures I used for my modifications. 3. Roof vents and grab irons were made for the coach. 4. One door was cut to open the top half on one side and an interior partition was made to block the lightfrom inside. 5. Through feeder wires were run through this and the other cars for full train pick-up 6. Three windows were closed in with plastic and then bondo-d in place. 7. The name boards on the sides were removed and the holes filled in. 8. Cars were reassembled by inserting the frame above the original slot to lower the cars and checked against the engines for contiuity.I was not happy with the diaphram matings. The car was taken apart and .125 pads were cut for the bolsters. These were glued between the bolsters and frame and the bolsters screwed back in place. This was done on all cars. 9. The baggage car needed three mushroom vents. These were made with a short piece of 3/4" plastic pipe and a piece of .125 plastic cut 1" square, heated in the oven for 30 minutes and formed over a ballpean hammer. These were than trimmed roughly to a round shape then sanded to finish. 10. Baggage door grabrails were removed and only the inside grabs were replaced 11. Roof grabs and through feeder wire were also installed even though the feeder doesn’t pick-up from the wheels. 12. The diner had one door filled in leaving a square window in it’s place. 13. Roof vents, hatches and grab irons were installed. 14. The small window in the door was opened.New longer grab rails for the door were made for both sides of the door. 15. The battery box/fuel tanks were removed from the undersides and wood shapes were glued in place to simulate underside detail (10’ rule applies.) Thats it up to now except for the following pictures.
Note the cut out on the coupler mount and the reinforcements on the pilot
Toile being used and framed
Showsthe shims used to lower the tank
Getting ready
Nice green base
To fit around the lights
Ladder and light added
How low it sits and fill is visible
Both almost ready for use
Just vents to this one
Vents access hatches can you find the closed in door
How vents were made
Prototype I used I still need to get them out side for overall picture and I have to take some of the coach Dave See I am doing something even if it’s slow going.
