Large Scale Central

USA Trains Burlington F3 A&B Rebuild

Modeling
#1

I was considering the possibility of building a small version of the Norfolk Southern Office Car Special (OCS). When a REALLY good deal came along that possibility turned into certainty when I was notified that the engines were onhand, before I’d even really committed to the idea. Plans right now are for an A&B engine-set and three or four cars at most.

Shawmut Car Shops got me a really good deal on the set and, once the modifications to accurately represent the OCS units, Shawmut will be contracted to paint them up in the Southern Tuxedo paint scheme, as modified for Norfolk Southern.

Aside from some ditchlights, this will be my last railroad purchase for a while, so I wanted to show them off before they meet the “cutters’ torches”.

I have a lot of stuff going on here right now, so I doubt I will get into the work needed any time soon, but if you guys want, I’ll make sure i take pictures to show here. Let me know.

As for the things needed, they are as follows:

“A” Unit - NS 4271 (NS Class F-9A):

  1. Ditchlight “compartments” cut into the nose and the ditchlight castings installed.

  2. Twin sealed beam headlights replacing the single nose light.

  3. “Plating over” of the front door and smoothing the nose to eliminate the door hatch.

  4. Addition of Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) braking cables on the nose.

  5. Addition of Locomotive Speed Limiter (LSL) lights.

  6. Multiple Unit Socket & hoses.

  7. HEP sockets.

  8. Locomotive ‘jumping’ socket.

  9. Several extra grabirons on teh nose and roof.

  10. Complete rebuild the fuel tank area.

  11. Replacement of twin single chime horns with NS current model.

  12. Addition of modern “stapler/Sinclair” radio antennae.

  13. Reconstruction of steam generator area to include new HEP-engine mufflers and Geep-style external fan.

  14. Elimination of “pointed” roof at rear to be flat with carbody.

  15. Addition of modern twin-bulb headlight on rear of unit.

“B” Unit - NS 4275 (NS Class F-7B):

->(I don’t have any detailed shots of the B units yet, so more details may end up being needed, but this is the list SO FAR)

  1. Rebuild of the fuel tank area.

  2. GPS/LEADER box on roof.

  3. HEP cables pass-through.

One other thing to look at is to see if I can convert the USA truck sideframes to represent conversion to modern roller-bearings.

Since I’m planning on these being a set, I hope to get a carrying case for the units together, allowing for them to be permanently coupled. I am also considering, but not absolutely sold, on the idea of converting the trucks to Aristo’s RS3/FA1/U25 trucks in order to get the ball-bearing-supports of the primemovers. Depending on USA reliability, this may go by the wayside. I’m planning on a single sound card with one speaker for each unit. I’m not certain which RC controller I want to go with yet, but I am thinking of possibly making the “B” unit non powered to save battery, but I haven’t thought that far ahead honestly.

Any thoughts to offer?

-J.D.

#2

J.D. Gallaway said:

One other thing to look at is to see if I can convert the USA truck sideframes to represent conversion to modern roller-bearings.

Any thoughts to offer?

-J.D.

I’m doing something similar to the bearings on my GP30 project. I’m backdating the bearing style to the early EMD square and round journal style. (http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8327/8115017045_1c83b7ce53_c.jpg)

The truck disassembles quite nicely so it should be an easy project for you to update the bearing style.

Is this the style your looking for?

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8349/8282798336_0445c652ea_c.jpg)

Craig

#3

Craig, it is, but updated versions:

(http://imageshack.us/a/img89/9990/oyyo.jpg)

This is something minor, but that would be cool. Not gonna get exceptionally carried away at this point.

The engines I’m planning on modelling:

(http://imageshack.us/a/img824/4508/frhu.jpg)

(http://imageshack.us/a/img856/1893/zsla.jpg)

Here you can see the GE-style ditchlights, the completely welded up and ground-smooth front end, the modern twin sealed-beam headlights, the HEP, jumpstart, and MU sockets as well as the ECP brake cable. *-Nope, I cropped out the jumpstart socket. The neat thing about this, it is a direct connection to teh 74volt power bus of the locomotive. During teh rebuild to prep her for operation on Norfolk Southern, the 765 crew added power conduits to the tenders, which allows them to tap into the trailing diesel’s 74v power bus and use that juice up on the steam engine. Probably helps power the throttle/reverser & cab signal systems, but I’m just guessing there.

(http://imageshack.us/a/img713/8223/s284.jpg)

Here is another “overall” shot, this time of the front end. I had to do a couple of “side-stepped” shots to get the details of the front end. After signing a waiver and donning a “Mechanical” hard hat, I was allowed to go into the yard at JBS to get some shots of these engines, specifically for this project. As I was acting as an NS employee on NS property, this meant I had to be especially careful of my pictures because in addition to getting teh shots I wanted, I need to be observant of all NS safety regulations. This of course meant no standing in front of the engine in the track gauge. ------- Here is a very good view of the ditchlight castings. You can also see the orange “LSL” light on the side. Just above the brake cylinder is a dark reddish patch, thats teh cover for the jumpstart socket. Also makes most of the pilot details perfectly clear and shows off the excellent work of the JBS personnel who welded up and ground smooth the front nose door.

(http://imageshack.us/a/img802/7206/m9p5.jpg)

This shows the Geep-style external cooling fan which I presume is used to cool the separate diesel that provides HEP. Also the the mufflers for the same engine? Both “A” units have this feature while both “B” units lack it. I’m going on pure supposition here, but I have some contacts at JBS as well as friends that are pretty versed in the technology in them.

As has been leaked, they have something like 3000hp in the A’s and they are pretty much GP-38-2’s under an F-9A carbody.

The BIG question right now: should I model the units as they are now, or should i go full-bore and model them as I THINK they should be rebuilt? a 4,500hp diesel in the B unit (use an SD70 sound card) which provides AC traction power for the entire set, as well as the new paint scheme I’ve envisioned? Questions Questions.

#4

CAlling Dr. Rooster…Dr. Rooster…report to JD’s noggin immediately…

#5

Well, this certainly sucks… freaking coding error. An error trapping (probably to prevent SQL injection attacks or some other security measure) cropped my entire message after I used a “greater than” symbol to illustrate my problem.

Here is a thumbnail of the new NS scheme I am envisioning:

(http://imageshack.us/a/img37/4550/3w7.png)

The diesels are my custom GP-45-TGX models with FIRE-III cabs and EPA Tier-IV emissions. This is the model I am building for use as helpers on my railroad.

Unfortunately, I can’t get thumbnail to link to a full size version of the image. So instead I’ll just have to put it here, you will need to right-click on it and select “view full image” or something to that effect, sorry.

(http://imageshack.us/a/img199/8757/o0b.png)

Okay, to try and re-write what I’d already written but got so rudely deleted by an error trap code:

Here you can see how I used the Conrail 80MAC “chin-strap” on the nose, and merged the NS cat(fish) whiskers as they wrap around the nose. I enlarged the Horse on the nose for added prominence, but also to symbolize the railroad’s growth since the Conrail merger/buyout.

The yellow strips would be reflective yellow tape on the freight units and either gold-plated trim (maybe polished brass) or gold paint on the OCS engines.

The dark blue, supposed to be something akin to the royal blue used the union on the American flag, was also supposed to represent the merger via a mixing of black (NS) and blue (CR). However, after CSX went to the ‘Dark Future’ scheme, I was told there was NO WAY NS would ever consider a base-blue scheme.

I am now going to do up another version, using a green about the same darkness. Instead of representing the merger, it will represent the ‘green-ness’ of the rail industry, its environmentally friendly operations. One other thing I’m thinking of adding for the OCS engine is the white stripe along the bottom of the carbody. This would be omitted on the freight units, or maybe done in a graphite/carbon fiber color.

If/when I get the new version done, I’ll upload it here.

#6

JD

I think them units are sweet and would love to see them modeled as they stand now!

As for the ditch lights you can certainly make your own quite easily

#7

JD,
Did you see these engines before they where rebuilt into what they are now? Somewhere I have pictures of all 4 units sitting at Union Station in St. Louis. They where used on a dinner train. They where an ugly green and both A units had the uglyest front skirt you ever saw. All the cars from the dinner train ened up on the KCS buisness train I believe. I will see if I can find those pictures. Thanks, Rex

#8

Rex, I have no first hand knowledge, but the railfan rumors I heard were that KCS wanted a few of the cars and offered to buy some of them from the dinner train operator. They were looking to get out altogether and offered the entire trainset to KCS, who then turned around and sold the engines to NS for a price which gave them the cars for practically free.

I have seen some pictures, including one picture of the four units enroute to JBS for rebuild. I found out then that the welded shut doors were done prior to NS acquisition.

That pilot on the engines before rebuild was an FRA compliant plate steel pilot. I’m not certain why it was done that way unless it had to do with the needs of adding MU, ditchlights, etc to the engines.

The details I need to get yet are overhead shots for the units after rebuild. I need to verify that the new units have straight overhands rather than the angled ones as modeled by USA, as well as a few other details. I know that the rebuild included a twin sealed-beam headlight casting mounted to the top of the carbody on the back of the A units, but I don’t know about the B units.

#9

Rooster, you talking the OCS units, or the units as I drew them?

#10

The OCS units

#11

Of course. Well, I think you are right. If I go too far, people won’t recognize what they are supposed to be… however, I just remembered that I was given both a USA 40-2 and an ART U25b… maybe they could be modded to show off my idea for a new NS paint scheme… hmmm I’ll have to think about that one.