Has anyone done their own notch job on the nose of an n-scale GP/SD to install a gyralite? I've experimented with two LL GP38 shells with not so great results so I'm looking for advice/tips from someone who's successfully done it. Anyone have some pics of theirs? Thx in advance! -Mike
I did one in my U25C, actually it's a red flashing class light in the nose, but it works the same. I dont have good pictures, but the gist of it was to wire an led to the nose of the mechanism, and use a fiber optic strand throught the shell. It's real hard to see it, but I have a red led taped down in a small notch I filed on the front of the mechanism. (taped with red tape so you cannot see it well) In this picture of the shell on the left is the marker light hole on the nose. I just stuck a fiber optic strand in it, that I heated one end with a match to melt the strand and it mushroomed into a lens from the heat. The other end was just cut to touch the led when the shell was put on. I hope this helps a little.
Mike, I have done similar in the past putting a bell in the nose of a C&NW GP50 (sorry, no pic) and used a cut down X-acto chisel blade, the type that goes in the smaller handle (no.11?), and a Olfa designers knife with the very small blades. I marked out the area to be removed and drilled out inside the lines then carved out the notch very carefully until I had the desired aperture. In your case of the Gyralite, I would expect a small styrene block will need to be glued behind the notch to support the detail part and trimmed to clear the part and the chassis. The chassis may need to have a touch taken off too. Hope this helps.
Thanks guys - here's what I did / plan on doing. I took about an hour with my xacto blade to carefully shave, test fit, shave more, test fit more, etc until the light set as desired. This is what I ended up with: Part two of my plan combines my laziness w/my "do it yourself" mentality - I've made a cast of just the nose and plan on making resin noses to retrofit my 13 other diesels that need the gyra! Now, I haven't cast my first nose yet so I don't know how the mold turned out - if it's not up to specs, I'll just take the time I did with this one and apply it to the rest manually... ooof. One other advantage to the resin cast idea is that I think it'll be easier to drill through/light it up as in Pray59's model. Thanks again for your input - much appreciated! -Mike
Yep, that looks the biz, Mike. Excellent job and I like the idea of casting the nose for further replacements. Might be a small opening for you there in the detailing business?
