Alco IR GE 60T Boxcab Project

First let me say enlighten you with this Post Retirement Revelation. Nobody respects or even cares what you did for a living except those who were in the same career field as you. So if you want recognition for achievements post retirement, the new Masters Degree to seek is, the Master Model Railroader certificate!

As some of you know, I need to master 2 more of the 7 needed, out of 11 possible NMRA certificates, before I can earn my Master Model Railroader. I must have at least one from each of the four areas below, and I currently have the ones in green:

• A. Railroad Equipment:
  • Master Builder - Motive Power
  • Master Builder - Cars
• B. Railroad Setting:
  • Master Builder - Structures
  • Master Builder - Scenery
  • Master Builder - Prototype Models
• C. Railroad Construction & Operation:
  • Model Railroad Engineer - Civil
  • Model Railroad Engineer - Electrical
  • Chief Dispatcher
• D. Service to the Hobby & NMRA Member:
  • Association Official
  • Association Volunteer
  • Model Railroad Author

The easiest for me to do is the Master Builder Motive Power, and I also need one under the Service to the Hobby & NMRA Member category, of which the easiest there would be the Model Railroad Author. So, on with the thread...


As I said yesterday I have one of Walter's 60 ton Boxcab shells, and a Rokuhan Shorty mechanism. In order to get the AP Points required however, I need to rebuild some things. So I had to decide which prototype I will model and this morning I selected the Alco - GE - Ingersoll Rand built demonstrator prototype, otherwise known as an AGEIR boxcab. Produced by a collaboration of 3 companies, of which American Locomotive Company built the chassis and running gear, General Electric the generator, motors and controls, and Ingersoll Rand built the diesel engine. These Boxcabs were the first production diesel-electric locomotives.

So this is my prototype, the IR demonstrator built in 1925:



This is the shell Walter offers on his Shapeways site, along with the Rokuhan Shorty chassis I will be using as my starting point:





First order of business is to make it difficult enough that I can score enough AP points to get a motive power certificate, so I started by sanding off the car sides from the shell. This will allow me to better match the rivet pattern, door panels, and grab irons used on the car sides:





Because I will need to earn conformance to prototype points, the trucks will need to be spaced closer to the ends of the car. Here you can see how close they are to the center of the model and as they sit, ARE NOT very convincing:




So this will make it difficult for sure. I cut the shorty up into a pile of pieces. WOW! Are you kidding me!



Now I sit here pondering my plight!

 

What ever it takes to make the model conform to prototype measurements, or at least attempt to.

I think they are thinking I need magazine articles or a book, but I think they will let me score some points from electronic media in this day and age.

We are actually building the same loco, but I have to try to follow stuff the NMRA cares about, and one of them is this sheet:

 

A killer project for sure! As we all know, it will be a stunner when done.

 

Spliced the motor chassis back together with polystyrene strips. Very forgiving material to work with:




Sanded the sides down to get a easy fit in the shell:



And the last work for today was to add tabs to mount MTL couplers, since I want this loco to be a functional switcher:

 

One more today, I want the coupler mounts to be stiff tomorrow when I grind notches in the shell to fit the couplers, so I decided to mount the couplers today, and let the cement harden. I had to cut the backside end off the coupler housing to fit it, which was .040" or 1mm shorter than the standard MTL 905 coupler housing:

 

Thanks Chris, if you have a drawing of the truck sideframes, That would save me some time. I don't have time to wait for Shapeways to print a set of tryck sideframes, so I am going to laser cut thin layers and stack up to make them.

 

I think the GN one was electric?

 

The GN unit was an "oil electric", similar to the OP model engine.
Wood, Great Northern Lines West, image credit.

 

This morning Chris sent me a .DXF of the truck sideframes (Thanks so much!), and I used them to laser cut sideframes out of 3 layers of .006" mylar. I had to make a slight compression of length to match the journal boxes over the Rokuhan trucks, but other than that, they were a perfect fit:




Next I sanded down the coupler mounts till I got the correct ride height of the shell. That's all for my Saturday afternoon, time to think about what's for dinner tonight:

 

Thanks so much for your offer of help.

Thanks so much for your offer of parts Bruce. I choose to build my own truck sideframes because of how the NMRA AP game is played. I need to score 87.5 points in judging on a model for it to count towards an AP Certificate.

If I made the truck sideframes, I can get some points for Construction, because I built the mechanism from a pile of basic shapes.

I can also get points from the truck sideframes under the Detail category, because it's an added detail.

I also get points for Conformity because I built the sideframes that the prototype had. I also get some conformity points for stretching out the wheelbase to match the prototype.

If I assembled the truck sideframes and applied to the trucks cleanly, and painted them nice, I can get points for Finish & Lettering.

Finally, when I make the truck sideframes myself, I can get points for Scratchbuilt too.

So in order for this model to be considered Scratchbuilt, I have to build the body, frame, cab, and power truck side frames. I am allowed to use basic shapes, and if I sand the detail off the shell, it becomes a basic shape. I want to make this a Scratchbuilt model, because I am not sure if my Mikado will fully meet the criteria, so I will try to meet this criteria.

The term "scratch built" implies that the modeler has done all of the necessary layout and fabrication that produces the final dimensions, appearance, and operating qualities of the model. "Completely Scratch built" means that 90% or more of the model by parts count was scratch built.

The following parts are specifically excluded from the scratch built requirement.

• Motor
• Gears
• Drivers and wheels
• Couplers
• Light bulbs and electronics
• Trucks
• Paint, decals,etc.
• Bell
• Marker and classification lights
• Brake fittings
• Basic shapes of wood, plastic, metal, etc.
  
  ("Basic shapes are things that builders of the prototype would have used as raw materials. For example an "I" beam would be a basic shape; a commercial door or window casting would not.) (In the case of the shell that Walt made, if I sand the sides smooth, and make the carsides myself, the shell becomes a basic metal shape, and if I leave the roof parts on, then those can be considered commercial detail parts, of which the bell is exempt, but the radiators and smokestacks I have to figure out how to deal with still)