Hi all, well I have done it again! With a bit of motivation from Travis here on Trainboard I have produced another locomotive shell that has not been done yet in N scale as a mass production model. Some of you may ask what is it? Well its one of these.... (The two images above are from http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/) It’s a twin engined transfer locomotive designed to move strings of freight cars form one local yard to another. And here is mine, well the 3D model anyway. I have designed it to fit over an Atlas C-628 chassis; I think the C-630 will also work, Spookshow's N scale guide says they are the same so it must be true :teeth:. It has also be designed so that no physical modifications to the chassis are required, which is nice. The only thing you need to do is to rotate the trucks. The DT6-6-2000 has asymmetric trucks, as does the C-628 but the other way around. This is a simple matter of loosening the two chassis screws so the trucks fall out and putting them back in the other way around. I have also drawn replacement trucks side frames that should, fingers crossed, slip onto the chassis trucks using the same fixing lugs. Randgust has also made cast resin side frames for the DT6-6-2000 so you can use those also. As with my DD35 I have included handrails but they are a bit on the large side due to the printing limitations with round wire, actually Shapeways can print smaller round wire they just don’t because it is too easily damaged in shipping and that cost them. The handrails have been designed with fixing lugs and matching holes in the shell which makes them easy to install, but should you wish to use brass wire or similar the mounting holes simply need to be drilled through and they can be used as guides. And, a first for me, I have included an engineer for the cab. (If you don’t want him you can always cut him out.) He is on a separate cab section so he can be painted before installing. He looks fantastic through the windows! Any way the test print has been ordered and this morning I received confirmation that it has gone to print (First time, I’m definitely getting good at this). I am expecting delivery around the 17[SUP]th[/SUP] of May. There is more about this project on my bog if you are interested and I will share the pictures with you when it turns up. Again as with my DD35 there will be dummy version available and a replacement chassis and trucks for the C-628 so the shell won’t go to waste. -James
Don't need one, don't model any railroads that had one, don't see any reason to even think of buying one, but I WANT one! Look forward to see how it prints out. How about a AS-616 next?
I definitely want one, even I have to paint it in Milwaukee Road colours. No stretch for me, since I already have a double-ended F7 in Milwaukee colours. Someone has tried to do this using old Trix H12-44s melded together on what was an Atlas SD60 chassis, I believe.
Whoa! WHOA! James!! Are you flipping' kidding me? YES!!! Thank you! Talk about an unlikely model to EVER be produced in N scale, and if your assumptions about a ready to run mechanism prove to be correct, wow, what an early Christmas present! I NEED one of these ugly pups for my Cajon layout; they were used to lug heavy coal trains between San Bernardino and Kaiser Steel in Fontana and also as occasional helpers on the Pass between turns. 2601 delivered in July1949; perfect for my circa 1950 layout. They were big and heavy and slow and hard to see out of and ended up in Argentine yard heavy switching and transfer service. Attaching a Jack Whitteyer color photo taken at San Bernardino cc1953? Many thanks again! Regards, Otto K.
Thanks for the feedback guys, I'm looking forward to next week when it arrives. I think an AS-616 shell has already been done by somebody else on Shapeways, but I don't know that much about it or what chassis it will fit etc. -James
Hi James, He actually did the :Baldwin DRS 4-4-1500\AS16. This is the 4 axle version. so- DRS-6-6-1500 A's and B's as well as AS616 A's and B's would be very cool!! Thanks, Wolf
Hi Wolf, Right, got it. I thought he had made a typo. I shall add them to the list but I must do the Alco C-855 first or C855B here in TB will get upset :teeth:. -James
Did I hear correctly that Randy Gustafson has the trucks for this beast? Two who has the tis shell and is it available? Tom
Hi Tom, The shell is from me but it is not available yet. I order the test print this week and it is expected next week. So if it is all ok I will relese it for sale then. As for the trucks, I do 3D printed ones that come with the shell and Randy Gustafson has resin cast side frames for this loco. -James
A long, long time ago I made a scratchbuild master for the sideframes only, adjusted to the axle centers of the Atlas Alco truck. I was in a team that was working on the same idea, but the issue of overall wheelbase not being 'perfect' when swapping the Alco truck around nixed the concept, AND I couldn't figure out how to scratchbuild all those louvers (this was before RP). But I kept the truck tooling for the resin sideframes. I have a list of orders for these I'm chewing through. They are pretty thin (about .020) and are intended to be put on the existing Atlas truck sideframes after they are filed down flat. They also have the brake linkage line cast in them with .010 wire across the bottom, very fine detail. Email me at the address on the randgust.com web page. That is one neat thing you can do with resin that you can't do with RP is to imbed dissimilar materials in the same part during casting.
Good news! The DT6-6-2000 test print is on its way, Shapeways have dispatched 2 days early! Happy Days! - James
