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LGB Amfleet kitbash to 1:32


rbrown7713
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another bad joke I guess?

I'm trying to scratch build another engine. It's a GE ES44AC. I was trying for a GE AC6000 and then decided to use the drawings I already had first. I bought the mini table saw at Harbor Freight so I might be able to crank them out a little faster.

Previously, I've had to make several pieces of small plastic by hand. That's very labor intensive and time consuming. Sometimes I would even make them using a knife to zero in on the exact widths or angles.

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Joe, why don't you display your steps?  I, like other people that have never scratch built a model from plastic sheets, would like to see how it is done.  Maybe some day I will try that method, but I don't know the first thing about it.  I am getting closer to finishing  the movable diaphragm. Bob.

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Whaaaaat? give up secrets to those other guys???? :D

The work you're doing makes what I've done look simple. The only tip I think is important isn't the only way to do it. I miter my joints in key areas. Sometimes I don't do that. After painting, you can't tell the difference anyways.

I will try and take as many pics as possible to show what I do. It is as basic as tracing the lines and cutting to those lines. Some modern diesel cabs have challenging angled surfaces to model. That just takes practice to capture fully.

Guys that have backgrounds handling materials, are way ahead. I file some angles by hand, learned from my counter top and cabinet making days.

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You might think your work is simple, but if one has never done it, there is a learning curve, so don't minimize what you do.  You might be surprised at the response that you get from people like me that has never attempted the method of constructing models from flat sheets.  I would like to do one some day.  Well, the hook type coupler springs are a success.  The diaphragm works well, better than any of my other Rube Goldberg ideas.  This will allow me to close couple the cars so that they will look more prototypical when running.  Here are some pictures of the results.  The diaphragm works smooth and just the correct movement.  I studied this thing for a couple of hours, thinking of using four springs, three springs and finally came up with this arrangement which allows the rotation of the diaphragm to rotate in just the right place.  These springs, in the present configuration, allows movement, in and out, in and out at the top, in and out at the bottom, and right and left and also move in all of these directions at the same time, so I am happy with the configuration.  Any ideas of where I can get some more of these springs?  I might have to buy complete sets of the hook type couplers.  There is one problem, if the coupler is already put together in the package, I won't be able to use the spring out of it, because when installed,  there is a bend in the spring that is set into it and mine has to be straight.  I tried to straighten the bend out of it and it won't work, so I need, actually just the spring, but if I can't find that, I need the type of hook coupler package that isn't assembled, then the spring is straight.  I will look for some on Ebay.  OK, here are some pictures. Bob.

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OK, I have ordered all that I need from Ebay.  I thought that I would tell everyone this so that I don't get thousands of these springs in the mail, as I think that this is the only other use of the springs that I have heard of, but if there are other uses, please post and mabe I, or someone else could use the idea. Bob.

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Thanks Chuck.  I was thinking, because of the lack of response, no one liked this idea.  This is the third method that I have  tried to articulate a diaphragm.  The first, by making them out of cloth, by far looks and acts like the prototype, but making a solid plastic diaphragm articulate presents itself with other problems, mounting etc. I will be using this method on my stretched MTH passenger cars, a much improved method over my old one, and easier.  I thought of making them out of soft urethane, but there are problems with that too, like getting anything to stick to it.  I admit that when one looks at the inside, it might look a little Rube Goldberg, but when running, no one can see the mechanics of it.  I am convinced by using this setup, the looks of the cars being close coupled will add an added sense of realistic look that I am after.  I am calling it the Bobble Head mount, as it copies the mount of a Bobble Head.  Come on guys, let me hear some feedback, either positive or negative, I don't care, maybe some other ideas will be spurred by your comments.  Thanks agiain Chuck. Bob.

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If you use the Bobble Head mount, I think it would allow you to move the cars closer together and look more prototypical, at least that is the look that I am looking for.  I have a question for you and anyone else, for that matter. I will post it when my camera battery gets charged up.  The battery doesn't last long. Bob.

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This is the coupler that best suits my needs and I believe it to be an MTH.  Can anyone confirm that this is MTH and do you think that they still sell these couplers?  I need 10, and if anyone would like to sell them to me, I would be happy to pay you for them. Any information would be appreciated, Bob.

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Yes sir, they are MTH. I don't have any spares yet. When I convert the fleet to all KDs, I will have a ton of them. I started breaking the electric versions, so I used up the manual ones replacing them quickly. So even my engines will need full KD body mount conversions.

That will take a great deal of time and money. All the Dash 8s don't have means of adding KD's to the body. Even the trucks have to be cut out of the way.

I started on the fleet of cars (USA's) that would not couple with others.

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Thanks dieseldude, I appreciate it and I hope to see some close coupled passenger cars out there including my own. I think the passenger cars look so much better  and more scale when they are in the proper place.  You guys, I am sure can come up with a less Rube Goldberg attach method than I came up with and I am going to work on one myself.  The plywood attach was more of a proof of concept method, quick, so that I could see if it would work. Thanks again, Bob.

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I can't comment on your design as I've never attempted it. I have to believe that it will be a huge improvement. One thing that has always kept me away from G scale passenger trains in the past, is that they looked ridiculous to me. There was nothing realistic about the huge gap between the cars and the high ride off of the trucks. It made them look like child's toys. You would have to imagine people jumping for their life's, going from one car to the next!!!

 When USA trains released their versions, it looked like a huge improvement. They are so large, that they don't fit with my other 1/32 scale stuff. So I was forced to make a choice. I stumbled onto some used MTH cars and bought them from the late Ray S. So when the Accucraft cars were introduced, I had high hopes of scale accuracy. I feel like they just covered the basics.

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I agree with about them looking like toys rather like an accurate representation of a  scale train.  This mount will work with any G scale, one gauge and even O gauge.  An O gauge car would require only one spring, even the one gauge, one might get away with only one spring, I haven't tried it, but if the diaphragm is not too heavy, it would work.  Look at your email I have a message for you. Bob.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Bob I wasn't following this because the era I model stops at 1957 roughly when steam died out on the Pennsy. But I should have after crossing the USA from New York to Flagstaf and back behind these very succesful locos and riding the Amfleet on the last legs (Pennsylvanian) last spring. Great ideas for the diaphragms and those coupler springs. I am following this with great interest now as I have often considered doing the same thing to those USA trains Senator cars (the ribbed Pennsy cars ) to reduce them to 1/32 scale. That would entail cutting aluminum but that would not be impossible and glued together with epoxy would make a very strong bond. I don't know if I will takle this though, I have a lot of more urgent projects to work on. I have made quite a few coaches in aluminum six to date + 5 kits. The first was a French 2 axle express Baggage car photop before painting and lettering, the second was a Nord express third class coach from the all welded De Caso design photo before lettering, the third was my PRR N5 cabin car, the fourth was my PRR,B60 baggage, the fifth was my PRR D78 diner, and the sixth was an SNCF post WW2 modernisation of an old pre WW1 PLM six wheeler for local traffic photo before lettering. These were all made between 2007 and 2015 with a few other projects in between built in Styreen and brass. Aluminum is nice, light and sturdy, works well and I can get it at my local hardware store, the brass I have to go to Paris in a specialty shop to get it. I have also built three bridges in aluminum. Two are shown with French steamers on them.

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Beautiful work, and I never have worked with aluminum, but I am willing to try, but I wouldn't know where to begin.  I found the mags, that you mentioned, but did you go by another name?  I couldn't find du-bousquetaire, is that your name?, or what does that mean? If you do another passenger car, or any for that matter, please show a detailed method log, so we can see how you do it, the rivets etc. Nice work. Bob.

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Hi Bob my name is Simon Duhamel. Du.bousquetaire is because I would like to start writing a book on Gaston Du Bousquet who was a fabulous chief engeneer of the NORD railway in France who developped with Alfred De Glehn one of the most efficient compound system on 4-4-0, 4-6-0, Atlantics and yet another 4-6-0 which is probably just as powerful as a PRR G 5 with half the weight and the grate erea! His atlantics were copied by the Belgians, the Germans, the British with Churchward adopting his four cylinder drive practically as is but using it in simple expansion form as well as hjis leading bogie design (this ran up to the LMS Duchesse class), One was purchase by Cassat and was the "French aristocrat" on the Pennsy. He designed a huge freight articulated of the Meyer design, a double mogule type. Late in his life he designed two avant guard Hudsons which he called Baltics as they were made for the heavy Nord express which were the first in the world in 1911. These were way ahead of their time and actually too powerfull for the contemporary traffic.His research and developments were a huge inspiration for André Chapelon.

 

 Aluminum is great, you can find it easely cutting it out is very easy with either a router on the Dremmel (very dirty however) or a Bockfile saw (if you can find the blades...) it is very well suited for making one offs, and much sturdier than plastics or even wood or plastic which I used for three coaches using special neoprene glues without solven used in the stage scenery to glue styrene to plywood flats. Yet it is light a feature important to us live steamers. The detailed logs of the US cars I built were printed in Steam in the Garden magasine a couple of years ago. So I cannot reprint them here...

 Here are photos of the wood and plastic cars:

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