Detailing a Dash 9
Gary Winstead, aka Baron of Buck Snort, Tennessee, purchased a Dash 9 locomotive from Michigan. He brought it to the Wright Locomotive rebuilding shops here in Illinois for a major face lift.
The body is one piece welded construction, made mainly of 16 and 18 gauge steel. The frame is a combination of 3/16" and ¼"plat material. The power unit is a hydraulic pump, powered by a 14 hp Briggs V- twin engine. The variable displacement pump drives two hydraulic motors. The hydraulic motors distribute power to the wheels via a chain drive.
I found the basic locomotive to be welded together square and level.
The proportions of the body are good, detail and a good control system were found lacking. However, you get what you pay for and the intent was a basic locomotive.
The re-building project is so varied that I had to break it up into 9 sub projects. Project #1 was the installation of the hand rails; #2 was the front shear plate and coupler area; #3 Up grading the frame to give it a prototype appearance; #4 the nose job consisted of the nose door, headlight, windows, wipers, number boards and window frames; #5 the side detail and vent work; #6 the exhaust system; #7 the electrical system; #8 the control system and #9 the paint job.
At this juncture I have added the hand rails and then removed them for painting. More on the hand rails later. The front details were a challenge because massive snow plow had been welded to the front shear plate. Evidently the builder thought the locomotive was going to be used for a battering ram. It would have taken a good day of sawzall work and a lot of grinding to remove that thing.
The snow plow also had a plate welded to the bottom of it and that plate extended back to the locomotive front plate. That was a bad idea as anything dropped down behind the plow was almost impossible to get out.
Eventually I did cut holes in the bottom plate to make it easier to retrieve dropped nuts and bolts. I also had to drill holes in the plow to tap holes for the front hand rails. I bent the top of the plow down with some steel plates and a big wrench. I then took blue painters tape and masked off what I though was a good profile for the plow. I used the sawzall to trim the top back at an angle and cut the coupler pocket larger. The knock outs for the air hoses were removed. Special tooling was made to tap and drill holes behind the plow.
I guess that I’m raving on about the plow to address the issue, that if you plan on detailing your locomotive in the future, don’t weld on things that may have to be removed. Enough about that.
Added to the front were ditch lights, ditch light porches, a band around the shear plate, M.U.housings, pin lifters, handrail stanchions, air hoses, angle cock and a new coupler from Railroad Warehouse.
Work was started on the nose. A new nose hole for the headlight was in order. The original hole was too small and ¼" too high. The hole for the nose door window was also cut about ½" too far to the outside.
A frame made from 5/16" square steel was welded together and welded to the back side of the nose. The headlight hole was cut to fit the frame using a hacksaw blade and a file.--- Lots of elbow grease is required. The new front door was made from 1/8 aluminum plate and window cut on the mill.
The seam was filled between the front windows and the hood and holes drilled for the grab irons. Number boards above the windows were machined from solid blanks of aluminum. They were drilled and tapped for 3-48 screws and bolted to the cab.
Work progresses on day by day and I will have more up dates as time go on.
