Lionel GP30 Fixed Pilot Conversion FINISHED W/ NEW PIX

Looks like a fun project...

From the looks of the last pictures, it might have been a lot easier to just drill out those 4 rivets (or maybe they're screws ) on the frame that hold the truck swivel mount and then move at entire assembly towards the cab a little.  This would have fixed everything without having to fix the pilot.  Either way those dummy couplers had to go.

Of course a fixed pilot is always cool too.  You may want to have them space the pilot off the frame a little so you don't have such a short top step.

Looking good. I thought about buying one of these for my ATSF fleet and doing just this. It would be the first Lionel engine I'd purchaced in about nine years.

As I recall, by the time the Santa Fe renumbered the GP30s into the 2700 series, they had  been rebuilt, and the outer brake shoes on the trucks removed (that certainly was done on the GP35s). I wonder if removing the brake shoes would eliminate the need to grind material from the step wells when fixing the pilots?

Are the Lionel trucks scale length or are they too shortened like some of the older MTH GPs?

RM

Well Rich, I couldn't stand to look at them any longer. The outter shoes had to go. It fixed the clearance issue for sure but also looks better in my opinion.

Fitting the spacer between the pilot and the body. It will be glued to the pilot and then sanded/filed to match the pilot profile.

Before removing the outter brake shoe housing

After: Looks better and resolves the rear clearance issue with the steps

Lowers the steps closer to where they should be

So is moving the truck mount forward a little on the frame a possibility for those that don't want to fix the pilot?  Is it held on with screws or rivets?

Well the truck is held on by that plate you see on the bottom which is held to the frame with 4 screws. There is 2 problems with that. The plate fits in between the frame rails which are held on by rivets. The truck plate fits between the rails in a very precise way so that moving it back would require some grinding or filing to fit between the rivets that hold the frame rails on. If you look at the 3rd and 4th pix down from the top you will see what I'm talking about. The frames rails are also notched so that the truck plate has a "stop" which would have to be modified as well.

Not as much work there as the pilot is, but I just don't like the floating pilot to begin with, or all the incorrect details of it. HOWEVER, if you move the truck far enough forward to clear the rear steps, it won't clear the fuel tank. In order to move the pilot back to get it lined up with the rear steps, and be able to turn in either direction, the outter brake shoe rigging will have to be removed. The rear truck just don't have the same amount of space as the front truck.

Removing those outter brake shoes is very easy. Cutoff wheel and a Dremel. I modified all 4 sideframes in less than 5 minutes.

Thanks for all the info.  So what exactly do you think Lionel screwed up on this batch?  I would have sworn they just put the rear truck mount in the wrong place.  Is it perhaps a combination of truck & pilot placement?  It would be nice to see a comparison of parts between the previous Legacy GP30's.

That's all looking very nice. I like the improvement with the brake shoes removed. You have me thinking I should pick up one of these and have at it.

SB, the objective of fixing the pilot is more to achieve a more realistic look than to correct for Lionel's blunder. I saw the discussion about the mis-aligned rear pilot on this run, and everyone wondering how Lionel could get it right on prior runs of this engine and make an error this time. I don't know, it seems inexplicable. But I have wondered whether the front and rear pilots have different swivel or mounting points on the frame that necessitate two separate pilot parts -- one for the front of the locomotive, one (with a shorter mounting tab) for the rear. If so, that's the sort of thing I could see being overlooked when the tooling was pulled out and set up to run the model this time. Alternatively, using a second part could have been skipped due to cost considerations. Again, I don't know; its just speculation. But when something like this happens, the most logical explanation may be that somebody failed to specify the correct part.

RM

Spacer is now cut to fit the step area and attached with Goo. New plates were cut from styrene and 'welded" to the pilot replacing the out dated footboards. Coupler pads were cut and adjusted for proper height. I need to find some MU hoses to replace the funky looking Lionel ones, an

air hose with angle cock, put the cut lever back on, and paint the pilot. It looks better now than out of the box and it's not even painted.

Looks real nice!    Is the shell separate from the walkway?

I believe it is Patrick. I had the frame out but didn't tear it down that far, but I can see the gap all the way around where the body sits down on the walkway. It looks like there are tabs that snap the body on to the walkway. The cab is held onto the body with tabs as well.

Good, thanks for the info.   A possible project for me.

Patrick

You can not move the trucks, unless you cut a whole new steel plate for the frame.

Andrew

Very nicely done.

Now I'm just getting carried away. Everytime I look at this thing, I find something else I "have to" do to it.

Spacers and coupler pockets completed. Precision Scale order should be here tomorrow so I can add the MU Brackets and hoses. 

Since I'm modeling this as a "trailing" unit, the cab figures were removed, mirrors folded in, and sun shades folded down. I also painted on the anti-glare panel on top of the nose. I should remove the red class lights, but enough is enough with this thing.

Roof top AC painted, scratch built antenna mount and cab vents painted and ready to be glued on.

This will make it much easier to touch up/correct  the paint details and add some weathering to it.

For some reason Lionel omitted the fuel gauge on the conductor side. There is one on the engineer side, and the catalog shows it on both sides, but mine was missing one so I drilled a hole in the fuel tank and added a Detail Associates part.

I have a frame mounted bell from Precision scale ordered that will also get glued on. Can't believe Lionel left off something so noticeable.....well yes I can!

Excellent job Laidoff. Do you have any photos of the finished product?

Spectacular!

When can I send you my collection for conversion?  I have always worried about matching the factory colors, but you hit it spot on!

Great Job!

Thanks,

Mario

Very Nice job!! Where did you find the coupler pockets? Those look awesome!

Great job. Painting the Kadee trip pin was a nice touch as well. I've always liked the look of GP30's and like Geeps in general.

Mario thanks, matching the paint is tough, but I always lightly weather my engines, and that always helps blend in any discrepancies in paint colors. Adding the paint to the nose was a pain in the butt.

Jeff, I made those pockets from styrene. Just cut and glued 4 different pieces on and then filed the top down to get the angle. I thought the coupler pocket looking right was important on this unit because they are so defined on the real unit.

Thanks Matt, I normally cut the trip pin off on engines, but because this will be used on my switching layout which is hands free, I need them for the "between the rails" Kadee magnets for setting out cars.

Hi Doug,

Very nicely done

Alex

Great job Doug. Thank for posting the pics. I've been watching your videos. You have a really nice layout.

Thanks Phil, I did this GP project almost 2 years ago, but not I'm going to have to do it again on a GP35 so the 30 has a running mate.

Well this was an old thread but it got pulled up through a question about fixed pilots on Lionel diesels. I never finished it before, but this thread inspired me to pull it back off the shelf and finish it. It will be used on my "hands free" switching layout, that's why I did the conversion, and that's why I weathered it. The big difference is you notice the green masking tape is gone from the windows lol and I had to re-bend a handrail that Lionel got wrong from the factory. Of course it's all dirty now too! 

PSC MU hoses, notice the MR hose is bigger than the other two...as it should be.

PSC AC unit and scratch built antenna stand.

I painted the anti-glare panel on the nose, and also painted the walkways on the front of the cab. Lionel left them yellow.

This is a dummy unit, and modeled as a trailing unit so the cab figures were removed, and the sun shades put in the down position.

Doug

    Very nice work. You are raising the bar for us.

Thanks

Ray Marion

It looks like brass. I'm kind of kicking myself for not picking up one of these when they came out.

You may just motivate me to get around to finishing a similar conversion I've been working on off and on for a few months on an Atlas GP35.

RM

Thanks Ray & Rich. I missed the boat on the Atlas 35's, so now I'm gonna pick up the new Lionel version and use that as the 30's running mate. Then I'll have a back to back pair to run on my switching layout.

That looks great!!  Nice job!