Unstoppable: Overhauling Weaver SD40-2’s (5/10 Update: All 3 Complete w/ Video)

I do have some square drill bits, for wood.

Thomas, your welcome for the information I provided to your inquiry.

David Minarik posted:

File the horn post round or cut it off and pin it on.

I agree. It's much easier to round off the corners of the horn post than file a tiny hole in the shell. Even if you add 4 flats and end up with an octagon, it'll fit easily in a round hole. 

I don't know why folks find it hard to file a square hole in a plastic shell, but whatever works for you.  I figure since I'm already making the hole in the shell, no reason to modify yet another piece.

I'm not sure either John.

Either way, I need to get a jewelers filing pack anyways to shape the holes at my local Home Depot tomorrow.

Which leads me to my next thing - filling in the holes in the plastic shells where the horns and strobes used to be. What do you guys use to fill in holes or gaps? This would help me a lot in case I make a drilling mistake, as well.

Well, I use JB-Weld as a rule.  I actually tape over the hole with Scotch Tape from the "finish" side and then fill it from the other side. The JB-Weld doesn't stick to the Scotch Tape and I can peel it right off and I'm ready to paint.  Sometimes there's a tiny crack that you have to fill, depending on how carefully you fill the hole.

I almost went back to get the BN Weaver sd40 on Friday!   At the price he was selling them  for it was very hard not to buy.  I have 3 other Weaver sd40's in my fleet.   They all run great!      Enjoy your finds and have fun with them.

Funny that I purchased them before noon, Randy. Small world. And thank you for CCN for that idea.

Anyways, I'll be posting photos tomorrow, but I've made some significant progress. After a satisfying visit to my Home Depot, I found both JB Weld and a small filing pack. So far, I've shaped the holes for the horns behind the dynamic brake units, and have begun filling some of the holes where they and the strobes used to be.

To facilitate Harry Heike's work, I've also spray painted the pilots and truck side frames of both of my Santa Fe schemed SD40-2's a nice dull black myself. No need to paint the Burlington Northern's - it was already black. It was a little tedious, and the paint hasn't even dried for 24 hours, but all three already look closer to the vision I had in mind.

The only frustrating hitch I ran into is after I ordered the new fuel tanks from MTH. Turns out they sent me the wrong ones - the ones that are too short, so I have to send them back and purchase the correct ones. But that's partially my fault, since I should've guessed ordering from their site of parts list was for an SD40-2 with the incorrectly short tank. Though I wish they put that list under one of the SD40-2's in the product locator under support that showed it with the short tank, not the one with the correct taller one >>> http://mthtrains.com/20-2536-1

Well, a little late, but here's some of the progress I've made. With the horns in their new positions and the trucks and pilots painted black, they already look significantly like the locomotives in the movie. They're dull black, and do look slightly different than the Burlington Northern one with the somewhat more shiny black, but not by much, and to me it doesn't matter.

Still waiting to hear back from Harry and MTH, but after those things are sorted out and they get their new fuel tanks and paint jobs, they'll be ready for sound and control upgrades.

Mikado 4501 posted:

Well, a little late, but here's some of the progress I've made. With the horns in their new positions and the trucks and pilots painted black, they already look significantly like the locomotives in the movie.

They're the wrong road name for the movie.

The new fuel tanks have arrived from MTH. The forum members were right - they slip in like a glove, and give a much better look to these engines.

I also ordered an extra brake wheel for future 1206 to match the brake wheels at both ends. Fortunately, I happened to have some pieces of plastic laying around that can serve as the brake stands.

Aside from the pilots and plows that need to be repainted (especially for 1206), the chassis' are pretty much complete. All that's left is the new paint jobs and the ERR electronics to plop in.

The fuel tanks look great! How did you get so lucky?  

edit: It appears that MTH has been working on their parts situation.

Here's the link to all Fuel tanks,  you then have to match them up with loco part number.

http://mthtrains.com/parts-sea...%20tank?page_ak=0.21

I was able to find scale fuel tanks for:  SD45T-2, SD50 and SD45

The last run of scaleking sd45 has scale fuel tanks installed on them

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

The last run of scaleking sd45 has scale fuel tanks installed on them

Thanks. I was looking through the scaleking SD45 models on their site as I have a few Early Premier SD45 with high water tanks.

Couldn't find one with the tool icon / exploded diagram.

I had to Email Midge what the number was for these tanks before I could order them. Turns out the part number is FC-2101473.

I think I ran into a small snag in at least one of the SD40-2's. In wiring the dummy unit, I think I burned out the 4 LED's. I tried wiring them to track power, but no lights came on.

If I need replacements (which I most likely will for all 3 engines), what lights would you recommend? I need the front and rears to work at 18V for Command Control environments.

You can use LED's, but for track power you'll need a current limiting resistor and I recommend a protection diode as well.  I can't see the size of the LED's, but they're probably either 3mm or 5mm.  For use with the TMCC lighting outputs, polarity matters, the positive lead goes to frame ground, the negative lead goes to the lighting output of the ERR board.  You can put the LED's in parallel if they're identical, and then I'd use a 330 ohm 1/2W resistor in series with the lead to the headlight output.  For the dummy, you can wire them directly to track power, that will take a 470 ohm resistor, and wire each pair with opposite polarity.

Of course, the dummy would normally not have any lights if it's in the middle of the consist.

Thanks for the help, John.

I took a better look inside these engines, and they have two sets of 2 (one pair for each end) 5mm LED's.

ERR does offer LED's, fortunately, which should help streamline ordering. I'll have to look for resistors at my nearest electronic store or something though. ERR also offers diodes, but they're at 1 AMP. Are these the ones you were referring to for protection?

The dummy's lights are for when the two engines are running light.

To keep it simple, just use the LEDs from forum sponsor Evans designs. Their LEDs come with the protection circuit so you can tie into the leads from the trucks. For the front and rear lights you want 3mm LEDs they go right in the headlight casting. all my dummy units get the evans designs led upgrade along with MRC ac sounder units.

Thanks for the tip PRR,

This makes things so much easier.

Well, after two years on hiatus, this project finally can almost be considered done.

It took Harry awhile, but the repainting is finally complete. The results are stunning. I would highly recommend forum sponsor Harry Hieke for any custom painting project like this.

All that’s left really is to tidy up the upgraded electronics in the chassis’ and add the LED lighting, then they’re ready for the video camera...

Well, 1206 is complete. The lighting was a bit tedious to get all in, but it looks pretty darn good. I had to sand the bulbs a bit for the ditch lights, but they still work fine.

The ditch light fixtures are parts from Lionel used on their Legacy SD70 ACE's. I think they look quite right, though I might have to cover the bottom sections to keep the light from bleeding underneath as you can see.

Sorry for the awful lighting in the video. I really should get fluorescent lighting.

Mikado 4501 posted:

 

 

Sorry for the awful lighting in the video. I really should get fluorescent lighting.

Fluorescent Lighting is a thing of the past. Led lighting is where it's at now!

Great job in adding all the details to make it look like the real deal!

However- though no fault of your own but I am perplexed as to why this loco has a brake wheel in the front along with the Brake ratchet on the Firemans side of the short hood? IS that nose brake wheel even functional?

Nice work!!! I enjoyed the film and hope to build at least one loco from it myself. (#777)

Thanks much you guys~

PRR, I was curious about that little detail myself. I guess they wanted to distinguish 1206 as much as possible from its fellow SD40-2 actors.

Dave, I wish you luck on that. 777 and 767 have the most intricate decoration of all the film’s locomotives. I figure I could find some rough Proto2 MTH AC4400’s to custom paint as them...

Did someone say they want drills bits to drill a square hole? Nice thread you have good taste in engines! I love my Legacy BN and SF SD40's!

Edit: nevermind you repainted them, Nice work the fuel tanks make all the difference. I like the Weaver SD40-2 the body looks close to Lionel's. There's a few on the bay now.

SuperChiefer84 posted:

Did someone say they want drills bits to drill a square hole? 

Nice work the fuel tanks make all the difference. I like the Weaver SD40-2 the body looks close to Lionel's. There's a few on the bay now.

Yeah, I was younger and inexperienced two years ago...

The Weaver bodies were actually the same as the early MTH ones without the ditch lighs, smoke units and some other mods. The Weaver/MTH SD40-2’s pilots ride lower to the ground and body placements are a bit more accurately spaced to the real locomotives compared to the earlier -2 Lionel Legacy models.

And now to complete it all, both 7375 and 7346 are complete, and on the day my Spring semester in college is complete.

With funds being tight now and mostly used for future semesters and ERR in hiatus, it’ll be awhile until I get 777/767 done. I had been looking at some PS2 ones from years past. Eh, maybe someday...