Fixed pilots on SD40-2

I've been doing my entire fleet including the SD40-2's. the gap between the top of the pilot is 4mm so you'll need some Plastruct styrene strips that are 4mm X.060 thickness. Cut these to length of the pilot width. I secure all my pilots to the frame by drilling holes thru the pilot and smaller ones in the frame. Mark your locations to get it lined up. Tap The holes for Kadee couplers. 

I also do all handrails to full length. You'll need some .025 brass wire for these.

I was going to mount to body? I guess I could mount to metal frame.

Well the way I described it is the way I've  done them which works perfectly. It also makes it very secure. I guess it amounts to how you want to do them. Lets see soe pics of these when done.

I did two of these and have some waiting in the wings in case I ever get the motivation. What I found tricky was the void in the area where the ditch lights are located and the relatively short metal frame. I think I made a short frame extension out of plastic to give the pilot-mounting screws a place to go. Sounds like Jeff worked it out to just mount directly in the metal though. I don't see why you couldn't make the mount to the body shell by gluing in plastic strips and drilling and tapping the mounting screws in those.

I've once hoped MTH would upgrade these to fixed pilots, but have pretty much given up. While you are at it, cut off those unprototypical footboards and mount the plow closer to the front pilot. I did that and also plated over the ditch light area and added an anti-climber on my Santa Fe.

Good luck.

I can understand mounting to the frame, but doesn't that complicate things when you take the body off and the extended hand rails. I just thought of body mount because thats the way fixed pilots come from MTH 2 rail. This is my first time building fixed pilots.