I few days ago I was asked to post some images of the new Golden Gate Depot, Santa Fe Super Chief cars.
The purpose was to fix a few small (the cars worked fine) issues that I thought needed to be addressed.
The other images are to show the new, scale coupler mounted on the observation car.
First, here is the image of the parts breakdown. I did forget to include the LED light strip.
In general, the steps to get to this point are as follows:
1, Remove under carriage detail (three screws)
2, Remove trucks (one screw at each end as the other end shares a screw with the under carriage)
unplug/unscrew electric connections. Unscrew light switch.
3, Remove 4 screws on each end (eight total) two hold on the end plates and two hold the floor to the body.
4, Remove end plate from side with ladders that do not bridge the end plate. I guess you could remove from either end, but you will need
to glue the steps back on if you try to remove from the wrong end.
5, Slide the LED light bar out and unplug.
6, Slide the interior out of the body which is held into place by a channel (shown). In my case, the channel was very tight.
Once you get to this point, you can fix the loose walls/windows etc. Also a really good time to add people if you were planning to anyway.
in the picture below, the trucks on a few of my cars had to be addressed. The observation, (not pictured) was shorting out in the same area that is circled in red toward the bottom
edge of the truck frame. I still really do not know what the problem was but I used electrical tape to cover any areas that I thought might be a problem. I will find out if the fix was
good after I assemble the unit.
The other area that did not affect operation but I wanted to take care of, was the little cast detail (circled in red toward the top). On a few of the cars this little detail piece was very loose
and you can not get to the screw to tighten it without removing the side frames. I used the blue Loc Tight to secure the very little screws holding this piece in.
I should also note that while I had the trucks apart I took the time to re-tap the four truck holding screws. This is a 3mm tap and I did this because I felt that too many of the
screws needed a bit too much force to reinstall.
I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the wheels are sitting in a nylon type bearing/housing. The wheels roll noticeably freeer than the GGD heavy weight wheels do.
Below is the channel that seems to be pretty common in the construction of streamline passenger cars. The LED light bar slides on the top channel and the floor slides into the side channels.
Obviously, this is a great time to fix or add window detail.
And last, but not least, the removal of the claw coupler and replaced with a scale coupler on the observation end. In this case, this is a Protocraft operating
coupler. I still need to add the cut lever and another hose. I have pictures of similar Santa Fe cars that show one and/or two hoses. Also, Yes, I painted the
coupler silver. While not a perfect match with the car body, its close enough for me.
It's not that hard, but it does take a bit of time to breakdown these cars. I only wish I had ordered the whole set, but money was short at the time so I will be on the lookout for the other five cars.
Hope this helps.
Charlie
