Kadee on Lionel Diesels Yes!

Wow that looks great Ray. Now if you only had some J units to play with.

That's a vast improvement.

Very nice job Ray. Now all you need to do is fix the pilots and make the vertical handrails full length.

Neat work, Ray.

The coupler looks more prototypical.

Take Care,

Ralph

       
       



Very Nice. I pray for the day they make a these work with the engine . I love remote couplers to much.

Jack (Hotwater)

 

     That's the problem I haven't solved yet. What is the method to attach the pilot to the body without showing anything coming through the walkway? Screwing them together is easy but the heads will be visible. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

Ray Marion

Sorry Ray, but there in lyes the issue with Lionel diesel models. I have only one Lionel diesel, the Legacy Rock Island GP7, and I finally had to have my buddy George Balling (Soonut) make the up-grade. It must have been a real problem, since he said he would never do another Lionel GP7!

 

Maybe George will se this, and comment.

That is exactly the models i have just worked on. i hope he comments. i would live to see how he did it. Do you have anything visible from the outside? Just curious.

 

Thanks

 

Ray Marion

Great job, Ray.  Big improvement.

 

Art

Hey, Ray

 

In one of your photos the number boards show two different numbers.  What's up with that?

 

Doug

Ray, great to see and talk to you this past weekend.

 

The modification looks fine and the weathering looks very nice as well.

 

Just from the pictures, fixing the pilot looks pretty easy. Build up the under floor area to acomodate the front and as much of the top/mounting tonge as possible then epoxy (unless it has to be removable) the pilot to the to the bottom...not sure that makes sense, but from the pictures that is how I would approach it.

 

If it needs to be removable, than my approach will not work. you will still need to build up the underfloor area than use micro screws that do not go alll the way through the floor.

 

Keep us posted.

 

Charlie

 

 

Ray those look much better with Kadees.

 

You can fix the pilots using the same screw hole locations as used to attach the pilot to the truck. It's a bit more complicated but you drill and tap the frame, then screw the pilot to the frame. The hardest part is lining everything up perfectly, and then mark the locations to drill. Like I said, it's not easy or fast, but you can do it.

 

On my GP-30, the screws were just inside the nose and rear of the shell. That was just luck, but it worked out great. The GP-35 I'm working on now, will be the same. Pilot gets screwed to the frame. Makes it a little more involved to take it back apart, but once it's done....you shouldn't have to open it back up. 

 

If the screws don't make it behind the nose of the shell, just cut them so they are flush with the walkway. Once you weather the engine, no one will notice there is screws there except you, and me because I told you

 

This is a non-powered unit, but the powered unit is the same. Just a bit more tricky to work around with all the components mounted on the frame.

 

Obviously this unit will never go back to a 3 rail coupler, but it's mine, so that is never a concern for me. You can see the 2 screws that go through the pilot and up into the frame. I put some CA glue on the threads just to make sure they don't come loose, but I get still get them out if I ever needed to.

I think Laidoffsick has a better solution then epoxy. My only question would be "does the GP 7 have the same amount of deck material to screw into?" If so, then screws are the way to go.

 

Charlie

Oh I forget to mention..... if you do decide to fix the pilots to the frame, you have to make sure the truck side frames will clear the pilots (check both ends), because if they don't, you have to modernize the unit by removing the outer brake shoes. Easy to do, but maybe you want to keep them for an older unit.

 

Charlie the deck space really isn't an issue because you are screwing the pilot to the frame. The frame extends plenty, and the deck just sits on the frame. So the screws either go through the frame and are hidden by the nose, or they go through the deck and you have to cut them off flush. The plastic isn't strong enough to rely on if you ever pull a big heavy train. Just like the epoxy, the weight of the train would pull that pilot right off the engine. I would never epoxy couplers to an engine or freight car, but definitely a caboose. The caboose doesn't have any drawbar weight.

Thank you all for your helpful input. Bob Delbridge made some number board decals for me and that was a test fit. It looked ok to me and I forgot about it. I am going to leave the pilots as is fornow. The method you show Doug makes sense to me. Unfortunately there are some curves smaller than 72 on my home layout and the fixed pilot wont work. It  does look a lot better with the scale coupler even on the smaller curves. Charlie you have to come by when you get some time.

 

Ray Marion