Lionel AC-9 LEGACY Upgrade Project 03/15/17

Make it run?

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Make it run?

It ran fine out of the box. Its basically new.

Super Chuffer?

Can't wait for the next chapter in this story. ✍️

From the location of where you appear to have made some extra space inside the shell I'd guess you're adding your own whistle smoke. Or another smoke feature.

No, strike that; you could fit another speaker in there!

Maybe up-grade it to 4-chuffs per revolution and correct the whistle?

Number Board Mod:

An update on more that was done. I didn't like the look of the unevenly lit number boards. And I did a face lift on the interior of the cab. The grayish white I used on the walls was matched too the color of the Cab forward #4294

Bruk posted:

Update on more that was done. I didn't like the look of the unevenly lit number boards. And I did a face lift on the interior of the cab. The grayish white I used on the walls was matched too the color of the Cab forward #4294

For what it's worth, the cab interior color of SP steam locomotives, including the 4294 in the California State Railroad Museum, was, and SHOULD BE, jade green. If they have the cab interior of 4294 painted "white", then that would be prototypically incorrect.

Excellent job on those Train Number Indicator Boards!!!!!

The cab interior looks great, love the detailing in there.  Very clever use of the LED's for the number boards, they really jump out at you!  As HW says, green is the right color for the cab interior.

I will be repainting the interior then! I did pick up some model master greens that should be close but wont be perfect at the local hobby shop yesterday. But i guess i get an "A" for effort. 

Headlight Mod:

I made the number boards light seperate from the headlight and visversa. The headlight will be powered off the command board and the number boards will be powered off track.  Orginally lionel had a little PCB with side mount LEDs that was used in the vision CC2. I want to replicate this PCB one of these days so i can do this to my other engines.

Update:

Teardown of rear drive. Also got 60% of my parts today for the project. Also made a harness for the lighting in the body shell. I try and make my installs look factory installed.

Looking good, and looking forward to progress reports.

Updates:  (Biggest Hint) 

Rear drive is reassembled. New pick up leads rerouted for a cleaner install. Reassembled motor/flyweel with new parts, trimmed dogbone for better fittment. Rewired control switches, soldered motor leads and ashpan glow harness. Installed the dead command board on original mounting bracket. I made a new harnesses for most of the plugs and routed all wires. Nice and clean. (Wires are subject to be moved) 

Bruk posted:

Updates:  (Biggest Hint) 

Rear drive reassembly. New pick up leads rerouted for a cleaner install. Assembled motor/flyweel with new parts, trimmed dogbone for better fittment. Rewired control switches, soldered motor leads and ashpan glow harness. Installed the dead command board on orginal mounting bracket. I made a new harnesses for most of the plugs and routed all wires. Nice and clean. (Wires are subject to be moved) 

Enjoying your great work, keep it coming.

Had considered getting one of these until I saw this image with the tire behind every conceivable obstacle to replacing it. Had to change a tire placed there on a different Lionel locomotive for a friend, what an engineering disaster, vowed never again.

BobbyD posted

Had considered getting one of these until I saw this image with the tire behind every conceivable obstacle to replacing it. Had to change a tire placed there on a different Lionel locomotive for a friend, what an engineering disaster, vowed never again.

To be honest its not the easiest job sometimes. But ive done tire replacments enough that this engine isn't to bad. If you use a dental pick, thats probably the best tool to get into tight areas. 

Updates: Tender Tear down 

Started the dismantle of the Tender. Removal of the railsounds board, Speakers, Rear Light, volume control, and RS Switch for prepping for drilling into the frame. 

Update!

Tender Completion. 

Once the tender was completely torn down to the frame. Holes were drilled and taped for the board mounts. Then the wiring began. Creating connections from the ground up. Testing and crossing my fingers that it was wired correctly. In the end it functioned perfectly. Coupler, lighting and sounds fully fuctional to commands.

Update: Smoke Unit

The smoke unit installation is a project of its own. Its what makes or breaks the upgrade to the project or any locomotive. I will always look at the fitment or possible fitment of the smoke unit before I start a conversion of any kind, The unit that you choose or only have the choice of has to fit in the shell and in place of the orginal. So in the first post you can see that I had to grind down the walls in the shell to fit this particular smoke unit. I could have used the original unit and rewired it but I wanted to go the extra mile. There was a lot of modification to the smoke unit funnel that I used. I had to cut a lot of it up then had to seal up any holes and the seam line of the funnel so it doesn't leak. On the PCB I had to open the exhaust hole from .200 to a .253 to get the funnel to fit snuggly in and on the board because it wasn't the original PCB that mates with the funnel. After that I was able to put the unit together. I used MTH motors on the unit. I had to make my own gaskets because I forgot to order one. Fittment was perfect in the shell. The exhuast looks good coming out of the stacks. I'm pleased.  Part 2 of this build is going to be physically small but a lot of thought and work will have to go into it. Ive already started a basic design. Ive tested its function and it looks good. Ive seen the video post on here of the current model. So the first design ended up being similar to the one in the video for function. I want to try and get more detail on it than the one that was shown in the video.  I wont be showing anything till I know for sure i'm on the right path. I want the final draft of the build to be perfected to my expectations. More pictures will follow. Please don't be shy asking questions or giving me thumbs up or down, I really enjoy feed back of any kind.

Update!

Smoking Whistle.

I have seen the design of how Lionel will be producing the new model. It shoots out the top of whistle. Which technically a smoking whistle. Now, I decided to go the extra mile and attempt to make it come out of the acutal whistle like the real prototype. So I started playing with ideas. I used different sizes of brass tubing that I cut and soldered together. I need to play with the smoke flow and output "pressure". What is shown in the pictures and video is what works and looks best. I soldered some small brass wire around the tube to simulate what I call the "flutes". Then I got some solid brass rod the same diameter as the tubing and tapered one end of it like the end of a cone. It was then cut to an approprate length. Now the "flutes" hold this part. It floats over the the exit hole and helps split the smoke flow. Now i'm still playing with different angles and such to get the best looking flow, but this is what I got so far. I personally think it looks good. 

The actual installation in to the body shell was not an easy task at all. I drilled a hole big enough for the tube to slide in. I reused the orginal mouting hole for the orginal whistle detail part. Once I got it fed in, I had to solder another 90° tube to clear the smoke funnel in the shell. I had to start from scratch a couple times because I had over heated the brass part then all the solder melted and fell apart....very frustrating. Eventually after a couple hours of rebuilding the elbow fitting it was 100% soldered in I preformed a "leak" test for any small holes in my plumbing. In that video there is no whistle sounds since I was working on it for many hours into the night and the GF was asleep. I got the engine together. I was so excited to see the the end I forgot to take pictures of how I hooked up the whistle before I installed the smoke unit. I have to go back in there to modify the main stack flow so I will be adding pictures later. 

The rubber tubing I used to feed the smoke to the whistle wasn't cheep fish tank tubing like Lionel uses. It is a silicone fuel line for nitro or gas powered RC models. I picked it up at my local hobby shop Galaxie Hobbies. $1.50 a foot. Its very flexible and wont expand as easily from heat and wont breakdown as easily from the nature of smoke fluid. 

Nice work.  I really enjoy the detailed pictures.  Maybe I missed it but where did you get all the Legacy components?  Was this issue a Legacy engine to start with and you are just "super charging" it.  Love the lighting details too. 

I don't see the videos, did they get lost?

OK, I am not good at repairing things, So, I am very impressed with your good work in Bringing this AC9 to a New and Much Improved Life.  Your technical Skills are Amazing...By all means, keep the updates coming.  Thank You.

BRUK.....That is tubing for glow fuel not gasoline. You need tygon if smoke oil is petrol based. Glow fuel is alcohol based. Will turn that tubing to jelly in time. My other hobby is Rc flying

Richard

I think your videos did not upload correctly, which is a pity as I would really like to see your efforts in operation. Earlier today they were represented in your post by endlessly spinning wheel symbols!

I had the same question as MartyE about the Legacy boards you've installed; the dual chamber smoke unit is a part you can get without any issue or swap for existing parts.

The whistle assembly looks very intricate - Great job all around.

P.S. I have also hunted around for heat/oil/solvent-proof tubing. You mention yours is gas/nitro-proof, which I would assume would work for a whistle smoke application. It depends on the maker's own spec.

Hancock52 posted:

I had the same question as MartyE about the Legacy boards you've installed; the dual chamber smoke unit is a part you can get without any issue or swap for existing parts.

How do you go about doing that?  All of the dual smoke units I see are "call Lionel".

Bruk posted:

Update: Smoke Unit

 Please don't be shy asking questions or giving me thumbs up or down, I really enjoy feed back of any kind.

Since getting into this hobby after a long time, it pleases me to see the great modifications and tweeking being done. My enthusiasm is too much to contain my wallet........lol

Looking forward to the final product

MartyE posted:

Nice work.  I really enjoy the detailed pictures.  Maybe I missed it but where did you get all the Legacy components?  Was this issue a Legacy engine to start with and you are just "super charging" it.  Love the lighting details too. 

Orginally it had TMCC with Railsounds 4

Rppoind posted:

BRUK.....That is tubing for glow fuel not gasoline. You need tygon if smoke oil is petrol based. Glow fuel is alcohol based. Will turn that tubing to jelly in time. My other hobby is Rc flying

Richard

Good to know, I have to look around then. Ive been soaking some tubing scrap in smoke fluid and haven't seen much change in its composition yet. 

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Hancock52 posted:

I had the same question as MartyE about the Legacy boards you've installed; the dual chamber smoke unit is a part you can get without any issue or swap for existing parts.

How do you go about doing that?  All of the dual smoke units I see are "call Lionel".

You can order almost all the parts used on the unit off the website. But you have to call in for the PCB board. Its "easier" to order that than a complete whole unit. I don't want to get into to much detail on how I got the parts. On the fourm. The world will know then it might be next to impossible to get anything. 

BTW: 

Videos should be on there now . 

Bruk posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Hancock52 posted:

I had the same question as MartyE about the Legacy boards you've installed; the dual chamber smoke unit is a part you can get without any issue or swap for existing parts.

How do you go about doing that?  All of the dual smoke units I see are "call Lionel".

You can order almost all the parts used on the unit off the website. But you have to call in for the PCB board. Its "easier" to order that than a complete whole unit. I don't want to get into to much detail on how I got the parts. I don't want to ruin it for myself. 

You could just tell the people that asked via email, (including myself) if you are so worried about spoiling your source.

Nicks Trains posted:

Bruk posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Hancock52 posted:

I had the same question as MartyE about the Legacy boards you've installed; the dual chamber smoke unit is a part you can get without any issue or swap for existing parts.

How do you go about doing that?  All of the dual smoke units I see are "call Lionel".

You can order almost all the parts used on the unit off the website. But you have to call in for the PCB board. Its "easier" to order that than a complete whole unit. I don't want to get into to much detail on how I got the parts. 

You could just tell the people that asked via email, (including myself) if you are so worried about spoiling your source.

I haven't seen any emails from individuals about this. If you want to know how I got the parts. You can email me.

That whistle steam is fantastic! Well done.

Mike

ezmike posted:

That whistle steam is fantastic! Well done.

Mike

Yeh man, Bruk's got talent

I really like your smoking whistle, which really makes this engine come alive. Also your number boards are very nice....This might be something many of us older train enthusiast might want to add to our older equipment.  Wow, just think, instead of buying new, just upgrade our older Steamers...Thank You. 

leapinlarry posted:

Wow, just think, instead of buying new, just upgrade our older Steamers...Thank You. 

Thanks, If only Lionel played the Upgrade game like MTH 

Nice job! Adding a compliant gasket along the edge of the tender frame to the tender shell for an air-tight seal will give you more low-frequency "oomph" out of the sound system. 

Where do you get those real small LEDs? They look great

That looks like a standard 3528 SMT LED to me.