As I've transitioned over to more scale 3 rail items my awareness of little details has certainly heightened quite a bit albeit somewhat slowly! Years ago I noticed how ungainly most of the Williams diesels appeared with the grossly undersized fuel tanks. I repainted a pair of Warbonnet Alco PAs into the handsome 'Aspen Leaf' scheme of the D&RG. Along with the new paint I added balsa wood sheeting to the stock tanks and greatly enhanced the appearance of these diesels. Later I obtained my first Atlas F3 unit in a dummy GM&O single A unit. The added detail was impressive to me at the time and for quite awhile I didn't even notice the large height above the rails of the fuel tank.
Then along comes Mario with his new 3D printer and his desire to produce certain parts for us to enhance our models. He sent me a pair of his tank spacers awhile back and asked me to write an account of my experience to which I agreed.
Have been really busy with 'life' lately but was able to put these in this evening and wanted to post a few photos for you guys. It was a fairly simple job to pull the tanks and add the spacers. My power unit gave me a little difficulty in that the tank wouldn't come free initially. I ended up removing the cab (a timely chore with so many tiny screws and wires on the Atlas F unit) which was unnecessary. Some smoke fluid had gotten on the gasket surround for the speaker which I was able to free. Installing the spacer was simple and everything went back together fine.
A phillips screwdriver and a can of (black) paint are all that is needed to greatly enhance your diesels using Mario's well-designed spacers. Check him out for parts for many different engines.
Here are Mario's excellent spacers
1st step is to place your diesel on its back using a cushioned cradle
Pull your tank and place the spacer on the chassis then replace the tank
This shows the difference in appearance with the tank lowered in the inverted photo
Before
After
Ain't she a beaut?
Thanks Mario for an excellent and needed product
