Hello folks;
This shows I am a new member but in fact I could not remember my old stats and my email has changed so I just started over. I have posted some Ed Duddy GG1 photos before. I wanted a NYC engine but I did not want to spend a ton of money so I opted for a Rail King 5405 Hudson, a handsome model if ever I saw one; except for the marker lights. I bought some marker lights and green jewels and started by carefully grinding off the old markers with a Dremel grinding wheel. I then used auto body putty, known as bondo in the automotive trade to fill the holes. The thought of drilling at an angle into the curved surface of the boiler was troublesome. This held the job up quite a while so I came up with the idea of a block with a hole to guide the drill. Originally I was going to make a type of saddle but that seemed like a lot of work. You can see I made copper blocks but in the end they were too difficult to clamp onto the body so I ended up just using a punch to mark the work and make starting holes for the marker lights. After sweating it out I could put toothpicks in the holes to see if indeed they were even.
I used fibreglass epoxy to glue the markers into the boiler casting. The markers had to be soldered as they came with bases so you could move them around the way you wanted to mount them. Finally I used silicone that dries clear to hold the jewels in place and that completed the transformation. My little consist with American model Toys passenger cars are fit for display. I hope you enjoyed this post.
Bob
