MTH Norfolk Southern SD60e (scale wheels)

Rich,

Incredible work! Thanks for sharing. I hadn't looked at the HTC trucks yet on my SD60E's but appreciate the insight on the effort required to move the sideframes in for a more prototypical look ..  Besides the photo you have on your site any additional photos on the new brackets how you mounted them on the sideframes?

Mike,

  I regret not taking more photos.  However, I did annotate the pictures I have.   The first thing I did was to permanently cut off all the mounting arms.  Note that I did not cut anything on the truck plates.  If the arms on the truck plates were long enough it would have been very easy.  I would have just drilled a hole on the ends and used the existing tapped mounting holes on the truck.  It seems like that was the original plan by MTH, but for some reason they abandoned it.  Also note that the the mounting is different and harder on the gear side because there is no metal overhang available to re-drill and tap holes.  

The annotations describe each mount.

Extra notes:

Top left, the truck plate arm was too short to reach the existing mounting holes so i found some metal to cut and shape to use as a brace.  The metal was from a curtain rod wall mount.  See photo below of whats left after I cut it out.  I used the same screws and hole on the plate to mount the outer screw, and used the existing hole in the truck for the inner screw.  The outer screw needed to be shortened to keep it from rubbing on the gears.  This was the hardest mount.

A coupler years ago, I aborted moving in the trucks on my AC4400 because they have a similar mount.  Now that I've done it, I may move those in as well. 

The down side of this mod is that unlike my other engines where I moved in the trucks, is that this is not reversible.  I can never put hi-rail wheels on this engine.  I'm ok with that because I never do and this engine is a keeper.  In the worst case you can buy a new set of trucks, but that could be expensive.  

Nice work!  Definitely makes a difference.  You've just inspired me to try this on my sd70's.

IMO, MTH 2 rail (fixed pilot) diesels are a cut above the rest.

Hey Rich,  I'm curious about these MTH scale-wheeled diesels.  You may have covered this answer in one of your video's.  But I can't recall , so I thought I'd ask here.  What kind of couplers come with the scale-wheeled diesels?  Regular electro-couplers (like the high-rail wheels models), scale couplers, or just the mount(s) for Kadee-style scale couplers.  I love the fixed-pilot look on these diesels, but all my rolling stock still has the regular Lionel-style knuckle couplers.  Thanks!

David

no couplers. Set up for KDs, comes with screws.

The regular three rail electro-couplers will not fit.

Engineer-Joe posted:

no couplers. Set up for KDs, comes with screws.

The regular three rail electro-couplers will not fit.

Thanks Joe!

Yep, Joe beat me to it.

Yep, Some people, like myself,  just use a transition car, ie; claw on one end and kadee on the other.

I really like MTH's scale wheeled diesels. My entire fleet has been converted to these 2-rail units. It makes a huge difference in appearance in all regards. 

Jeff78rr posted:

I really like MTH's scale wheeled diesels. My entire fleet has been converted to these 2-rail units. It makes a huge difference in appearance in all regards. 

Yes, 100% agree.   Makes a HUGE difference in appearance!

Nice work looks much better.  

Rich Battista posted:

Mike,

  I regret not taking more photos.  However, I did annotate the pictures I have.   The first thing I did was to permanently cut off all the mounting arms.  Note that I did not cut anything on the truck plates.  If the arms on the truck plates were long enough it would have been very easy.  I would have just drilled a hole on the ends and used the existing tapped mounting holes on the truck.  It seems like that was the original plan by MTH, but for some reason they abandoned it.  Also note that the the mounting is different and harder on the gear side because there is no metal overhang available to re-drill and tap holes.  

 

The annotations describe each mount.

Extra notes:

Top left, the truck plate arm was too short to reach the existing mounting holes so i found some metal to cut and shape to use as a brace.  The metal was from a curtain rod wall mount.  See photo below of whats left after I cut it out.  I used the same screws and hole on the plate to mount the outer screw, and used the existing hole in the truck for the inner screw.  The outer screw needed to be shortened to keep it from rubbing on the gears.  This was the hardest mount.

 

A coupler years ago, I aborted moving in the trucks on my AC4400 because they have a similar mount.  Now that I've done it, I may move those in as well. 

The down side of this mod is that unlike my other engines where I moved in the trucks, is that this is not reversible.  I can never put hi-rail wheels on this engine.  I'm ok with that because I never do and this engine is a keeper.  In the worst case you can buy a new set of trucks, but that could be expensive.  

Rich,  Thank you!  Happy New Year!

I've noticed that on several of my conversions where I move the sideframes in, such as the SD70ACe's I'm able to more or less cut slots vs make new screw holes in the end of the existing tabs and use those screw holes on the top of the truck.  Definitely seems like it was something that MTH was thinking about?  Once you make the notch cuts to allow them to slide as well as grind down the side tabs I like the idea of using those screw holes for attaching the sideframes.

I've got a couple more on the bench now so I'll take some photos of the modifications to the sideframe tabs as the truck block tabs.

If this can be done by the user and the trains can still run successfully, then why isn't MTH just making their 3R Scale items this way from the start?

Ron

The truck sideframes are attached further out to allow the use of 3R wheel sets which are wider than the 2R sets. 

Jeff78rr posted:

The truck sideframes are attached further out to allow the use of 3R wheel sets which are wider than the 2R sets. 

Thanks... So it's 1 size fits all.  1 truck design to manufacture, thus saves cost?