Modeling NY/YN Freights - DERS-2b (RS-2) 0502 and 0503 - Part VI

  Part I, II, III, IV and V...

I know I said this was going to be a short couple of posts, but as I've been looking closer at photos, I keep noticing some other details I want to try to include. Case in point, when examining this photo of 0502 and 0503 in Plainville c1948 (photo by Cochrane)...

...I noticed something on the walkway that I hadn't seen before. 

I don't know what that little thing is just behind the railing stanchion, but there's one at the other end too:

Looking more closely at this photo of 0509 (photographer unknown), it's there as well:

We can see it more clearly. Examining other photos, they appear to only be on the engineer's side. In part because I want to get better at scratchbuilding, I wanted to see if I could make these. It's another example of something that I have no idea what it is, but all I really need to know is that it is there, and what it looks like.

So I started by drilling into the end of 0.020" styrene rod, and inserting a short piece of 0.010" wire (I think, it was scrap).

After cutting the styrene to a length that looked good, I sliced a thin sliver of 0.030" styrene rod to make the cap:

Then it was a simple matter of drilling a hole in the walkway and installing it:

One tip - really good drill bits. I recently ordered some from Amazon for a slightly different reason. One of the challenges I often struggle with is getting a wire-gauge drill bit chucked up so it is straight. The slightest bit of off-axis alignment means the tip is moving quite a bit out of alignment, often causing it to walk, or break. I thought this design would make it much easier, and it did, since it's a much larger portion to chuck. In fact, it's not much smaller than the maximum my Dremel chuck will accept.

So as I thought, that worked great. What I didn't expect was how sharp they were. The first thing I needed to drill was a hole in the metal frame. It was like drilling styrene it was so easy and fast. They are incredible. I've even used them as their own without the dremel or pin vise, as the 'handle' is large enough as it is. They do break easily with any side-to-side force, but I've broken far fewer since they drill so well. I highly recommend them. They do come in many different sizes, all labeled in mm, so you can consult a chart like this to select the sizes you want. 

BARCO Steam Lines

I also cut out the front of the pilot to allow installing the BARCO steam lines as seen in the picture of 0502 and 0503 above. To do this, I notch with the corner/edge of a file to define the width, then continue to shape it with a file.

I used Custom Finishing parts. They are cast in a soft pewter and aren't quite as crisp as the brass ones were. These are spun cast in rubber molds, and it's also clear that the molds are old because many of the parts are incomplete. You can see the difference between these two castings:

In the first one, several of the parts are malformed, including one of the BARCO steam lines, which are the only parts I'm using from this casting. So I recommend ordering at least one extra set of parts. I usually do this anyway, since there's a good chance I'll lose or break a part anyway. If you can find the brass version, grab them. I'm happy that they are still available at all, and an occasionally bad casting is not something I worry about.

After bending the casting so I could glue it against the inside of the pilot, I used 0.010" scrap styrene to put across the bottom to complete it. I did a quick paint/preliminary weathering as well.

Hand Brake Chain Guides

Stephen Wintner asked how I installed the truck chains. I started by drilling the holes for the two parts of the chain guide. The Custom Finishing set has a third part, with the wheel horizontal, but they aren't used on the NH locomotives.

Incidentally, I also ordered some of the new Cal Scale plastic ones, which are the two parts with a plastic chain between them. Presumably you can add a real chain to the truck, but I didn't care for the appearance, and it would also have required drilling two holes in the precise location for the parts to install properly. Something I'm not good at.

Although I originally used a No. 70 or 72 bit (I think), I used the new 70 mm one for the final hole. I then filed the pins, especially where it meets the part, so it would fit properly against the bottom of the chassis. It also requires reaming out the hole for the larger chain guide so the 40-lpi chain will fit through it. 

I install only the smaller guide (the small wheel) first. I then make a small needle by bending 0.006" wire. Rather than bending it against the edge of the needle holders, I use them to hold the wire and bend it free-form to make it as small a hook as possible.

I thread it through the end link of the chain from the straight end (not the hook) because I find that easier. Then I crimp the end. I have two needle-holders for this. Holding the wire with the needle-holders locked in place prevents the wire from rotating when crimping the hook with the other one.

It's much easier to thread the chain through the guide using the 'needle' that we just created. Make sure the chain guide is facing the right direction. I then thread it through the smaller guide that's attached to the model already, then bend the wire around the back and glue the wire to the bottom of the chassis with ACC.

That keeps it secure at that end, and also prevents the chain from filling with ACC and stiffening. I then drape what looks like a decent amount of droop for the chain, and cut to length.

I then make a new 'needle' for the end of the chain.

I thread that through a hole I drilled in the end of the brake lever, and bend over the top and bottom, then glue the needle in place. This photo shows it bent into place, but before snipping of the excess wire.

This is an evolution of the process I used on the one RS-1 I've done so far. When I did the first RS-2, I hadn't installed the LEDs yet, and the way the chassis is designed it could be set upside down and worked on that way. For the second one, I had already installed the LEDs, so I used the foam cradle. This ended up being an advantage, because one of the things I struggled with the first time is the weight of the chain itself constantly pulling the chain out of the holes when I was trying to thread them. With the foam cradle, I could lie the chain on the foam slightly above the truck I was working on and it made it much easier.

I have a couple minor details left to add to the chassis, and I'll (re) weather the walkway and chassis. The shells are basically done, and I'll put them together.

Parts Used in this post:

The model is a Life-Like Proto 1000 (now Walthers Proto) RS-2

Custom Finishing Models (order direct)

147 ALCO Handbrake Chain Guide
336 BARCO Steam Heat/Trainline Hoses

 Detail Associates (find on eBay)

2210 Safety Chain - Black, 40 links/inch 

Modeling NY/YN Freights - DERS-2b (RS-2) 0502 and 0503 - Part V

 Part I, II, III and IV...

Chris and I had a chance to see what other photos we could dig up. So here's a collection of some detail photos for the project.

One thing I find interesting is that I've located a number of photos of NY-2/YN-3 with J-1 and DEY-5 (S-2) locomotives, but not the DERS-2b (RS-2) engines that handled these two freights from '48 to '52.  

Well, that's not entirely true. We have a photo of Tom Davenport in 0503 on the 'Canal Local' in 1948:

However, I now believe this photo is of the southern Canal local (New Haven to Plainville via Cheshire) since it was handled by 0503 in April 1948, and was identified as "Canal Local" in the NH records, rather than YN-3/NY-4).

We also found 0502 and 0503 in Plainville in an undated Cochrane photo, probably c'48/9:

On a busy day it wouldn't be surprising that two would be needed. If you recall from the Arranged Freight timetables, the tonnage rating for the DERS-2b on NY-2 is 1500 tons from Meriden to New Britain due to the 1% grade on the Berlin Line. Coming back from Westfield it's 1700 tons. Assuming an average of 50 tons per car in this era, that's a 30 to 34 car train with a single engine. But based on the assignments I'll generally run them with a single locomotive (although I'm hoping to extend the 'Cedar Hill' staging track to allow a 30-car train).

This shot does give us a great look at the pilot of 0503 that I wish I had a few weeks ago...

Note how there is an opening for the BARCO steam lines, and how that part of the pilot is slightly lower than the footboards. That's actually a good thing, because I'll cut out that opening to add the steam lines, and I won't have to worry about keeping the bottom portion since I'll add that with strip styrene.

If you look closely, you can also see a second angle cock on the right side, above the air hose. In other pictures there are two air lines. I may add a second line to 0502, and just the angle cocks on 0503 for that variety.

There is also something on the walkways of both engines in front of the engineer:

There is also something in the same place on two other undated photos we found of 0509 and 0513 (photographer unknown). They are copy negatives and were extremely overexposed, but they do provide a lot of detail:

Here's a closer look at 0509:

My guess is that these are rerail frogs, and that's what I'll get for my models unless somebody else can verify that they are something else. Other small details that I haven't seen before (or seen only partially):

There's a pipe running down the back of the pilot. There's actually a globe valve at the top that I could spot in another photo. So I can add those. You can also see that the large (overflow?) pipe in front of the engineer has a right angle bend into the side of the hood. Not something I'm likely to change at this point (it's subtle), but I'll probably add the nbw castings to the right of it. There are a couple of other pipes visible that weren't evident in other photos that I'll add under the chassis.

Even though the angle is mostly from the side, we can clearly see that the pilot arrangement is different between the first (0509) and second (0513) deliveries, since it appears that these were both taken early in their life and at the same time. 

You can see the twin air pipes next to the coupler on both locomotives.

Initially I considered alternatives for the handrail stanchions, since the Proto ones have an angle bracket that is what pushes into the walkway, with the vertical portion just resting on the walkway instead of going into it. As it turns out, that's exactly how it was constructed on the prototype as well - the vertical stanchion is bolted to the angle that is bolted to the walkway. This is one of the main reasons I didn't alter the railing on the pilot, even though it's incorrect. The railings and stanchions are so fine on the Proto model that I couldn't drill holes for bent wire railings. If/when I get the Smokey Valley Model Works ones I might experiment, but it's hard to believe they will look better than the Proto railings.

Another detail - back when Chris was researching and detailing 0510, he was certain that the horn and steam generator intake were on the center line of the short hood, as opposed to the RS-3s which are slightly off-center. We searched and couldn't find any documentation or photos, however. After he completed it, I got this photo from eBay for him that shows just that:

It is particularly evident on the locomotive in the background. You can't see the steam generator intake (was it removed? The BARCO lines are also gone), but the horn is clearly centered. Photographer and date unknown (but it's the McGinnis era or later). I love the cinders and dirt along with the sand from testing the sanders.

Speaking of 0510, I've been considering completing the third one I have since it's numbered 0510 already. Why? Because it served for some period of time on 131/136:

We have several undated Cochrane photos, although this is probably the best one. It's also appearing on a shorter train, and we have 0507 on 131/136 too. The April 1949 Engine Assignments has 0510 covering this run, and it probably started in December of '48 after the last steam run. In fact, it was most likely the delivery of this locomotive that ended steam on the run. Considering the foliage I would say it's spring/summer '49.

By September it had been replaced by DER-1 (DL-109) 0707 leading one to believe it wasn't powerful enough for the 5-car run. Since it's not likely to have actually run during the periods that I modeled, we decided that Chris can just being 0510 over for a run if I decide I'd like to have it on 131/136.

Modeling NY/YN Freights - DERS-2b (RS-2) 0502 and 0503 - Part III

Here are links to Part I and Part II of this series of posts on modeling the NH DERS-2b (RS-2) locomotives.

I covered the pilot grab irons in Part I (although I've started using the jewelers pliers to make the curved bends since it's easier to be consistent), but one of the most challenging parts of identifying what needs to be done is the additions to the pilot that the New Haven made. There are similar modifications to the DERS-1b (RS-1) and DERS-2c (RS-3), but each class has a different configuration.

My original plan was to use the Custom Finishing part #347 RS-2 End Platform Railing Mounted MU hoses. However, closer examination showed that it wasn't an accurate representation.

Here's a picture of 0502 in Pittsfield in c1947/8. You can see that there are two MU receptacles, along with some air hoses mounted on the end railing. Two pipes run down the front of the pilot and work around the buffer. But it looks like there is another pipe of some sort behind the railing, just to the left of center.

It was the builders photo that clarified that for me. This is 0500.

First, you'll notice that the air hoses weren't installed by Alco, at least prior to this builder's photo. But you can see (particularly if you look at the left end railing), that the MU stands are the pipes that go down into the walkway, just left and right of center.

The air hoses are bent to come in front of the end railing just below the MU receptacles, and the piping is then bent to go to the left of the buffer, and then have elbows connecting them to pipes behind the pilot.

Because these were equipped for passenger service, they also had BARCO steam line pipes. You can see it sticking out of the door beneath the coupler.

Mike Robbins has a photo here that clearly shows the set of doors beneath the coupler, and the BARCO steam line. You can also see how the air lines and other pilot details.

He has another photo, that shows the pilot details even better. I also used this photo to identify details below the walkway on this engineer's side of the locomotive. It also shows the brake equalizer (?) in great detail mounted on the box behind the engineer.

The second group of RS-2s, 0510-0516, delivered in November and December 1948 had the piping routed down through the walkway, there is a single MU receptacle, and also looks like they didn't have the doors over the BARCO air hose, as seen in this Sweetland photo of 0516 in 1954:

Looking more closely, the end railings are also attached differently than the original delivery, and the uncoupling lever is longer too. These better match the model, but because the railing are so fine and well rendered on the P1k model, I decided not to replace them (I tried though!). I don't have a builders' photo of the second group handy, to see how they were delivered from Alco. 

Since 0502 and 0503 are from the first delivery, I'll need the dual MU receptacles and to have the piping visible on the pilot. So instead of using the Custom Finishing part, I cobbled together the ends from several parts. 

First, the Kato end railings have the correct MU receptacles (minus the piping that goes into the walkway). I considered using them as is, but the Proto railings are significantly thinner and better looking. So instead I cut the MU receptacles off of the Kato end railings, and glued them to the Proto ones.

This is the Kato end, showing where I made the cuts.

I then filed the back of the part to eliminate the portion of the railing, and to thin the part.

This is the Proto end with the MU receptacles and wires bent and installed.

On the back I used .030" styrene rod, and bent the end to represent the MU pipes. In reality, there are more rectangular box-like structures at the top, but I didn't take the time to figure out a way to make those.

The next step was to bend the wires and cut them to go around where the buffer will be, then cut to length. It was trickier than I expected.

Precision Scale elbows and Hi-Tech Details rubber air hoses completed the end railing details. The rubber air-hoses take ACC very well, attaching pretty much instantly to the brass elbows. 

Next up were uncoupling levers. I originally started with the Kato ones, since they have the correct brackets. However, I found it very difficult to measure and drill holes in the precise locations needed for the one-piece part. 

So I decided the try the new Cal Scale Coupler Lift Bar Mount Brackets. I already had some Detail Associates Uncoupling Levers. I believe the brackets are from the forthcoming RS-3 models. They are tiny, and have two mounting pins. However, I didn't think I could drill that many holes that accurately, so I cut off one of the mounting pins, and installed it so the mounting pin went into a hole underneath the lever. The bracket fits over the bar and with styrene cement, the second pin isn't necessary. Because they are separate parts, you don't have to be as precise with your drilling.

I also added the Cal Scale poling pockets. Since I've seen the air hoses pulled to the side, and also left to hang, I modeled this one with the hoses just hanging.

I will complete the buffer once the walkway is installed on the chassis, since I'll have to build it around the coupler box. There's also a second stiffening piece of strap steel (which looks like where the piping was attached on the back side) above the receptacles. I missed it here, but added them later. 

Next up was the brake equalization lever. Thanks to that photo, I was able to see how to best mount the part (it's not really an exact match but it looks good), and also add some additional piping.

It's .010" wire, except for the short piece beneath the elbow which is .020" wire. I cut a small piece of .030" styrene rod and even a tiny triangle for the bracket next to it. I think the extra piping helps tie it into the model. I also tried to carve out the square-shaped hole on the front of the styrene rod (I couldn't find a part...)

I've also attached the railing so I could paint everything black. I'll brush paint the front and side of the box Hunter Green.

Parts Used in this post:

The model is a Life-Like Proto 1000 (now Walthers Proto) RS-2

Cal Scale (order from Bowser Trains)

190-734 Poling Pockets

190-729 Loco Coupler Lift Bar Mounting Brackets

Custom Finishing Models (order direct)

308 Brake Equalization Valve

Detail Associates (eBay or old stock at hobby stores)

2205 Diesel Uncoupling Levers

I had them on-hand, otherwise I would have used Cal Scale 190-514 Coupler Lift Bar

Hi-Tech Details (order direct and can be found in hobby stores)

HTD-6038 22" A.A.R. Air Hoses

Kato (eBay)

Just the MU receptacles from the RS-2 end railings. The handrail set is out of stock at Kato. Otherwise I would have made the steel strap from styrene and used the Cal Scale 190-618 MU Receptacle Set or Detail Associates 1507 (or several similar ones that come with these parts)

 

Precision Scale (eBay, local hobby store or direct with $25 minimum)

48395 Elbows (0.020")

 

Oops. That's not an RS-2...where did that come from?!?