4 Ton Plymouth build, 1:5 scale, 4.75" gauge, Leslie Salt #9

[Eric M.]

Hello folks,

Time for another update. I am pleased to report that the cab interior is complete. I haven't installed it yet but it looks great. Mr. Massee I would be happy to do my best to go over the weathering process. I already have started the weathering on the cab interior so see below for that. But for now I'll quit yappin' and get to the pictures.


The cab interior is fully assembled and painted in the light gray/green color I selected for the interior. Some new details are visible including the drain cocks and gas cap with keeper-chain on the gas tank and the bearing caps on the transmission, I made a wood stand for this assembly so I could work on the wiring and do all the paint work with relative ease.


Here is the gas cap...


...and the drain cocks. The handles on the drain cocks move.


I also added this instrument panel for the provision of a couple gauges, most likely an oil pressure gauge an an ammeter. Stay tuned for those. The sander pull-lever is also shown.


The steel levers were weathered by dipping them in a chemical blackener. I then gave them a light sand with some 400 grit to bring out some highlights. They were then oiled to prevent any additional corrosion caused by the blackening solution.


The rest of the levers. Also notice that I added a linkage to the clutch pedal. You can press down on the clutch and it will spring back.


Here is the weathered cab interior ready for installation. The grimy effect was done by brushing dilute black acrylic paint into all the crevices. Excess paint was removed while wet by wiping with a paper towel. When the paint dries you can also remove it with a Mr. Clean "Magic Eraser" This allows me to dial in the grime to exactly the level I want. I then went back with some silver paint and drybrushed a few highlights on areas that may have wear like the clutch pedal and various corners and edges. When I am satisfied with the weathering I then seal everything with a matte clear coat. This step had not yet been done when the photo was taken.


Here is another shot of the completed cab interior. The scale treadplate is made of aluminum. I bought it on Evil Bay. They sell it for scale radio controlled trucks.


A final wiring check and test with the battery connected and the locomotive up on wood blocks. Everything works as planned. Reverser, throttle, brake and horn all check out.


Another shot of the electronics test. I did add small switches for the headlamps and air compressor which still need to be completed and wired up.

Astute viewers may have noticed above that the locomotive is now lettered. This logo was taken from an actual Leslie Salt locomotive. It was drawn up in illustrator and then vinyl decals were made by G Scale Graphics.

And a couple more shots showing the installed decals:




Well thanks for checking in folks. The next order of business is to get that cab interior installed then its on to the headlamps and air compressor.

Regards,

[Kimball McGinley]

Your loco looks terrific! I cannot recall ever seeing anybody put this level of detail into anything but a steamer. I don't recall anybody weathering a ride-on model either!

Brilliant!

[Eric M.]

Thank you sir. I appreciate the comment.

I'm moving ahead with the details. Earlier in the thread I mentioned the working sander hatches. I made the hatches operable but what about the sanders? Well I briefly entertained the notion of doing working sanders but I decided against it due to the exposed drive gears under the loco. I thought I was just asking to get grit into those gears. So, what to do with the opening hatches...

Actual Plymouth locomotives have two hoppers for the sand, one on each side of the locomotive, located inside the hood, under each hatch. I have no real space or need to model these hoppers because my deep cycle battery needs to occupy the space under the hood, HOWEVER there is an opportunity for a neat little visual trick here.

First up a picture of the how this looks finished:

As you can see you now open the sander hatches and inside you see.......SAND!


This is what's inside. A small box, painted and weathered a bit, with a pile of sand, secured up under the hatches, inside the hood. There is no need for a full depth hopper to convey the illusion.


The box is a solvent welded ABS plastic affair and the "pile" of sand is actually sculpted out of an epoxy material called Magic Sculp. Fine sand was then sifted and glued to the surface.

So now if people open the sander hatches it will look like my sanders are full.

Ok, moving on. I needed to mount the rear facing headlamp (is it still called a headlamp if it's rear facing?)


I fabricated some small brackets and there it is. It is bolted to the fireman's side, rear corner of the cab roof. I tried to cut the flex-conduit with a jewelers saw but no-dice. It turns out it's steel--maybe stainless. The cutoff wheel on the dremel made short work of it though. I will need to make some small rigid conduits inside the cab to secure the wiring but that shouldn't be too tough.

Thanks for checking in.

Regards,

[Rwilliams]

Eric,

Great job on the Plymouth makeover. It has been a pleasure to watch the transformation.

Recently I observed a well detailed diesel switcher cab complete with gauges. The gauge faces had a very realistic look to them and I was able to speak to the builder as to how he created the illusion. He claimed I was one of the few to notice and ask how he pulled off the task of scale gauges that looked so nice. The control stand he built looked like it was straight out of the Alco catalog.

He revealed that finding correct gauge faces was just not possible so he did the next best thing and borrowed from the vast selections he found for the model airplane builders. Seems they have many scales to choose from and many gauges that when enlarged or shrunk a bit with a computer will fit right into the small circular areas of our gauges. When such things are scaled down so small, it will take a magnifier to tell if it is the correct gauge face or not. He just selected what looked best and carefully cut the small disks out of the printed document. A bit of superglue and all was done. Attached photo shows the very credible modeling effort even with the slight issues of auto focus deciding what to use as the critical point of focus.

The terminology for headlights is rather simple. When facing front it is called a headlight. When facing to the rear, it is called a backup headlight. Years ago my father had a 1955 International half ton pickup. It was a rather spartan beast and came without a radio. Not long after it was purchased, he was seen drilling a hole in the rear bumper and wiring up a single lens headlight to the rear. A switch in the cab allowed him to see where he was going in the dark when in reverse. The first time I saw it in operation at night, the concept became clear to me. When I started working at the railroad, I soon understood why he wanted a good light to the rear of his truck. He had become adjusted to seeing just as well to the front or back when running locomotives and wanted the same in his vehicle. The builders of trucks have more recently given us better light to the rear and even a camera to see where we are going in reverse. He was well ahead of the curve.

Any rumors of where you found the flex conduit so small in diameter?

Keep up the excellent work,

Robert

[Eric M.]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for sharing all that. Love the story about your dad's truck. The photo of the Alco is really neat. I love seeing that level of detail. My friend Dennis who has contributed tremendously to this project is working on ammeter and oil pressure gauges for me that are nothing short of astounding. let me just say that the gauges will "work". I will save that for later though.

One of my goals for this loco was to have controls and a cab interior that were more like a live steamer where the driving experience is more akin to that real deal than a simple and sterile control box like we see on most diesels around club tracks. Having nice mechanical levers to operate seems much more appropriate on a critter like this anyways. It's important to remember that mechanical transmission gasoline powered industrial locomotives like what I am modelling share almost nothing in common with modern diesels. It has been an interesting exercise to make a credible looking scale cab interior that is still a functional user interface for driving the engine.

The flex conduit actually came from a small cheap LED flashlight with a sort of "goose neck" head that allows you to flex it to aim the light where you need it. Each flashlight only gives you about a 4" piece of this material but it was enough for this application. The diameter of this flex conduit is about 0.15" Inside the cab I will be using 1/8" o.d. K&S aluminum tubing as rigid conduit. I might fabricate a couple small junction boxes too if necessary. Sorting out this wiring is my next task.

Regards,

[mattmason]

Eric, this is a great build.