7mm Richards P48 US Thread

[richard carr]

Robin has printed the next version of the GP60 coupler box.

It is now in 3 pieces like this



The left hand piece fits in the hole in the pilot, the middle piece can be screwed to the loco frames using the oval hole. A 2mm piece of rod is placed in the centre hole to keep the kadee coupling in place. This is then locked in place by the righthand piece.




Here it is fixed in place, it is though still a little bit too low so a further version will be needed. I'm working on the drawing, it is relatively simple to lower the pilot hole filler by 1mm and lift the coupling by doing so.
A view from the other side.

 

[Jordan]

A 2mm piece of rod is placed in the centre hole to keep the kadee coupling in place. This is then locked in place by the righthand piece.

So the Kadee itself isn't sprung, or am I misreading things? Great idea though.

 

[richard carr]

Hi Jordan

The Kadee is sprung with a normal Kadee spring in the one in the loco, but this photo is using a protocraft spring which is a lot harder to compress and probably better.

 

[Jordan]

this photo is using a protocraft spring which is a lot harder to compress and probably better.

Agree with you there. I salvage the Atlas springs & use those when I can, they're stiffer than Kadee springs too. It particularly helps with long shank couplers and with propelling moves on tight curves. although speaking of tight curves, there doesn't look to be much sideplay in that box, so it probably wouldn't work on my layout. I guess silly-radius curves are not a Thing in P48.

I note too that you have the spring forward of the 2mm 'pivot', rather than the usual position behind it.? So the coupler can't stretch further out of the box? (such as on curves), but could be pushed into the box, although maybe not much due to the strong spring.

 

[richard carr]

The box is narrower than a standard Kadee, it's pretty clear in the photo below about 2.7mm narrower than the kadee opening, so yes it won't have the swing.



And to your other point yes it is a push in rather than pull out, but the coupler is further out in its normal position than a kadee would be.

 

[richard carr]

I should add the minimum radius I'm planning on is 5 feet, hopefully that will work.

Richard

 

[JasonD]

I've wittered on about Kadee/Atlas/etc couplers and springs before, so for now let me just add to it all by saying put a shorter bit of thin-enough plastic rod in the p/b spring to reduce compression movement (nearly said 'slop'!!), but still maximum swing.
Jason

 

[richard carr]

I've been collecting GP60s over the past year and a couple more have arrived recently, so here is the full line up

Left to right there is

Cotton Belt patched UP
Cotton Belt
Cotton Belt
Cotton Belt
SP with speed lettering
Rio Grande
Norfolk Southern (modern)
Vermont Railway




A few more close ups






2 of them are factory sound and DCC (The UP patch and NS) 3 are unpowered Cotton Belt, SP and RG
The others are 2 rail DC, except 9704 which I have converted to DCC, so there is still an awful lot of work to do here.

Richard

 

[Scale7JB]

The Rio Grande one is mine, Richard just doesn’t know it yet..

JB.

 

[Jordan]

I've been collecting GP60s over the past year and a couple more have arrived recently, so here is the full line up

You're just missing a turntable & a roundhouse, there...

 

[richard carr]

Jordan, you right I need a turntable and round house, just not sure where to put it in the shed.

Yesterday I converted the Norfolk Southern GP60 to P48, including narrowing the trucks, it now looks a lot better



I painted the new NWSL wheels at the same time, its just easier to do it now.



The SP one is next on the list, this isn't powered, adding the motor is relatively easy but it has no light at all, that is the time consuming bit. As I now have 3 unpowered ones it is time to draw up some parts to print to make stalling the lights a lot easier.
Caught the boss on the phone in the background !



As you can see with this one the ditch lights have fallen off, the atlas ones are totally wrong and look nothing like the real thing, so the plan here is to draw some up and print them so that they fit on the model and can have suitable LEDs added to get them working.




Here's the real thing in 1992, you can see the ditch lights well here, you might also notice that it has a rotary beacon and the horn at the front on the roof. Most of the SP ones and some Cotton belt ones were built like this, but later in the 90's the rotary beacon disappeared and the horn moved to the centre of the roof between the fans, which is where this model has it, so it is correct for later in it's life.




I also forgot about this one on Friday



It is now P48 too with narrowed trucks, it is also DCC sound.



I will be starting to weather the NS one soon, there are loads of good photos on Flickr, mainly as NS has 48 of these still in service, and you do see them occaisnionly out on the main line usually tucked at the back of a consist, adding their 3800hp to train.

 

[Jordan]

I painted the new NWSL wheels at the same time, its just easier to do it now.

Possible silly question, but what make of paint & colour?

later in the 90's the rotary beacon disappeared and the horn moved to the centre of the roof between the fans,

I think moving the horn was something to do with protecting the crew's eardrums a bit more than with the horn right over the engineer's head? I bet it doesn't make much difference, having heard them for real..!!!

 

[richard carr]

Hi Jordan

I've just been looking at Atlas turntables on Ebay !


The paint is Phoenix Rusty Rails enamel, its a good starting point for the wheels.

The horns are seriously loud and some of those engineers just love blowing it.

I do like these



Richard

 

[Big Train James]

Jordan, you right I need a turntable and round house, just not sure where to put it in the shed.

The clear solution to this opportunity is a new, second shed.

 

[Dog Star]

The clear solution to this opportunity is a new, second shed.

Or move out the stuff which is not related to railways...

 

[Big Train James]

Richard,
If you don't want to make your own ditchlights, you might look at the 3d parts available from Model Railroad Resource. They show a 3d printed ditchlight on their website. You still need to come up with a bracket, and add the lighting.

 

[richard carr]

Jim

I think I might do both, buy some of those and draw my own just for the fun of it and partly as I will need to print the support that holds them in place on the loco and holds the wiring.

Richard

 

[richard carr]

I started on the SP GP60 last night, I took the body off and this is what you get.





The cupboard is bare !

No pickups on the bogies either



So the first thing to do is to take the bogies off, cut back the side frame mounts so that they can be narrowed, add a motor and drive gear to one bogie and then change the wheels and put them all back together.

 

[richard carr]

So here's the bogie with the side frame mounts shortened.



I find that the easiest way yo do this is with a pair of Xuron track cutters, you hack off the bulk of the material and then tidy it up with a file.

Next it was time to fit a speaker in the fuel tank.



The fuel tank has pre threaded holes to fix a speaker in place, the plastic card is because the screws I used a bit too long for the depth of the hole

The next thing I did was to change the sound on the QSi decoder to a GP60, this takes about 90 minutes to upload so you just have tobe patient.

 

[richard carr]

I now have the latest version of the GP60 coupler box, I think it is now in the correct place, it just needs a little tweak to the internal levels to support the kadee coupling.







And now with the snowplough back in place