Squaw Creek RSD15 project

[mtoney]

Ok, so you look at the pictures and say, how can a brass engine be a cheap project.  Well, I paid $40 for the model non running.  Model had 4 split plastic spur gears in the trucks.  I replaced them with brass NWSL gears.  This is a common problem for early Samhongsa drives.  Of all the owners of RSD15's, I liked the looks of the Squaw Creek Coal Co. units the best.  Details to be added are Prime 8901 Digital beacon, Prime(I think) roof top AC unit, speed recorder drive on front truck and the early style Pyle National headlight at the top of the low nose set in the horizontal position.  Erik is getting me the decals as I type this.   I am searching for a Emrex Electroics constant headlight circuit with the Prime beacon light feature as I run analog DC control.  So far only the beacon is mounted, waiting on other parts to come in.

[annarborfan]

Yup, its amazing sometimes what you can get real cheap. And I agree Squaw Creek would look real good. There was a lot of 4 Emrex items on Ebay yesterday, but its gone. I still like picking up C.R.E. kits when I can.

[mtoney]

If someone sees one of the circuits, I dont care what brand as long as it does the proper flash pattern for the digital beacons, grab it for me or please shoot me a PM. Anybody have an idea what shade of yellow for the body and green in the background of the frame striping? Its lighter than my Cub Cadet yellow, reminds me more of L&N yellow if you look at a pic before the units started to sun/weather beaten. The couple pics I saw of BLI factory painted units on youtube looked to light, unless the online video washed out the color. From pics I seen that Squaw Creeks units had 2 recorder drives, both engineeer's side lead truck on #2 and #3 axles. Should be one for the speed recorder, other for wheel slip I think. I am trying to find the roof top AC and low nose headlight casting in brass. I prefer to keep all the detail parts brass where possible on my brass engines. Mike

[c415rock]

Hi Mike,

 Nice looking engine. You might want to check out Ngineering for your beacon and lighting needs. I use them for many of the units I do either DC & DCC. As for the Yellow it is all over the place depending on what picture you look at. For the unit I am doing I started with Tru Color White and Genesee  & Wyoming Yellow mixed 50/50. Then you can adjust to your liking from there. I use Peabody coal units as a reference as well being they were under the same corporate family.

Here is a link to Ngineering

 www.ngineering.com/index.htm

Erik

[mtoney]

Erik, I looked at thier circuits earlier this year, the flash pattern doesnt replicate the Prime digital beacons that well IMHO. That and its a bit hard to stuff the LED inside the Details West Prime beacon casting lense. Richmond controls is excellent, just a long waiting list to get a circuit and I havent tried mounting thier LED style beacon to the roof of a brass model. A circuit that drives a 1.5vt micro bulb that fits perfectly up inside the DW beacon casting is what I want. That is what the old Ibenlite, Emrex and pre LED Richmond Controls used. I remember when the LHS got in the Athearn Peabody RS3's. That was a bright yellow to say the least. Still reminds me of the L&N yellow I commonly use for safety ends on handrails. I will have to do a test shoot on a piece of scrap and compare. I lack the AC unit casting so I can do any painting yet anyways. What are you using for the green that I see inbetween the white zebra frame stripes? I have the model running well, so its into the paint shop as soon as the body work is complete. Mike

[c415rock]

Mike

I used NYC jade green.

Erik

[mtoney]

Thanks Erik, I will use that then. I did start painting the side frames for the trucks. Mike

[alcocentury]

  Nice find,good luck w/the project.i'm following along.

[iomalley]

If the NWSL gearing doesn't work out, you can always get trucks from Bowser. The Alco/Samhongsa offerings of that era had those exposed gear towers with the really long keeper screws that were forever working themselves loose. (unless you used loctite) I've even fashioned a styrene or tin guard to keep the grease and oil splatter from the gears off the backside of the shell.

Good luck with this build! Can't wait to see it in the bright Squaw Creek scheme!

[mtoney]

This has the later fully enclosed gear towers with worm gear drive, not the early open tower gears like the old Kumata drives. Those older versions do ok, once you use some thread locker on the threads. I dont have any of those, but my friend has a NW2 with that style of "noisy" drive. New pics soon, I have the chassis painted, air conditioner installed, just need an early Pyle dual sealed beam in brass to solder to the low nose and she will be ready for primer and paint. The gears in mine are all replaced, runs smooth and quiet!! And I will take any brass gator over that BLI junk. Sorry, dont have good opinions of them, I work on way to many that have lots of "issues". Mike

[iomalley]

Miniatures By Eric makes a couple different brass headlights...

www.miniaturesbyeric.com/