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Post by westernmaine on Sept 7, 2009 7:12:39 GMT -5
Hi all, I'm working on upgrading the appearance of an older Roco-type SD-35, similar to a project that Randy showed a few months ago. I have dissassembled the drive train and motor, but am stumped on how to remove the trucks without damaging the clips or completely dissassembling the trucks. I think I must be missing something obvious. Any help appreciated!
Thanks!
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CIOR
Chairman
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Post by CIOR on Sept 7, 2009 8:47:38 GMT -5
The truck and under support clip on the front and rear of the box. So you can use a small screwdriver and slip in there. This will allow the truck and wheels to drop. Release the sides as well, to prevent it from snagging.
I rebuilt SEVERAL of the Atlas/Roco SD35's before they got redone.
I remotored them with Kato motors and built custom cradles.
Christian (MONON) has seen one that I kept. I went NUTS on these engines with detail, as they made nice base models for the work to be done. But alas, Atlas gave us a GREAT new model to use and I dumped the old stock on Ebay (of which I had probably 30). I had an entire Penn Central fleet!
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Post by Randy Earle on Sept 7, 2009 11:58:04 GMT -5
This one? If you have a dremel, you can grind off enough of the fuel tank to provide clearance for a newer Atlas tank also. The tanks are on evilbay or direct from Atlas cheap. Also, instead of messing with the Roco body, you can still get undec shells of the newer version on the cheap also. The body will fit down on the Roco frame if you get rid of that goofy board by the seachlight. Just body mount the couplers by glueing some styrene behind the pilot, get out the #50 drill and the 2-56 tap.  |
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Post by westernmaine on Sept 7, 2009 15:44:32 GMT -5
thanks guys for the tips! Trucks removed successfully!!! Randy, great idea about using the new body, I didn't dare think that it would fit the old chassis so easily, I was going to just do upgrades (new cab, glazing, wipers, handrails, grabs etc) on the old shell, but your idea is much better.
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Post by Randy Earle on Sept 7, 2009 18:31:20 GMT -5
Cheaper too, eh?
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CIOR
Chairman
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Post by CIOR on Sept 7, 2009 18:54:10 GMT -5
The old tank wasn't too hard to fix, granted the contour was bad, but to the average look it wasn't bad. Little styrene, some putty, some grinding and sanding and paint.
Granted that was before we had the modern version, which no doubt is better in ever aspect, from frame to trucks, to drive, to motor, to shell, to details..LOL
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Post by westernmaine on Sept 8, 2009 17:59:51 GMT -5
I ground the sides of the fuel tank casting to fit the inside width of the plastic fuel tank opening. Looks like I need to lop of about 1/4 " of the tank casting bottom as well to make it shallow enough to let the pastic tank to snug up against the body. Probably a hacksaw would be better than a dremel to remove that much meat, eh? Randy - did you find that you had to add weight to the shell afterwards to compensate for the lsot weight from all the removed fuel tank material?
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Post by Randy Earle on Sept 8, 2009 18:02:29 GMT -5
No, I don't think the weight was that important. I buy those stick on mag wheel weights at the auto parts store.
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Post by graftonterminalrr on Sept 10, 2009 14:10:56 GMT -5
I was always told that out of the six Atlas-Roco diesels (FP7, GP38 low hood, GP38 high-hood, GP40, SD24 and SD35) introduced in the 70's, that the SD35 was the best of the lot.
The only thing that can't be easily fixed is the truck wheelbase. Apparently Roco used the E-Unit truck as used in the Model Power E7 (also Roco built) and tooled up a new sideframe to fit.
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CIOR
Chairman
Posts: 2,046
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Post by CIOR on Sept 10, 2009 14:21:19 GMT -5
I always thought the wheel spacing was off on the SD35. I never measured it up, as it was the only option at the time.
However that doesn't shock me what you said. Back then it was all about the cheap!
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Post by westernmaine on Sept 10, 2009 20:21:17 GMT -5
that's an interesting observation, I have a Roco and a silver-series here so will compare the two trucks and report back. Have just re-worked the fuel tank area, I did just discover tonight that the plastic fuel tank from the current silver series had to be shortened about 1 scale ft in order to avoid fouling the truck ends, so there may be something to that.
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Post by ssgburme on Sept 10, 2009 20:43:49 GMT -5
Hi all, my SD7( made from an SD24) and SD24's got ATHEARN frame's, truck's and can motor's because of this reason, and the ATHEARN frame was easier to mill to fit the shell than mill the fuel tank contour on the ATLAS frame. Another plus was to remove one tank from the ATHEARN frame. Most of my ROCO powered unit's have been switched to ATHEARN frame's, truck's and whatever can motor I had. Ya , that was a long time ago early 80's
Karl
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Post by westernmaine on Sept 12, 2009 10:58:50 GMT -5
regarding truck spacing, on the Roco vs. current Atlas SD-35, I propped them together and took this comparison photo (the Roco unit is the upside-down chassis). As you can see, the Roco spacing is in fact wider than on the current version  |
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