CNR #2 44 Tonner

[crmpei]

As I am waiting on a couple things for my 70 Tonners, I decided to get a start on my next project- CNR #2.







Originally delivered as #7551, she was renumbered #2 in June 1956. #2 was one of two 44 Tonners that CN ordered for PEI in 1947- these would be the first diesel locomotives to run on the island. Since CN was still very much a steam railway at the time of delivery, she was painted black and given a boiler tube pilot. She remained in her steam era paint job until sometime after 1958 when she received CN's Green and Gold switcher livery.. she was sold to a paper plant in 1965. Today #2 is preserved, although inoperable just 4hrs away from where she kicked cars at the dawn of the diesel era.

Given the fact that I'm to young to have witnessed the railway here on the island, #2 is the only PEI unit I have had the chance to visit, this makes it special to me and probably one of my favourite locomotives ever. (Although I'd like to go see 70 Tonner #30 at Exporail sometime soon.) 

I will be using a unpainted Bachmann shell and the details should be relatively simple. Since I bought an extra sheet of photo etch parts with my Kaslo 70 Tonners, I have the correct door handles and cut bar rings already- so Ill have to pop all the molded on door handles off and drill for these PE ones. I have the proper numberboards, class lights and class light brackets on hand already + some Plano EMD door hinges... they are pretty close, closer than the Bachmann hinges but might be more of a hassle than its worth.  I have a ordered two Baldwin coupler pockets, (hopefully they work how I have envisioned it, lol) angle cocks, air hoses and a single chime horn from Precision Scale. 

[coaldog]

Looking forward to following the progress on this little Beastie.

[crmpei]

I started this project the other night, here's how far I've gotten since.

First thing I did was fill in some of the un-needed lines on the hoods. There are also some un-needed lines on the cab as well, but I may just leave these- as anybody who has worked with these shells knows the windows are to small and the hood is too wide.. I'm going to just leave these things alone, it doesn't bother me and is a little more cutting than I am comfortable with.





Then, after visiting the prototype this past weekend I decided to make some new step plates for the ladders using Precision Scale tread plate I had on hand. This was tedious, and no two are exactly alike but that's ok with me as no two were alike on the prototype either. I also chiseled off the square access boxes that are on the bottom front of the hoods and replaced them with Detail Associates blank MU receptacles. Much better.





After all of that, I moved on to knocking off the molded on door handles starting with the cab. I got through the cab before I snapped my last #80 drill bit, so this is where I decided to stop. Since I can't find quality mini drill bits around here it'll be a few weeks to get them online so I'll have to put that off for the time being. When I return to work on this I will drill out the holes for the class lights, drill out holes for grab irons on the pilot and chisel off the molded on rivet details on the pilot and replace as needed with Tichy NBW's.

Where the model stands as of now:



Here's the only photo I took before I replaced the access hatches with the DA blank MUs:





It's my goal here to finish detailing the model entirely before I start building the boiler tube pilot, I thought it may be a bit of a headache but now that I have the proper measurements on hand it shouldn't be to bad.

[crmpei]

OH- and I almost forgot. A big reason why I started this project before finishing the 70 Tonners is because I was able to get my hands on the proper decals way faster than I thought I would... Bill at PDC.ca was kind enough to print the decals he made for Trevor Marshall's S-Scale CN 44 Tonner #1 for me in HO scale, of course adding #2 to the sheet. My prototype doesn't require any of the stripes, but it's still nice to have incase I decided to make #1 down the road.

[dekon]

Looking good!

[coaldog]

Really nice.

[crmpei]

While waiting on drill bits, I decided to digitize prototype measurements that I personally collected for this build. There are lots of data sheets out there for GE's 44 Tonners, so this mainly focuses on the unique boiler tube pilot and some other details. Feel free to share!

drive.google.com/open?id=1BG9GaO3o950h1ChadjIXvcaCWO0OqgV7

[crmpei]

Progress is slow, yet ongoing.

I've drilled out all of the holes for the wind deflectors, sunshade mounts as well as added styrene elbow rests and the 'mount' for the sunshade. Here's some images of how it will look with all previously mentioned attached... I wanted to see if everything worked the way I had envisioned before I called the cab "detailed".








Next on the agenda will be to take all of the molded on door handles off the hood and replace them with Kaslo PE parts. After that, I'll add the MUs, class light brackets, the horn, horns hose and then front and rear grab irons. I will then build the boiler tube pilots out of K&S brass and styrene before I add the air hoses and angle cocks to the pilot plates.

[coaldog]

Coming along very nicely.

[slowfreight]

That's a pretty cool build. It's interesting to see how you take nearly 30-year-old tooling and upgrade it to match some of the more modern offerings.

[icghogger]

Excellent Work, that is going to be SWEEEET!!

[crmpei]

Thanks guys! It's definitely tedious to upgrade the tooling, but I think it will be worth it in the end. I was going to take all the door hinges off and replace them with Plano EMD hinges, but the molded on hinges are a bit larger, which means I'd not only have to sand them flat before adding the photo etch hinges, but I'd need to "dig out" additional panel lines too- I don't think it will be that much of a difference, so I think I'll be leaving them as is.

[crmpei]

Work has finally slowed down so I’m slowly starting to model again. Still short a boiler tube pilot and handrails but hoping to have this painted next week!

[Deleted]

Archer resin decals makes emd knuckle buster latches

[dekon]

Nice!

[m a y o r 79]

Looking good. This thing is gonna look tiny next to a string of boxcar!

[Deleted]

Really turning out nicely.

[crmpei]

Well, it’s still not painted- but, that’s because I really wanted to make sure I got the boiler tube pilot right. After much trial and error with styrene, and trying to use multiple parts to build the thing I realized the easiest, sturdiest and best looking way to go about it will be to make it out of one piece of brass sheet, drill holes, fold as necessary and then solder or glue the tubes on. I made various prototypes, but I’ve finally settled on a final design. The only thing holding me back right now is the Canada Post strike as I have a Hold n Fold in the mail I will need to get crisp and straight folds I want. For now, here is the final prototype design.. I didn’t put all the tubes on it as I figured it would be a waste of brass wire for a mockup, but you get the idea. 

[EMDX6043]

Looks good, great idea!

[icghogger]

And kudos for the work you did on the door handles. Those look Great!!