Truck centers are another detail that changed throughout production. This was a trend that continued through early Dash 8 production as the series was developed. I don't have the ability to cut up or mill diecast frames and I certainly don't have the ability to put them back together. Well, not square anyway. What I can do is design and print a new frame.
I would love to be able to print in metal, and several metal materials are available through Shapeways, but size, cost and printing tolerances make it impossible at this time. Maybe later. Instead, I printed the frame in Shapeways' White Strong and Flexible nylon. It's a pretty strong material if the walls are designed thick enough. Detail isn't much of an option with this nylon material, so I designed it to accept an Atlas B30-7 fuel tank. Unfortunately, when I placed my parts order with Atlas these were unavailable. Back to the computer to design and print a fuel tank. I also worked up some new air reservoirs for another project.
In light of the difficulty I had obtaining an Atlas fuel tank, I figured I'd design the frame to accept Athearn trucks and drive shafts. I have a few trucks on hand already and the drive shafts come in a variety of lengths. The only trouble is the Smokey Valley sideframes are terrible. Atlas FB-2 sideframes from the original Kato/Atlas U23B aren't that great either, but they are better. The current Atlas B23-7/B30-7 sideframes look much better. At some point I'm going to have to come up with a version of the frame that accepts Atlas trucks. For now, I'm going with the tolerable Smokey Valley sideframes. Here are a couple shots of the frame:
To construct the B36-7 shell I simply cut down an Atlas C30-7 shell removing a portion of the auxiliary cab behind the operator cab and toilet compartment (the area between the second batten strip behind the cab and including the third batten strip from the front). I replaced the exhaust with a Hi-Tech part and added the gyralight/UDE light mount on the rear. I also added some Hi-Tech grilles to the radiator doors and scratchbuilt a cabinet to place behind the conductor's rear window on the walkway.
The sill is an Atlas part cut down and shortened at the stepwells. The door under the walkway on the conductor's front corner of the cab was replaced with one made from styrene to match the other doors. The modified C30-7 shell and nose were glued to the shell since the mounts for the B30-7 sill and C30-7 aren't compatible. The cab is removable at this point. Speaking of the cab, even though the front windows were correct for the B36-7, the locomotive was delivered without the auxiliary windows so those had to be filled in. I used Bondo spot glazing to do the job. After painting the cab I could see some shrinkage around the window perimeter. I went back and filled them in again and touched up the paint.
I still have more work to do, including the handrails. I was able to keep the end railings, but with the shorter overall length it's not possible to reuse the Atlas side rails. I'll make new ones from Utah Pacific stanchions and brass wire.
This project started off with a cab. The GE Universal series/Dash 7 series cab became something of an obsession for me throughout the second half of 2017. More later.
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