Overhauling a pair of Atlas N&W C30-7s


Recently while making my way through a local train show I stumbled across an atlas C30-7 N&W locomotive painted flat burgundy. I had never seen this engine before and was intrigued.  After bartering with the vendor I was able to get the loco for an additional $3 bucks off!  woohoo.
Upon doing some research, and receiving a very nice photo from  fellow club member Jerry Shepardson
I decided to strip the loco, repaint it, then detail it out. 
 


Here is a shot prior to stripping it down
The main difference between the real photo, and the model was the lack of ditch lights in the cab nose, mu cables, along with the snow plow. This model had none of the above.  Being that this Atlas was not dcc equipped I had another fellow club member Roy Becker (our CSDIV resident electrical guru) stick a nice dcc decoder with light effects in it for me. Roy used Train Control Systems A6X decoder which I had him not solder any lights to the decoder as I wanted to do that after drilling the nose out etc. 

As with any of these remakes, we begin by removing all of the glass, then stripping the original paint or at least removing the decals/screen printing.   In the case of this loco 8010 I simply used lacquer thinner on a paper towel to remove all of the screen painted decals.  After letting the body dry for an hour or two I gave it a light coat of gray primer.   Once the primer was dry, and dust free, 3 coats of  Scalecoat II  red caboose paint was applied.  I realize that Scalecoat does make an N&W Burgundy color, but compared to the many nice photos I have it comes out to purplish. More than likely Scalecoat is correct and I am wrong, however it is my railroad.
 


Stripped and ready for decal removal
The body sat untouched for a couple of days to make sure it was good and dry to touch.   You definitely do not want to leave finger prints as you handle it.  While the body dried I went ahead and modified the chassis for the new ditch lights.  Using a hack saw, a quarter inch of the nose weight was cut out. 
Next 1.5 amp mini bulbs were soldered onto the new decoder. The first two tabs were used.
You will need to remember that when you begin setting up the decoder.   After soldering in the lights the wires were secured down and away from where the body slides on. 

Now that the body was completely dry the holes were drilled, and cleaned out for the two bulbs.  Before mounting the bulbs into cab some detail work had to be done to the lower body section, which was a separate piece. This is the section of the body where the crew can walk around the train without leaving it. 
This floor section needed to be partially painted black, which was done by hand, as was the cab interior.

Next the hand rails were installed, then painted by hand using the same color, sprayed into a can lid. 
Also at this time the small grab bars that run down the rear of the loco were added, along with a cab antennae and the grab bars that go on the actual cab nose.  These parts were also painted with the red caboose paint.
Letting this section sit over night allowed everything to dry completely before moving onto the re-assembly.
If you are wondering why I let the hand rails dry so long, it is because I used the spray paint applied by brush,  this type of paint takes longer to dry than ordinary brush on paints.
 

 
Before I could mount the new ditch bulbs I had to run the wires through the lower section of body.
Once the bulbs were secured in place, a quick test was performed to insure the bulbs functioned as designed.  Next up, drop the shell onto the chassis and snap both sections of the body together.

Once the assembly was complete the front and rear handrails were painted jet black, along with the steps.  When this was dry the yellow safety paint was added to the proper locations of the handrails, and front of the steps. The break lines were installed next.  Followed by a plow mounted to the front and painted jet black as well.  Finally on each end of the locomotive a various mu cables were installed, then painted.

To finish off the locomotive early diesel N&W decals from microscale set #87-22   were added along with early NS diesel decals again from microscale set #87-945.
 


8010 and 8011 Pulling out of the
West Yard on the Southern Exchange
Layout
I liked the results so much that I immediately began searching for a second locomotive to build a matching pair.   Within a week I had purchased a twin off of ebay. Following the same steps above with the exception of renumbering the unit to 8011 a second loco was in process.   I do not plan on weathering either of these as they look really good with their shinny new paint and a nice set of passenger cars behind them.   I also plan on taking these to a few operating sessions to haul freight. After running these on the Southern Exchange I can tell you that they run very well independently or mu'ed together. 

By using these back emf  A6X_ decoders I could set the digitrak dt400 throttle to .4, then slowly craw up the hidden six percent grade pulling 10 cars behind. I didn't do any test with additional freight cars added but I feel confident they would pull several more.

Looking back at the total cost for this project I have right at $185 in this pair. I doubt you will see another set like them anytime soon. 

As always your comments are welcome..  Unless of course you are a rivet counter! 

 


 

 



I