GE 132 ton Centercab switcher
This is my attempt to scratch build a 132 to centercab switcher as owned by the Wellsville Addison & Galeton RR.
The headlight lens, fan and fan grill are installed. The headlight is a piece of clear lens from a parts bucket headlight. I turned it to size in the drill press with a file and sandpaper. It will be powered by a fiber optic strand from either a small light bulb or a LED. I am leaning more towards the LED right now. The lens is removable and will be out for painting
The fan was cut from .020" styrene and the grill is fiberglass screening glued in from behind.
The brass visible in the picture is .008" brass sheet to represent the access hatches on the tops of the hoods.
Handrails have been installed. I still have to add a couple more detail pieces on them to complete them.
Cut bars and footboards have been installed. I abandoned the brass ones I made as I was having a difficult time getting them to look good. I had to take a little modelers license on the cut bars. The prototype had them running through tubes that were welded to the pilot. I could not find any tubing that was the correct diameter to represent this. The smallest one I could find was a scale 3 time larger than it should have been.
I installed the decoder into one of the hoods and wired it in. The headlights have also been installed. I used a 3mm fiber optic cable and a 3mm white LED for each end. I still have to coat the fiber optic so it does not leak any light. This is one of the new bright white LED's and they were not kidding when they said do not look directly into the LED when lit. I had a horn on the roof but, I still have not learned my lesson about pinning these things so they do not fall off and get lost. Although I still have not mounted the body to the chassis I did pull a cut of 10, 40' coal hoppers today.
This is what the inside of the shell looks like with the decoder and lighting equipment installed