Now that I think I have the hang of embedding photos, here's my solution to the "coupler-less" bottom plate. I modified a bottom plate that had no coupler by screwing a piece of a knuckle coupler truck to the bottom plate after cutting it out of a junk truck. I don't cut up anything good. This truck was missing both side frames, the coupler itself, and was rusty. I also added a drop of CA to the joint to keep it from rotating. So after a bit of filing, it fit nicely and keeps itself in place with the little tabs already on the plate.
As I said before, these locomotives are WAY out of scale, but it's nice to see a toy brought back to life. It actually runs quite well, if a bit noisy. Maybe a few thrust bearings will help. But I can throttle it down to a nice slow "freight speed" if I want, or go supersonic. Anyway, just for the heck of it, here's a few comparison photos with an American Models F7 unit:
The almost got the length right!
And one by itself:
What a come-down from the scale like offerings of years before.
I used the parts available on the power unit, while the dummy is only lacking the side frame (with coupler cover) which I have ordered from Doug Peck. I can't wait to see the "serious" modelers faces when I run this thing on my club's layout in Indy...
