I had wanted one of these for a long time when one finally popped up for sale here on OGR. I always thought it would make a good fixed pilot/Kadee model. Here is a shot of it sitting in town:
I would share some video of its test run but I managed to launch all of its traction tires.
I started the fixed pilot conversion by cutting the truck mounts off:
I then devised a way to mount them to the frame, mostly to align it with the shell:
This setup allows access to the fore/aft shell screws. I used 2-56 screws to mount the pilots.
I then figured out what it would take to get the Kadee to the correct height, with the ride height being stock, and the pilots mounted directly to the frame:
At this point I'm not sure if I want to play with the ride height and/ or the pilot clearance to the railhead. I may let it sit a night or tow while I work on other things. I plan on painting the pilots straight Brunswick green as I am not a fan of safety striping. Notice I had to cut the trip pin for clearance.
Since I run TMCC/Legacy, I decided to convert it over using an ERRCo Cruise Commander and a RS Commander. It was a shame to pull out all the nicely packaged PS2 guts but I don't run DCS (nothing against it, just don't use it). I also did my preferred minimalist setup, so no smoke, cab lights, markers lights, etc., just cruise, sound, and headlights.
At this point I may just put new tires on it, paint the pilots, weather it up a bit, the give it a train to pull...
