Adding scale detail to lionel scale ATSF Alco PA 1

Ron,

Always enjoy watching your projects develop.  Great to see somebody doing some 'modeling' for a change.  One of the great aspects of this hobby is building, modifying, and operating something you can't buy that everyone else owns.

 

Great job!

Ron what exactly did you change to mechanically lower the body? 

Hey Doug,

 

All I did was remove the top plates of the trucks within the body. Unfortunately it doesn't lower the body anymore than 3/16ths. But that's fine on these locos of mine. I could grind some from the truck top plates which I will do with the f3s, but this is close enough for the Alcos.

 

Ron

Ron,

Can you tell us your source for the cab steps?

I need a dozen.

Thanks.

Great job Ron, it really looks great

I agree, although you have to forgive me for not repeating the photos.  Lionel has done a very nice job, and you have made it better.

Jim, I got them from Lionel parts, both F3s and Alco. They are rear steps for the respective locos. Just go to the Lionel site.

 

Ron

Which Lionel PA part # is this? It looks well proportioned.

 

Jeff C

 

 

Jeff and Jim the Alco steps are 61045720 84 and 94 left and right rear steps respectively.

Thanks Ron, thats what I did with an E7 B unit but had to modify the shell as well, to get it low enough to match the E6's. That PA looks great!

I assume it makes it through your curves without issue with the body mounted steps.

Sorry, Ron, I didn't post clearly--I was talking about the engine itself. Some of the Lionel PA models have an odd nose profile, but yours looks very nice.

 

Jeff C

Jeff, it's the scale legacy model. Probably one of the most accurate shells in the industry.

 

Ron

Doug,

 

I believe it will. 0/120 curve the sharpest. Will try tomorrow. Will post video.

 

Ron

Guys,

 

These parts are going FAST.  I just finished ordering mine.  I needed 6 of each, but had to settle for 8 of #84's and 4 of the #94's.  I will modify to fit as needed.  Once Lionel exhaust their inventory I have no idea how long it takes them to re-stock.  I suspect that the above two parts were slow movers until yesterday, now they are almost GONE.

 

Thanks again Ron for supplying the part numbers. 

Originally Posted by leikec:

Sorry, Ron, I didn't post clearly--I was talking about the engine itself. Some of the Lionel PA models have an odd nose profile, but yours looks very nice.

 

Jeff C

Jeff, it's the scale legacy model. Probably one of the most accurate shells in the industry.

 

Ron's correct but it should be noted that Lionel used that same shell starting with Alco PA's listed in their Classic Trains Vol. 2 2003.  Before that, the Alco PA shells were based on the shells Lionel created along with MTH in the 90's 

The 1990s MTH shells were about as accurate as anything Key has done, with the exception of the anti-climber.

 

Opinion, based on a side-by-side comparison.

Interesting Bob.  I do know a couple of detail oriented scale (2R) modelers that prefer Lionel shells.  I haven't had a Key PA in my hands yet, but the Santa Fe specific details on the Lionel (after 2003) were better than the MTH PA(90's).  

 

I still have both a Lionel PA and an MTH PA.  Off the top, the number boards on the side have the correct width for 2 numbers.  The MTH number boards were more generic and were wide enough to accommodate the four numbers used on D&RGW PA's.

 

If I have time I will do a side by side and everybody can judge for themselves.  Regarding MTH, I haven't seen anything since their 90 PA, so I can't comment.  

No - I know nothing about Santa Fe specific.  My concerns as a scale modeler are size and contour - the nose and windshield are important to me, and I change the number boards to suit me before the plastic goes into the investment.

 

Quite a few of my train buddies do not care one whit about shape, dimension, etc., so long as the handrails go in the correct places and the headlight is the right shape.  That is up to them - not my plan.

Very interesting conversion. Nice job.