How to make an E-8 cab interior

Great work again and seeing it does make me think that if you are going to model this sort of locomotive equipment, scale accurate fidelity to the prototype is the only way to do it. You have the advantage of having seen a prototype preserved in a museum.

I’m also grateful to be reminded of Precision Scale’s cab detail parts. I imagine that these are true O scale and so fitting them in a sub-scale interior, if that’s what 3 rail O scale models come with (as I believe to be the case) might be a challenge.

One belated question: you noted above with respect to the motorized roof fans on these engines the following-

”Hi Hancock, the rotating roof fans are a nice feature on these K-Line engines.  I did not tie the power for the fans into the EER board because I was not sure how much current they drew.  For my setup 18VAC goes into a small circuit board for the fans (mounted on the shell) and then DC voltage come out for the small fan motor with pulley.  Instead of connecting it to the EER board I took the easy way out and connected the input for the small circuit board to the red pick up wire and the black common wire.  The down side is the fans rotate anytime the track has power.”

What circuit board did you use for this purpose? I have repurposed some very small HO DC power supply boards in the past but now wonder whether they are up to the task of constant running with an 18 volt input. Finding small enough AC to DC boards is not easy, especially if they have adjustable DC output, although there are some that are built for LED strip lighting. Did you use one of these or something else?

I wanted to post some finished photos of the cab when it was back inside the 951's shell again but the overhead LED lights were so bright they were washing out my photos.   

The problem was I glued 2 micro LED's to the ceiling so the light coverage would be good on both sides of the cab.  But the light pattern from the micro LED's were shining on the windshield causing a bright glare on the glass.  Next they were causing bright reflections off the green paint on the engines nose.  It was just too much light for this small area.

So I took the cab out of the shell again today and installed white 20 weight paper on the ceiling underneath the LED lights.  The results look much better.  The bright glare on the front windshield is gone.  The nose of the engine is not reflecting as much light back up at the viewer.  Now the color inside the cab looks more natural and the viewer can see more of the interior details as the engine goes by.

Next, I will post finished exterior photos of the 949's cab after its overhead light get fixed.

Thanks,

Wow! Outstanding work. Really brings the loco to life. 

Thanks Pete!

This looks like a job for a 3D laser printer. Since I now have some time I'll give it try based on the dimensions above. I can import the drawing into Rhino6. Then created the 3D model to then print.

AlanRail posted:

This looks like a job for a 3D laser printer. Since I now have some time I'll give it try based on the dimensions above. I can import the drawing into Rhino6. Then created the 3D model to then print.

Alan, that would be great to see!  Please post photos of how the 3D printed cab turns out.   Your 3D printed cab would save a lot time and steps for others that don’t want to build a cab from scratch. 

Thanks!

As promised here is a photo of the finished 949's cab interior from the outside.  I used a single overhead LED to illuminate the cab this time and centered it in the middle of the two windows.  Doing this seems to have removed the glare off the nose of the locomotive.  The engineer, fireman and signs on the back wall show up well with this new lighting arrangement.  Also, I upgraded the windshield wipers on both my 951 and 949 with part number 48-34 from ScaleCityDesigns.  

Just for fun here's a photo I took of the real 949 on May 22th 1994 in Hesperia, CA next to my K-Line version.

Great work. There are subtle little differences between the prototype and the model (food for rivet counters) but your work makes the model a truly fine representation of the real thing.

The single overhead LED looks to me to be even better than incandescent lighting, which is saying a lot.

Hancock52 posted:

Great work. There are subtle little differences between the prototype and the model (food for rivet counters) but your work makes the model a truly fine representation of the real thing.

The single overhead LED looks to me to be even better than incandescent lighting, which is saying a lot.

Thanks Hancock, I was also able to snap this photo of the UP 951 as the front unit of an ABA during the summer of 1998.  It was running full speed up Cajon Pass at Pine Lodge pulling a business train of 13 Union Pacific passenger cars.

If I added a smoke unit to my K-Line 951 it would match better!