Confession: I'm a steam guy who harbors a secret love for certain diesels. The bigger and the uglier the better. I've been through the
12-step program, but so far it's only enabled me to enjoy throttle settings of up to 8.
Anyway, here's my latest project with a few of her friends:
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I picked up the Alco-made model of a real-life Southern Pacific DH-643 on Ebay for a nominal sum because -as with most of Alco's Japanese- built models- the power-train was good only for scrap. I then spent a couple of months researching, detailing, building and installing an entirely new power-train, and then painting the results. There's now a new Buhler can motor inside, driving two healthy flywheels and a pair of Stewart trucks from an Alco Century-series diesel which happened to use the same ones. I've never painted a diesel before, but it turns out not to be all that different from -and no more difficult than- painting a steamer.
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This is one of the locos I'm planning on running her with: An S.P. U-50. Quite possibly the only diesel of that era which could compete with the DH-643 in terms of sheer power and sheer ugly.
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And this is the lash-up I normally use to power my 106-car '60s ore train: a U-50, a DD-35, and a second trailing U-50. Alas, I just finished converting the ore train from plastic to metal wheelsets, and it now rolls so well (and weighs so much more) that these three locos are no longer able to pull it up our 2 1/2% grades. Sooooo....
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We add another 2 pounds of motive power to the front end...
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And Hey-Presto! The "Lashup From Hell": a DH-643, U-50, DD-35, U-50 combination that turns out to pull the ore train just fine! ( Note that all 4 of these locos are of the dual-engined sort that were tried for a decade or so beginning in the early '60s. )
That means 30 powered axles all pulling at the same time; and while I've yet to measure the full lash-up's pulling power, I know that each U-50 pulls about 18 ounces and the DD-35 pulls only slightly less, so there's probably going to be somewhere around 4 pounds of total pulling power here.
I wonder exactly how much stress a Kadee #5 can take?
(BTW: You can click on the "+" sign above each picture to see a blow up.)
Enjoy,
~Pete