So what's happening today on the workbench....

I have obtained a Bachmann E60CP which has an identical power truck like that one I posted earlier.  My intention is to place both of them in a Trainmaster Dummy unit that I have create the mighty H40-66.

Yes the H40-66 is the most powerful FM locomotive ever produced, albeit by a 3rd party.  It uses recycled dash 7 trucks and has 2 engines instead on just 1.

The E60CP is going to be recycled into a diesel engine that is very similar to the E60CF using a couple small can motors that I have.

As long as I'm at it, I'm going to repower an AHM SD40 with a couple small can motors and see how that goes.

So many projects.....

What is on my workbench at 3pm April 13, 20014....

Right now is the M650, just about done - down to handrails and some touchups.
The SD45MA4, yes the beast is back with a vengeance....4500hp and a safety cab made by someone else
Then 4 F units, not sure what designation I'll give them all first, depends on what details I add.
Finally, the (tentative) F60 with 3800hp.....

I model the future and due to the political situation this is what happens with locomotives in combination with industrial sized metal printers and copyright laws - use it or lose it....

What's on the workbench today....

First up I have 2 blue box DD40's that came to me in rough shape.  What I do with all my DD40's is change the cab and add a scale width nose.  Then I close the gap between the two engines and make 1 monster.  The green and yellow is going to be a patched unit with red cab and nose to match the colors of my MCBR railroad.  My road is cheap so the decision has been made not to repaint the body, but just patch it and upgrade some components.  The black unit is getting an "M" cab and is going to become the fearsome DD50.

Next I have an FP40 with I am transforming into an F55, I'm not sure what that will look like yet, but it will be angry looking.

Then I have another SD45 that I'm making into an SD45MA4.  Safety and some other features to make it tough looking.  I already removed the dynamic brakes and will add something more fearsome instead.

As I've said before I model the future so anything goes.  In my future a lot of old locomotives that are sitting in deadlines and rebuilder's yards are refurbished using much more advanced electrical for a lot less money.  So anything goes.

There are also 5 F units that are all being painted plain red and getting some up grades.  The one F7 already has a new wiring harness in it with 2 super bright yellow head lamps and they look cool....

I still haven't finished the M450 and M650, they just need handrails so that should be done pretty soon...

How to make replacement motor brushes from scratch

I lost a couple motor brushes during a maintenance session and became very frustrated.  But, I was smart enough to google scratchbuilding motor brushes and turned up pretty much nothing.....

Except that a guy talked about his dad making brushed from the core of a dry cell battery.  So I tried that first with a AA cell. I used the graphite around the core, but it didn't quite work.  I may revisit that one again one of these days because I don't think the spring I used was strong enough.

That gave me a new idea...while shopping at Lowe's I picked up a couple contractor pencils, not flat ones, but large round ones.  So I said what the hell and cut a chunk off and filed it a bit and put it in.

It worked, actually pretty good too.  I might make a video about this...next up is to test it under load for several hours and see how durable it is....

The Heljan B807 Brewery and the Grusom Casket Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhH4ThJ6S1E&feature=share&list=UUR5v30jV4xtPngG_agYaONQ&index=2

That's the video, since I made that building, I added another B807 to make it twice as big!

The DD40 Project

Here it is disassembled and I'm getting ready to overhaul all the mechanical parts...

 Now here it is after the mechanical over haul and the broken parts of the body have been removed...
I have scale width cab I'm going to add and then scratch build the nose....I'm not repainting the whole thing, instead I will just patch it.

 here's a quick look at my RS50 project...it's coming along nicely..

Here is a Tyco GP20 from before the Power Torque system....these motors are 6 pole (I counted 3 times to be sure) they are also difficult to repair require some very advanced skills.

As bad as it looks, it still ran on the test track.

The main problem is all the rivets used to hold it together, so I started by grinding off the rivets.

Then I went through every possible contact and polished it.  I also looked for the key to how a motor like this could accommodate DCC and yes I found the crucial connection.

It looks bad, but after cleaning and polishing everything and putting on new traction tires I was ready to reassemble it.  I made a couple rivets and replaced all the rest with #4 screws.

And sure enough this thing runs exceptionally smooth, now if I only new what I was going to do with it...