Indeed, spring break is over, and I'm glad to say it involved no excessive Florida beach trips or wild urban shopping sprees. In fact, most of it was spent on an Acoustics class project that never did work... but, moving on from that. The good projects for the trip were pretty limited, but they included a start to a heavy overhaul on an as-yet unnamed locomotive (stay tuned for later!) and a completed reworking of a locomotive that defies my usual tastes in model horsepower. Yes, for once I worked on a modern locomotive.
On my last full day of break, I completed cosmetic repairs as well as lighting and sound installation on an N scale Norfolk Southern SD60. I found the model in pretty sorry shape. It was broken and sitting in a box at a small hobby shop in Wellsboro, PA. It had no price; I simply made an offer, which I believe was $30 for it and a few other small items, and I decided this was my chance at a fixer-upper to run when visiting more modern-themed model railroads.After much work, this black-and-white beast rolled out as a top-of-the-line locomotive. The basic model is from Atlas, wearing its factory paint job with the notable additions of the white frame stripe and yellow handrail/ladder step colors. Couplers, the snowplow, and the air horn are all replaced with parts I had at home. I patched the black paint where it was scuffed or chipped and also repaired three separate breaks in the right-side handrails. I bet you can't tell where the fixes are in the above image!
The more complicated addition are the ditch lights on the front end. These are simply Train Control Systems' surface-mount LEDs (the "sunny white" version with wires pre-soldered.) I cut grooves in the front walkway and routed the wires down through them, super-gluing the LEDs in place. I then cut tiny bits of plastic to enclose the sides, top, and bottom of the LED, and gave all of this a coat of black paint to match the locomotive and prevent light from leaking out the sides. They light up brilliantly when running, and really make the SD60 look real. I can't get them to flash like the real thing, but close enough is close enough.All of this is wired into an MRC 1828 sound decoder, made specifically for Atlas' SD50 and SD60 models, with the headlight LED changed out to match the TCS ditch lights. It has all the features of MRC's best decoders to date: fine slow-speed control, easy speed adjustments, and quality, reprogrammable sound. The decoder does have an odd defect in which its motor contact pads are reversed; I believe MRC told me they had fixed this issue in subsequent releases. But with the way Atlas' motor contacts work, you can just bend the brass strips to the side and glue in a plastic spacer as a 5-minute workaround. (Or you can mess with reprogramming normal direction of travel and light direction, but I didn't think I could get this right with only the basic light mapping that MRC offers.)
But let's leave that one flaw behind and look at the picture that you see once you're done. I mentioned the speed control and sound quality above, and I mean it; this is good stuff. I tuned my decoder to match the SD60's diesel motor and also searched through online videos of NS's SD60s at work until I had selected the right airhorn and bell sounds. I still find that MRC's recent decoders do not ramp up the diesel RPM sound fast enough, so I use the manual mode to overcome this and give me even more authenticity and control. There is also some "purring" sound when the decoder is using electrical pulses to produce that awesome slow-speed control, but you can turn this off if it really bothers you. You can take a look at the video below to see the SD60 firing up and rolling out.
But I do see where you modern modelers are coming from. It can be interesting to represent that important future in the palm of your hand.
-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor
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