IAIS Railfans Photo Gallery :: IAIS 103 :: D2012_12_28_103_Ole

Album: IAIS 103

Engineer's side of 103. Here's Ole's write-up regarding his kitbash: "Conversion of ATLAS SD24 into SD20- IAIS #103

You need: 1 SD24, Cab/nose of GP35-40 type, handrails from same type, plus the details from the May 2006 Model Railroader magazine article.

My deviations from the article are mainly on the body.
The cab-base must move like 3-4mm forward leaving some gaps. Fill with whatever plastic material on hand, taking care not to go below sill-level. (Frame comes up into here). Dynamic brake portion cut out and the part from GP-38 w/o dynamic brakes installs in the same area.
Now the approx. height is clear. Laminate plasticard till same height in front of filter box. Side of body, in front of the first door, file down to install plain plasticard, elongating the hood like 5mm. Test fit with the cab-piece all the time to get correct height and length.

The nose is treated to plasticard in the track for the cab, thus making it the 3-4mm longer. Length of nose should be 88”, I was told. Test fit that it covers the mounting hole in front and You are OK.

The left side of sill gets a part cut from a GP40-sill and then about 1cm of plasticard layer to complete the length. The bottom line of all doors needs to be scribed higher up on the body, like just below the “lashes”. It´s painted black anyway, so no one notices the difference.

Rest of the small things, like filing off class lights, filling unwanted holes etc. are self- explanatory. The CANNON/DETW parts in the article were used as well. The article gave nice list of needed details.

Handrails are best made of brass wire, at least at the ends. The parts from SD24 do not fit the bill. I cut GP38-rails to fit and joined pieces of brass-wire the same thickness.

The fuel tank was cut apart at the filler end, leaving the correct height in front and the other parts cut/filed down to accommodate the air tanks. Then joined back together, looking like it should.

The trucks were modified like the article suggested.

Careful study of IAIS-pictures at http://www.iaisrailfans.org/info/IAIS103 tells it all. Some help from ATLAS´s parts studying. PICTURES and careful study is the word.

Wish You luck to create a SD20/IAIS noting the differencies between them."

A few other details Ole noted from the MR article:

"The key point was to get the cab-base-middle lock over the joint of two shorter panels on the sill. It´s about 3-4mm. The rest was easy with the photos on the table.
What occurs to me is that the frame-nose needs to be leveled off. Simply saw off the "upsticking" portions. The headlight is a sort of small printed board that i contact-glued down on the fron. Whooppie, it works nicely.
The GP35 nose must be flattened instead of pointed and new headligt installed (Detail Associates) and drilled through to give light from the printed board. As lenses I used the cut off ones from the cab-#-board.
Now I think I covered it all."
By: Joe Atkinson

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