North Shore Line 409 - Part 12 Adding Non-Roof Detals to the Exterior of the Car Body

There are significant details to add to the ends of the car. Both ends are the same. At least one of the details to be added should catch your eye as a train made up of the 409 and other Silverliner cars went by.

Holes to mount the details can be drilled in both ends at the same time. However, all the details should be added to one end at a time.

Seven "sets" of details are to be added to the ends of the model excluding marker lamps. Each of the details should be painted before installation. The "sets" to be added include: 
     a headlight mounting bracket,
     a pair of grab irons inside the vestibule,
     a chain across the end door, 
     a windshield wiper,
     a retriever, 
     a dual horn, and 
     hand-steps up to the roof.

A Q-Car B-136 Headlight Bracket was used for the bracket mounted on the end door.  ACC was used for glue for all items.

Modeling Note - If you have had problems with ACC causing fogging or frosting of glazing or other parts of a model, work in a room with a ceiling fan turned on high. If no ceiling fan is available use a box or other fan to move the air around in the room. Blowing away the fumes of the curing ACC is required.

For the pair of grab irons and the hand-steps up to the roof 0.020" diameter brass wire was used.  For drilling the holes in the model a pattern made out of an index card was used.

A chain having 24 links per inch was used for the chain across the end door. The chain should be darkened with chemical metal blackener before installation. The chain can still be painted black but this is not necessary.

The chain is "hooked" into the grab iron. Another method is to use fine black thread to tie the chain to the grab iron.

 

I installed the chain before blackening or painting it. Look at the next photo to see what happens when the chain is painted with an 00 brush - a mess!
 

 The end door and bracket have to be repainted red.

Cal Scale part #190-3017 Wind Shield Wipers available from Bowser Manufacturing were used for the windshield wipers. As you drill the hole for installation, use a finger to back-up the glazing. Other windshield wiper castings can be used but may not be a fine of a casting.

The 5 above items can be reviewed in prior 2 Posts "Sunset NSL Silverliners #8A and #8B Ends & Sides" dated February 22 and 25, 2012.

Your choice of retriever can be used. After they are painted black a nice touch is to paint the center of the retrievers red. A red dot of paint works well.

For the dual horns Q-Car B-137 were used. If these are not available an O scale and an HO scale horn of the same design OR 2 out of a set of Nathan diesel horns can be used. If either of these 2 alternative methods are used an angular mounting bracket must be fashioned. 

The horns need to be painted bright aluminum before attaching to the dash. It's this set of horns which set the 409 apart from other Silverliner coaches. The horns on the dash of the car may have been one of many reasons the motormen and carmen didn't like the 409.

My 409 is to be operated with another model, a powered NSL combine 256. As the tail car of the train, markers have to be installed on the 409. Look at prior Post "Sunset NSL Silverliners#8A . . ." for how the markers were installed. Unlike the installation in the other Silverliners, 16 volt bulbs are used in the 409.

Which end you decide to have markers attached is your choice. Since most of my models run from left to right, I decided to have the side of the 409 into which the new windows are added face away. If you are familiar with which is the #1 end of a NSL car, the 409 has the lavatory at the #1 end. For my model the markers will be located at the #1 end.

Getting the marker lamp base ready requires some work. This is an example as to how small the bases are compared to a dime. Note the up position on the bottom of the photo and the down position at the top.

To drill out a hole for the bulb's wire, it's best to solder the bases on a small sheet of 0.005" brass sheet. This makes it easier to handle the bases. After the holes are drilled, un-solder the bases from the brass and clean them. Do not remove all of the solder on the bottom.

My sheet of 0.005" brass has been used for other marker bases.

 

After the holes have been drilled and tested to see if the light bulb fits in the marker bases, a piece of wire has to be soldered on for insertion into the marker brackets on the model. The bottom of the marker base does not have a lot of contact area for good soldering between the base and the wire. To increase the contact area, a small bend was made in the wire before soldering it to the base. The wire used is nickel silver 0.020" wire. Any wire which will solder to the base can be used.

 

These are the bases and the marker lamps after they have been painted. The paint has to dry before the bases are installed. Note the bent pieces of wire on the bases.

The bases after being installed on the model are very fragile. Be careful not to break-off the wire. Hole to thread the wire from the bulbs in the markers has to be drilled in the dash. To camouflage the wires and the holes in the dash, they were painted silver.

In the marker base is a Miniatronics 16 v bulb. This photo was taken before the headlight bracket was repainted red. Note the red dot in the center of the retriever commonly seen on Silverliners.

My 409 is being used an un-powered car at the end of a train. If the model 409 is powered or not is the modelers decision. The model 409 can be operated at the front of a train. In this case a headlight has to be added to the front of the car. There are earlier posts on the Sunset replacement Silverliner cars in the this blog which describe the installation of a power truck and a headlight on a model.

In the next Post interior lighting along with wiring-up the marker lamps will be the topic.

Cheers,
Ed