# WSOR E9 103: Super detailing an Aristo E8



## WSOR (Jun 27, 2010)

Hello Everybody!

One of my new years resolutions was to start (and finish) some largescale projects. For those of you who have seen my depot thread, its still a work in progress, but I had some computer issues, so that project will be delayed until my pc is rebuilt (im a mac user). I bought myself a Aristocraft Amtrak E8/9 with the intentions of turning it into the 3rd WSOR executive E unit. 103 was the easiest to model with the aristo e8, since they are relatively close to begin with. The details I will be adding are as follows: freight plow, bell, electronic bell, Nathan M3 horn, rotating light, grab irons, dynamic brake fan, detailed cab interior, redone back end with back up light and eventually kadee couplers. Of course it will be then painted in the fabulous red and silver paint scheme.

Here is a link to a picture of 103: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=209211

Day 1: 1 hour
I started by taking off the body and taking out all the electronics so I can easily work with the body. I need to take out the headlight circuit board, but these wires run through the cab interior. *Since I want to detail the cab anyways, can somebody tell me how to remove it? *I've tried wedging it out of the channel, but it is tight in the channel towards the nose and I dont want to break anything. The walls and floor also seem to be glued together. As anybody done this before?


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## s-4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Sounds like a nice project! Trainworld had a pretty good deal on those amtrak E8s a while back...almost bought one myself to paint in B&M!


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## Santafe 2343 (Jan 2, 2008)

*I have had several E-8's apart. The interior slides out in one piece, you won't break it, but there mite be a little hot glue holding it in. some have more than others. Some come out a little easier than others. Thanks, Rex*@import url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Provide...ad.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css);


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## WSOR (Jun 27, 2010)

Alright so here are pictures from last night as well as today. Last night I started by ripping out all the electronics.









Then I ripped out the cab. The front wall towards the nose was held in at the top by some of the ultra sticky double sided tape they used for holding down the wires. I was able to break off the floor and back wall which was glued together to take out the cab. 
















I think they over did it on the glue a little bit 








Next I tapped the horn out of the roof with a small flat head screwdriver 








I decided that since I haven't had any experience with painting that removing as much as possible would make it easier. This proved to be a chore but I removed the doors by sliding them out of there channels. Removing the windows was the hard part. I accomplished this by using a flat xacto blade and wedging it between the body and the window to help break the glue. The glue was very strong and I did break off some parts of the molding but no damage was done to the actual window part. It was a slow process. I did manage to chip the corner of fireman's window with my blade, so if anyone has a replacement, I would be willing to buy at a reasonable price. 
















This is where I am calling it quits for the night. All the windows and doors are removed. 








My next question is how do I remove the number boards? I want to stip the black paint off of them, so I can create white backed number boards with black numbers. They seem pretty well glued in there. I think Im just gonna leave the headlight lenses in since they are securely glued into the body and dont wanna budge. 









Also has anybody removed the grab irons before? I need to paint them two colors and it would be a lot easier if they were unattached from the body.


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## N1CW (Jan 3, 2008)

Jay[/b]

....SWEET.....[/b]
Sorry for the delay but I had GOOD LUCK with borrowing the FREEZER overnite.[/b]
Then I was able to use the blade to pry out the globs of glue.[/b]

Now that beg's the question of is WSOR 011 CABCAR next?








[/b]


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By WSOR on 18 Jan 2011 09:30 PM 

Here is a link to a picture of 103: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=209211


Wow, that is a gorgeous E-unit! 
and its very cool that she still has her side portholes (most surviving E-units have had those replaced by solid panels)

I was curious about 103's history, so I googled it..
she was originally Union Pacific 957, then Amtrak 430, before coming to the W&S: 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/sh...?id=388439

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/sh...id=1103212

ah ha! the portholes *were* replaced by soild panels at one point! 
The wisconsin & Southern must have replaced them..
thats a great look!

Scot


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## WSOR (Jun 27, 2010)

N1CW,

I might have to give that a try haha. Its -1.3 degrees outside, so no need for a freezer. On the other note, I do plan on scratchbuiling the 3 WSOR excursion bilevels. I even bought some kato HO models for reference. That project wont happen for a while though. Next in line is Northern Sky, which I will use a USA Trains dome and convert it into a ACF Observation Dome instead of the Pullman dome USA Trains modeled. I plan to build the complete business fleet of the WSOR. Its gonna take a while though.

Scot,

The WSOR has done a lot of work on its E units as well as the Alsaska Railroad. They came from Alaska with giant SP style plows. They are mostly original except they do have some 645 components in their engines.









Also if anyone is interested in a 1:1 kitbash, WSOR 102 was built from a ex. BN A unit and a converted B unit power car. This was done by the Illinois Rail mueseum crew at WSOR's shops. Below is a thread with information and pictures.

http://www.fuzzyworld3.com/3um/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1085&start=0


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice build article on Superliner cars over on Large Scale Central: 
http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=13868&p=1


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## WSOR (Jun 27, 2010)

I put the body outside for the day. Still no luck, there is too much glue on the back and in the holes of the number boards. I will just strip the paint in place. Any recommendations on stripping the number boards?

Jerry: I also have a thread on LSC with this project, same title. I have read both the F40 and Super liner builds. Both are fascinating.


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## Santafe 2343 (Jan 2, 2008)

The last ones I striped, I used fine steel wool, then polished the clear number board with plastic polish, like you use on plastic headlight lenses, worked great, got it at Advanced Auto. Thanks Rex


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## WSOR (Jun 27, 2010)

Sorry its been a while but here is an update. I'm starting to working on the body modifications/additions. First I started with the plow. My E8 came with a passenger plow and as far as I know Aristo doesn't sell their freight plows. However USA Trains does and I like the detail on the F3 plow anyways. I order the plow from Reindeer Pass, which then order the part from Aristo. They only list it as having the UP paint scheme, which is what I received.









This is the standard Aristo passenger plow still mounted to the frame. 








USA Trains F3 UP as shipped with dummy coupler. 








Underside of aristo plow mount 








I needed to add some styrene to the USA plow so I could have a place to drill the the alignment pin holes. There is also a lip that I needed to shave off, which I started doing before I decided to glue on the piece. 








As you can see, the plows are pretty similar in shape 








Only difference is that the USA plow has straight sides by the steps instead of a continuous curve 








The only other modification I had to make to the plow was drilling the holes for the alignment pins and the screws. These are located on both sides of the mounting posts for the coupler. 








Here is the test fit and how it looks with the little bit of lip. I think it looks fine and wont be noticeable when its all painted. 
















In this next pic you can see the underside of the plow mounted. The mounting "holes" kinda turned into slots because the plow didn't fit close enough to the rest of the body. This is fine though because the screws are what keep the plow in place. 








Now I added the stock Aristo front coupler. It fit through the USA plow and matches up very nicely. I just need to build some mounting posts for the spring lever so it stays centered. 








So I'll be finishing up the coupler mounting whenever I get time, then I'll move onto adding mu boxes to the plow.


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## WSOR (Jun 27, 2010)

Im not doing to well on my goal of getting projects done! Its been a real long time since I last posted, so here are some updates. Finnally found some time this week during my first week of summer to work on the model. I switched gears a little bit and started working on some roof details while I waited for detail parts. I first worked on making room for the dynamic radiator section and fan housing.









I used a piece of brass as a rule for drawing the cut lines.









I started the two edges with a razor saw and cut down as far as needed 








I then cut out the rest of the opening with a rotary tool and sanded the edges until it was all square.

















Now I know why aristo didn't offer this detail! the second smoke unit sits directly under this area and I sawed off half of where the posts connected to the roof. I installed a brace between the posts which is seen in the photo after the one below.

















The platform was then constructed with some thick styrene and a rough hole was cut for the USA Trains SD40-2 fan is used.









Then a thin styrene was laid on top to finish the platform. I did this to give a lip on the edges like the other fans molded into the body. I'll be adding rivet details later when I get to painting.









WSOR 103 doesn't have a steam generator anymore, so the stack was removed. It still retains the vent though.










I got a little start on some of the nose details tonight and will be uploading some pictures of that soon!


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

This looks to be an intersting thread. I really like the WSOR paint scheme. Cannot wait to see it finished. Keep up the good work. 

Chris


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## mrh044 (Oct 11, 2008)

Nice work on the fan. Great looking project!!


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## WSOR (Jun 27, 2010)

Not too happy about the progress of this project, but my car consumed a lot of my time and money over the summer. Now that school is back in session, I won't have the time or space to work on this project probably until winter break in late December. I'd say I'm about 65% done with construction as minor details need to be added to the cab area, the rear door just needs some details and other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. But heres what I do have done from some previous work sessions since the last update. I added the MU box onto the nose and I completed the construction of the front pilot with the addition of the MU boxes. The entire project is getting a lot closer to painting! I'll just need to invest in some equipment to get that part of the job done.

Below is a MU box from a USA Trains SD40-2, mounted on the nose 









All the parts for the pilot. The pilot was earlier modified to fit the Aristo chassis









I sawed the MU boxes down so they were square









I decided I wanted the pilot to be one piece, especially since I had to cut out parts for the MU boxes.









I cut out the sections using a razor saw. It was kinda a hack job with no measurements. I had to use some styrene on the left side for filler. 









Using green putty to fill in the gaps and separations of the former two-piece pilot. 









I also figured I'd go back and redo the roof section with putty 









Once it gets painted I think the pilot will look great! 










While I'm away at college I plan to still work on modeling projects in my free time, except they will be virtual for the time being. I plan on drawing up plans for full size versions of CNW Bilevels using blueprints and the KATO HO scale models as references. I'll most likely start a separate thread once I actually start working on the CAD models. Until then thanks for all the comments! Maybe she'll be finished by January


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Sorry about the delay in responding to your request about the handrail removal.
I find they come out alright by using needle nosed pliers and prying each end alternately against a shim of wood. 
Cheers.


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## WSOR (Jun 27, 2010)

Harvey, Thanks for the tip! I think the only ones I'll have to remove are the hand rails and steps underneath the cab door because the pinstripes go through that area.


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## Bob Pero (Jan 13, 2008)

Looks like a Hancock Air Whistle on the cab roof.


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