Cotton Brute Restoration 3

 More work done today on the Brute.

The first thing I did today was rebuild the front pilot. The snowplow was up too high and was in the way of the handrail bottom mount, so I moved it down. In the meantime I found a dummy coupler to put on it. I never did like the looks of the front without a coupler, I thought the loco looked funny without one. It has one now, it is non-functional but I think it looks better.

The next thing I did was cut reliefs in the front and rear weights with the intention of installing some lights. When the loco was built it had none, but there were no surface mount LEDs at that time. Now that there are it is not too complicated to install lights in tight places.

After that I had to make a run to Nicks Trains for some supplies. I was looking for a suitable match for the paint and since the Gold Medal Model handrail stanchions had arrived I needed some brass wire to make handrails. Nicks is about the only local hobby shop left that deals in trains (exclusively so), and so I support his business any time I can.

With supplies in hand, I turned my attention to building some handrails. First the Gold Medal Models handrail stanchions were glued in place, then the brass tubing was bent to form the rails. I had one piece of the original rail left, so I was able to use that as a guide.

The body was then set aside to let the glue dry and I started in on the lights. I decided to rewire everything while I was at it, including the trucks that I had been putting off, with the proper color coded wiring for future decoder installations.

This was actually my first time working with surface mount LEDs, so I took my time and tested after the wiring to the lights was complete before installing them in their pockets.

Once the lights were installed and the wiring redone, I put the loco on the track and tested everything. All worked as it should, so I went back to the now dry shell and finished the paint and front coupler installation.

As an added bonus, the front coupler is only slightly higher than the Micro Trains coupler height gauge. I've tested it, and even though it's a dummy it is possible to connect a car to it. There is no swing to the coupler so it will probably pull anything it is coupled to off the tracks in a curve, but there it is.

I'm pretty happy with the way the handrails turned out, and the lights really add the missing element.

At this point about the only thing left to do is the front of the fuel tank and the air tank that goes between the fuel tank and front truck. I plan to scratch build it out of styrene as well, but that will wait until another day.

And with that my vacation is over. I have to go back to work tomorrow so the Brute will have to wait for a while for its fuel and air tank.