| SP 1582 | April, 2010 |
| ©2010 Daniel Cortopassi
| Please do not redistribute without permission. Usage Info |
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Minitrix H-12-44, SP 1582
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Overview
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This N scale Minitrix locomotive is one that I've had since childhood. I started out in N scale and even though my primary interest these days is HO I still have a lot of N scale. I actually sold this locomotive on eBay at one point but the buyer wasn't happy and wanted to return it. The lesson is, be very careful with descriptions on eBay. I was trying to be honest, but I said it ran and it does, but not like a modern Kato or Atlas. Anyway, I took it back somewhat reluctantly and put it back into a storage box. To add insult to injury, it arrived with one step broken off. At least the part was in the box.
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We have received inquiries about doing an N Scale DCC install video, and I think this locomotive will become part of that project. It is definitely old school, no DCC ready anything on it, so it is a good candidate. I am sure a lot of people have older locomotives sitting around that they want to keep.
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Minitrix was considered pretty good for its time, so I am curious to see what kind of performance I can get out of this thing with a modern BEMF decoder. First, though... I need to make it look like something!
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Cosmetic Changes
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I had kind of dismissed this locomotve after hearing discussion on the internet that it is not really a model of anything. I toyed with painting it purple and making it another Tuscany & Sabine Grove locomotive, lettering it for our freelanced N scale line.
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Looking at photos of real H-12-44s, though, I realized a couple of things. One, not all H-12-44s look the same. There are at least two distinct body styles, maybe more, that have the same overall shape, but differ in detail and apparently, overall length. Two, this one is actually a reasonable match for some of Southern Pacific's H-12-44s. I found a picture of SP 1582 in the black and orange tiger stripe scheme, and I knew that was the one I wanted to model. I picked this unit because of the photos I have found, the model most closely matches this one. I reserve the right to pick a different number in the future if I get better reference material.
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Originally I thought that the little openings to either side of the headlight were supposed to be numberboards. I always wondered why one was bigger than the other. Looking at photos of SP H-12-44s solved the mystery. Those openings correspond to the gyralight locations on SP units! The oval shaped one is the dual beam white light, while the smaller square one is the red emergency light.
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Because I can never do anything simple, and to make the project more challenging for the DCC video, I decided that I wanted the gyralights to work. To see if that was even feasible, I made an attempt at drilling out a Detail Associates N scale dual gyralight casting. It worked!
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By the way, in case anyone is wondering, I have only one of these. I used Photoshop magic to make it appear twice in the same image.
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Since this model was made in the bad old days when N scale locomotives had truck-mounted couplers and open pilots, the first thing I decided to do was to body mount the couplers. I had installed MT (actually Kadee... this thing is that old) couplers in the factory coupler boxes already, but I removed those and cut the boxes from the trucks. I built up a coupler mounting pad with some Evergreen styrene and glued it to the model with Ambroid Pro-Weld. The couplers themselves are Micro-Trains 1015s, mounted with the screws included with the couplers. Once I had checked them against a Micro-Trains coupler height gauge, I removed them while I do other work on the locomotive.
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This photo shows how I filled in the pilots with styrene. I did it in two steps.
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The cab end shows the first step. I cut a piece of .040 styrene to fit between the steps and cut a hole for the coupler, then glued it in place with Ambroid Pro Weld. I also glued some small styrene strips behind the pilot to reinforce the joint. I had to replace the corners at the tops of the steps with bits of .020 styrene, as two had broken and I had cut out the other two to make a modernized locomotive before I changed my mind and decided to paint it in the Southern Pacific tiger stripe scheme.
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The hood end shows step two. I cut a piece of .010 styrene to fit over the face of the pilot. I did this for two reasons. One, I wanted to reinforce the replaced corners, as they looked like something that would break easily. Second, the photos I have indicate that the pilot really shouldn't be filled in all the way to the bottom of the steps. On the prototype the pilots stopped just below the coupler. However, these units also had running boards that were suspended from the pilot and filled in some of the space at the bottom. I want to recreate these, but I also want something solid to attach them to. The .010 pilot face is cut out per the prototype, leaving part of the filler piece behind it exposed. I think that by leaving this area painted black, it should look acceptable and give a good base for the running boards.
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I also trimmed off the factory "gyralights" and filled the holes with green putty, along with the holes for the bell and horn. I will replace these pieces, but further examination of photos indicate that the light assemblies should actually be a little higher up on the hood end, so this way I can put the detail parts where they belong.
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The basic paint job is now complete. The black was easy, but the orange stripes took some time and fussing, especially on the ends (not to mention a lot of Micro-Sol). The decals were from Microscale sheet 60-71.
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The next thing is to add a horn, footboards, handrails, and any other small details that aren't yet present. The light packages are installed and drilled for .020 fiber optic strands. I have the original handrails but they are oversized so I may try making some new ones out of bits of brass wire. If they turn out good enough, I'll use those instead.
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Electronics
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I haven't settled on a decoder choice for this locomotive yet, but whatever I pick will need to 1) be small enough to fit in this tiny locomotive, and 2) have six lighting outputs so that I can operate the headlights and gyralights on both ends independently. Sound? Probabaly not. Any speaker that would fit in this thing would probably sound tinny at best anyway. |
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Review
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Right now the model runs, but not well, though I think some of that is due to poor electrical contact. I would rather not replace the motor if I can help it, but I am thinking that the motor might run okay with a good BEMF decoder. When I get around to the DCC install I will look for ways to improve the electrical path.
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Since painting and detailing this locomotive is beyond the scope of a DCC video, I am going to post my progress here, so please check back once in a while and see how the project is progressing!
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