Aristo SD45 weights & railing installation vignette

Aristo SD45 weights & railing installation Vignette
Ted Doskaris
GE-B
(August 31, 2008 original material)
May 24, 2009

Since I had not done this task in quite sometime - it having becoming sort of a lost art - I thought I would share the method I use on what is now my 9th Aristo-Craft SD45.

It is to be appreciated that up to now the SD45 does not come with factory installed side railings like that of the newer Aristo Dash 9 and GP40 locos.
For future SD45 production runs, It would be a welcomed upgrade for Aristo to have the factory install the railings, but until then it will have to be done by us customers.

Having taken advantage of an Aristo special sales offer, I purchased a Santa Fe SD45 loco in the blue & yellow livery to operate with the two Kodachrome ones I have.
Shown below is that loco after I installed extra weights and the railings:

This new old stock (NOS) out of the box Aristo Santa Fe SD45 will be used as an example to describe and show how the optional extra weights and its railings had been installed.

EXTRA WEIGHTS INSTALLATION:

Since the Aristo factory did not pre-install the loco railings on the SD45, it is best to first install the extra weights.

In order to install the extra weights, the plastic fuel tank must be removed, but unlike newer Aristo diesel loco designs like the GE Dash-9, the body shell must be removed first.

Some folks only remove the long hood, but I found it very easy to remove the entire body shell. There are 10 small screws that retain it - all located on the underside of the loco  having engraved arrows in the chassis pointed to most of the screws that are allocated to the long hood.

Once the body shell is taken off of the loco's chassis, the electrical connectors are easily unplugged.

The SD45 plastic fuel tank has 4 plastic tab clips (2 on either side) rather than screws that are meant to secure it to the loco chassis.
With the body shell out of the way, the fuel tank must be removed, and this can be done by prying its plastic tabs from the top side chassis slots as shown in the below picture:

An air gap is visible between the tank and chassis once the tabs are popped out.
(Sometimes you can poke a small flat blade screwdriver into the sides of the tabs to help pop them loose from the chassis slots.)
Once one side is popped loose, the other side comes off easier.

With the fuel tank removed, the single factory installed weight can be seen in the center.

As can be seen below, the Aristo factory used glue in addition to the screw / bolt to secure the standard weight. No doubt this makes it very awkward if one were to try to remove it, but it most certainly won't come loose from vibration during shipping or operation of the loco.

Shown below is the Aristo SD45 extra weight set.
Although the current Aristo policy is to provide weights no longer made of lead, the ones I received were indeed lead, and as such at a collective 3.52 lbs weigh almost twice as much as their zinc counterparts to the benefit of the loco's traction improvement for the purpose of which they are intended.

As can be seen in the above picture, one side of the weight includes a recess - apparently intended for keeping the screw / bolt fastener head below the surface of the weight to minimize any fitment interference once installed in the fuel tank area of the loco. However, the factory did not appear to have reason to make use of this feature.

The SD45 is standard with only the center weight installed by the factory using both the bolt and glue!
Use the factory provided washers and bolt as shown below to fasten the extra weight to the underside of the loco.
The extra weights are installed on either side of the factory installed center weight.

To guard against operational vibration potentially working loose the weight, I chose to use an additional lock washer (to be placed under the nut) that was not supplied with the weight set as I did not want to add glue to the weight like the factory did.

When securing the weights, provide for a small amount of clearance on either side of them for the slots meant for the plastic fuel tank tab clips to pop in.



The below picture shows the chassis side of the loco's frame that include the projecting bolts, fastening washers and nuts that secure the weights.


RAILING INSTALLATION:

Shown below is the box compartment that houses the pre-painted railings.
As can be seen, the railings are located on the bottom foam section covered by a cardboard flap.

I have installed the railings on many SD45s in the past, and this most recent example has caused a refresh in my memory for the lost art of doing so since I purchased the Santa Fe SD45 having taken advantage of a sales promo.

As a preliminarily measure, it is best to first see how the railings' wire and spring clips seem to fit into their intended openings without actually forcing them in.
This particular example SD45 seems to have had a fairly thick coat of factory paint applied to its metal railings - more so than I recall on prior ones.

For all the SD45s I have done, I first had to use a pin vise with a #53 drill to clean out the paint from the round holes intended for the railing wires to fit into the side of the loco's cab.

Typically, the pilot hole near the step that is meant for the side railings needs cleaning out, too, to allow the wire to fit into it:


For installing the side railings, I typically use a plastic mallet to seat its stanchions spring clips - progressing one by one - into the slots along the side of the loco. Because of the paint build up on this example loco’s railings, I first had to somewhat squeeze the spring clips with a pair of small needle nose pliers. If this needs to be done, do not squeeze the spring clips completely shut. In some drastic cases, filing excess paint off the surfaces of the spring clips may be needed, too. MLS FORUM member, Jim Carter, presented a good tip on how not to squeeze the tabs too much by inserting the tip of an Xacto blade placed between the clip opening, thus, serving as a thickness gauge. Squeezing the clips closed against the blade makes for a consistency, too.
Comment: Having since purchased a pair of USA Trains SD70s, I noticed its railing clips (in contrast to Aristo’s) were mostly too loose fitting when attempting to install them - so these clips had to be pried open some by inserting an Xacto blade tip with a slight twist motion. Perhaps this would be a better approach for Aristo to adopt so long as they advise the perspective customer, accordingly.  

(Note: The stanchions’ tops of the side railings should be steadied with your fingers whilst using the mallet to seat the spring clips at the bottom of the stanchions.)

Whilst discovering the hard way that the paint was too thick on the stanchion clips, sometimes things don't go right. Since many of the slots along the side of the loco are very close to the edge of the plastic frame, they risk being broken.

Note the inconsistency of the slot proximity between the two sides of the loco.

This is not limited to only the Santa Fe SD45 road name. Apparently other SD45s exhibit this, too. In this regard, shown below is an example Aristo Southern Railroad  SD45 left side view of the side railing slot locations with these slots being position reasonably good.

However, as shown below this right side view of the same loco side railing slot locations are way too close to the bottom edge and risks breakage of the plastic when installing the side railings.

Hopefully, for subsequent factory production run of SD45s, Aristo will have taken notice and resolved the tendency for the slots on whatever side of the loco being too close to the bottom of the frame.

Shown below is the one example broken slot on the Santa Fe SD45 that I repaired using CA glue. Once the glue was dry, and before I did the re-installation, I squeezed this particular stanchion clip closed and took more paint off it with the file. (Paint touch up matching the loco’s yellow is needed to make for a better appearance than what is seen in the picture to cover up that CA glue residue. (Presumably, Floquil - F110178, ATSF Yellow will work.
See Tester’s catalog listing for Floquil Classic Railroad Enamels at link, http://www.testors.com/img/testors_catalog.pdf )

When all the stanchions are seated, use the mallet with a short wood dowel to seat the railing wire into the hole near the pilot step as shown below:

The pilot railings require a little more preparation.
I used miniature files to clean out the paint from the rectangular slots as shown below:

Again, because of the excess paint, I partially squeezed the stanchion spring clips and also filed some of the paint off of both sides of the clips surfaces.


Once the preparation is completed, install the pilot end railings as shown below using a plastic mallet with the wood dowel as a "buffer".
(Note: Like previously described for the side railings, the stanchion should be steadied with your finger whist striking with the mallet as done with the side railings.)


Shown below is the new Santa Fe SD45 with its railings installed:

The completed SD45 with the installed two extra lead weights and its railings measured about 14 lbs.

For folks interested in the SD45's electrical internal workings, See Greg Elmassian's evaluation at the link below:
http://www.elmassian.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=271:sd45&catid=14:motive-power&Itemid=313

END