Completed the Erie Built Upgrade that started in July of 2020

If you look back at the posing in July of 2020, you will see that I upgraded the drive line of the A-B-A set of these large engines. They were factory painted but had problems with their paint job. So, I had to do some work to get them to look better. Here we can see that I added he missing engine numbers in the number boards. I also put in reflectors in the headlights and removed the silvered backing of the MV lenses. I added constant directional lighting as well. I stayed with the MV Lenses as they were bulbous as the headlight glass was on the prototype. 

Here you can see that I added additional decals used by the PRR to show the front of the engine, as well as the lettering along the bottom batten strip for fuel, electrical connections and water. The large engine number was the one I replaced for the wrong number the painter had put on the unit. I sanded off the decal, sprayed some gloss on the area and renumbered. 

Now the side has more detail. I could not bring myself to sand off all the lettering and redo the side stripe however. Actually, as the engines were repainted after servicing, the side stripe got wider. As I model 1956, this was well after they were introduced and many of them had wider stripes, as well as modified pilots. So, I went with that. 

 I added the front air hose to the pilot opening and that filled it some. I also used a new Kadee coupler, which has a beefy look. I had to completely disassemble all 18 gear boxes, however, as they had a lot of noise. Turns out they had not been lubricated at the factory very well. It took three days to get everything lubed and reassembled. The engines now run great and sound terrific with that larger motor. They have a heavy rumble as they go by. I love it!