On My Bench: Prepping a GE Boxcab for Decals
4 responses to “On My Bench: Prepping a GE Boxcab for Decals”
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I just looked up L&PS and holy smokes, this Japanese prototype model is a dead ringer! Here I was thinking the model resembled Butte Anaconda and Pacific boxcabs but this is uncanny. Don’t tell anyone, but the model itself is 1:80 scale, or ‘HOj’, which is a Japanese modeling accommodation of Japan’s prevalent 42″ gauge railways to 16.5mm gauge track. The model looks right to me, in any event, as a brawny, humming early- to mid-20th century electric loco.
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What are you using for pantographs?
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Those are the pantographs that came attached to the Japan-manufactured Dauphin model. While Dauphin’s pantographs are pretty and poseable, they would not be able to maintain contact with catenary wire or collect current. Overall the pantographs are mostly injection molded plastic parts, with a few metal components. The upper arms appear to be stiff photoetched stainless steel, the horns on the collector shoes are formed of stiff wire (either steel or stainless steel), and wispy spring springs hold the pantographs in pose but don’t produce any detectable upward pressure. A tiny screw secures the pantographs, but their alignment is maintained by precisely-fitting pegs that extend through the insulators into mounting holes in the roof.
They are hands-down the best looking HO pantographs I’ve ever seen, a nice compromise of materials and cross-sections that result in poseable and photogenic pantographs. That’s fine for me, because I’m confidently in the ‘overhead wire as scenery’ camp and prefer a more scale look and operational ease over the visual and mechanical compromises needed for reliably functioning pantographs and contact wire in HO.LikeLike
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Further Up Dunes Junction 
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