Burlington Northern EMD E9Am #9925

[Deleted]

Growing up in the Chicago area, WGN TV had a morning kid's show called "Ray Rayner and Friends". It had classic Warner Brothers cartoons, Chelveston the duck(a real white duck), weather, traffic, Cubs and White Sox highlights from the previous day and the INFAMOUS...."Do It Yourself Project".

The Do It Yourself Project was intended to get kids interested in crafts. The segment would start with the "prototype" done by Ray's producer, which was done very well, and a list of needed materials. Then Ray would "attempt", and attempt is an excellent description, to replicate what the producer had built. By the time Ray was done, there stuff everywhere on the table, floor and Ray himself! At times the end product didn't resemble the producers built item in the very least. You'd swear Ray had used different materials and was trying to build something else!. Kids liked it for it was something to build, parents liked it because it was one, comic relief, and second, surely they could do better working with junior and/or missy.

My build of BN commuter E9Am #9925 is circa late 70's into the early 80's. BN changed the rear HEP arraignment so much you need a score card. This is the version with the dual exhausts with egg shaped mufflers for the Cummins and no cover over the cooling fan situated in the rear hatch.



Let's say that if you want to really learn how to build a BN E9Am, you read John(onequicknova)'s build. John's build is that of  Ray Rayner's producer......this is HOW IT SHOULD LOOK. My build is what Ray Rayner would have done. It kinda looks like a BN E9Am, but its far from perfect and should be good for a bunch of laughs. As Clint Eastwood muttered as "Dirty" Harry Callahan "A man's got to know his limitations"

BN 9925 was one of the bookends of the suburban fleet. It was built in August 1954 as Chicago Burlington & Quincy E9 #9995, the highest numbered E9 on the Q. It was renumbered to BN 9995 upon the merger and was rebuilt for full time suburban service by Morrison Knudson in June 1973. After rebuilding it received number second BN 9925.

Now for some knowledge...... The first E's rebuilt by M-K for BN in beginning in March 1973 were EMD model E9A's, emerging as second 9910 - 9925. The next batch out of M-K beginning in November 1973 were EMD E8A's. They received numbers second 9900-9904. All these rebuilds rear hatch was the same size as when the units had steam generators.

BN had four un-rebuilt E8A's sitting in the weeds at the West Burlington shops for years until 1978 when it determined they needed more power for the commuters. These units had larger rear panels installed for their HEP. Their number were second 9905-9908. Second number 9909 was never filled.   

I'm starting with the difficult parts of the build first. This would be rear HEP hatch, pipes to the forward HEP radiator cooling fans, back door, porthole removal, front pilot and battery boxes in fuel tank. Everything else is straightforward, or at least I hope.

ALL BN commuter E's had a flat panel on the rear hatch for the single 36" cooling fan. Some E's got a pagoda to cover and protect the fan, others like 9925 did not, or at least I have no photos of 9925 in BN service, with a cover over the single fan.

I first removed all the steam generator vents and exhaust which is cast on the model. I sanded the area smooth, why I don't know for the next step rendered all that work a giant waste of time. Working from a roof top photo of the 9925 sitting waiting for a buyer at Larry's Truck & Electric, I marked out the flat area with masking tape. I then removed the material in the center of my masking tape box. When I was pleased with the squareness for my flat box after filing, etc., I used some 0.060" thick styrene I cut from a sheet. Its not thick enough to compensate for the curve of roof. So I extended the flat on all four sides with some strip styrene. I made sure the joint between the strips and the block were smooth.

Next in preparation for the fan, I found dead center of the panel and marked it for future drilling and reaming. Now it was time to mount the square in the rear hatch.





 

[Deleted]

The BLI E8 model may be superior to the Proto 2000 model in some areas. The rear door on the Proto model is not that good. But, the BLI model is simply horrible. No use doing a lot of detail work and leaving the back door area untouched.

Here is a photo of the stock BLI rear door minus the cheesy delrin diaphragm. One, the door is about two scale feet too short. Second, the delrin diaphragm is flat out ugly.




The solution is to add a back door from the Details West A-unit dress up kit, which was originally produced to upgrade your Athearn/Globe or blue box F7. This DW part has been on the market for a number of years, more like.....decades, but it is a 100%  improvement over BLI's back door.

First order of business is to add some strip styrene to the face of part that surrounds the door. The "face" on the prototype is actually two I-beams with the buffer on the bottom and a cap on top welded to the I-beams and body.





Next up we remove the cast on door and the necessary material and fit the DW door in place.




Then we glue the face on that surrounds the door. The back up light is also done. On the BN commuter E's all the lower ribs on the back are removed. Only the top six remain.




I think its a BIG improvement.

[onequiknova]

I bet you'll finish yours before I finish the one I started over year ago.

[Deleted]

May 8, 2014 12:53:58 GMT -8 onequiknova said:

I bet you'll finish yours before I finish the one I started over year ago.

Still interested why you think the pagoda you scratch built is a tad too tall.

[wsor]

I just find it interesting that a lot of the prototypes of these E-units builds are still extant. A fair number have come through Horicon for paint.



Sorry I don't have any roof pictures. 

[onequiknova]

Hey look. It's got a pergola.

How many of these E's were actually scrapped? There are a fair number in museums and a handful pulling company trains around. I know one from IRM was gutted to repower an E8B of theirs. Did that hulk get scrapped?

[Deleted]

May 9, 2014 13:46:40 GMT -8 onequiknova said:

Hey look. It's got a pergola.

How many of these E's were actually scrapped? There are a fair number in museums and a handful pulling company trains around. I know one from IRM was gutted to repower an E8B of theirs. Did that hulk get scrapped?

But in this photo after retirement it doesn't.




It also has lost its red light under the headlight. 9925 and two other E9Am'ss were sent down south for a proposed commuter service that never materialized. Did 9925 get the hutch after BN/Metra service or before?

[jbilbrey]

May 9, 2014 12:00:52 GMT -8 wsor said:

I just find it interesting that a lot of the prototypes of these E-units builds are still extant. A fair number have come through Horicon for paint.



Sorry I don't have any roof pictures. 

Ah yes, Thomas' Dad.  This ex BN got its Blue & White paint following its sale to the Nashville & Eastern Railroad (NERR) as it was investigating the creation of a commuter line (which became the Music City Star).  We had just wrapped up a second weekend of "Day out with Thomas" when another member spied 9925 in its [then] new paint and remarked, "I guess that is Thomas' Dad over there."  The person who designed the paint scheme was not amused.  Later, most of the E's were sold when the NERR purchased some former Amtrak F40PH's.

For a while, Nashville was the home of one of the largest number of existing E's with former CB&Q, NYC, and PRR E's all residing on NERR tracks.   The TCRM would run excursion trains with 4 and even 5 of them on the point of their trains.  Fun times...

As far as roof photos of 9925, here is a link to one following its sale to LTEX.  I cannot comment what, if anything, the NERR changed prior to its sale:

www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1728807

James Bilbrey

LaVergne, TN

[stevef45]

those reporting marks are for San Luis and Rio Grande, did they purchase it for there pullman service?

[Deleted]

I've NEVER been pleased with my blanking of portholes on an EMD E8/9. I can always see the where the window used to be and after seeing John's(Onequicknova) work on the porthole removal on his Rock Island E8A and the nose job on the Rock Island E7A I know its possible to do better.

I followed the technique John shared with us on his Rock Island EMD E8A on my BN EMD E9Am. I did one side of the locomotive and the results are in.......BLARNEY BATMAN!!!!!! I'VE NEVER HAD RESULTS LIKE THIS!!!!!

I spot primed the shell and could see some imperfections like one window where the putty shrunk, so I again followed his instructions and re-primed. It looks a little funky because the area around the location of the now removed porthole window has a little extra paint.

So what do you think? Is it okay?

[onequiknova]

I think you've got it Jim. It usually takes me two or three light coats of primer with block sanding between coats to make it perfect. The primer serves two purposes. It help identify problem areas, but also serves as a filler if sanded.

[071]

Looks nice and clean to me. I have attempted this once on a coach and while there were no bubbles there is definitely some 'sinkage' where the blocked up section is still noticeable. I need to go back and redress it. Practice makes perfect I guess.

[lvrr325]

SL&RG is an Iowa Pacific property. They own 8 or 10 of these BN commuter E's per a recent Trains roster, plus the "DL&W" pair.

[Deleted]

More plugged portholes.




The Cummins HEP genset roof pipes between the forward radiator and the rear.

On 9925 the HEP roof hardware is clamped to the roof with four per pipe straps. In order to try to duplicate this I used 0.046" brass "wire" from Detail Associates for the pipes. The unions are is 0.010" strip styrene. The straps is made out of DA flat brass stock. I rested the "pipes" on some styrene blocks. On the prototype the strap wraps around the pipe which keeps them off the top of the locomotive. I admit, that I cheated a little with the blocks and only a partial strap. But, when I did RTA #511, I used PSC brass pipe clamps which look the same as my hand bent "clamps" and the blocks sit the "pipes" on the roof like the PSC detail parts which are either no longer available or extremely hard to locate.

[Deleted]

Pipes!!!!!

[Deleted]

I'm exhausted!

I fabricated the exhaust stacks and mufflers for the #9925 out of brass with a little plastic. The mufflers on the 9925 are egg shaped or oblong like many car mufflers. In order to achieve this, I found some soft bendable brass tubing by K&S on Walthers site. I ordered it, not knowing really what to expect. What I found was it is easy to bend and shape but not too easy to bend. The pipes leading out of the locomotive to the muffler and out of the muffler is regular brass tubing. I bent that and later found a little time over the flame from a disposable lighter softens the regular brass tubing and makes working with it easier. Not as easy as the soft bendable brass tube, but much easier than if I hadn't heated it.

On the prototype the pipe that leads out of the engine room connects with the muffler, high. The exhaust pipe out of the muffler exits the muffler, low. I soldered the brass tube to the soft bendable brass tube. To model, the straps to hold the muffler to the locomotive body, I used some 0.010" strip styrene CA'd to the brass.

The mufflers on the prototype are silver in color, so for now, the model mufflers are loose and not attached to the model.

[Deleted]

I got really grabby and a little bit horny....




The roof of BN 9925 and many or all of the BN E's had these grabs. They were installed on the E's by the Burlington Route and survived through the conversion to HEP and subsequent enhancements to the HEP by BN. The grabs are made out of 0.012" brass wire.



Horns, roof grabs, rotary beacon, radio antenna and cab air vent.







The nose grabs are straight grabs which I made myself out of 0.012" brass wire.  The long grab under the cab window is scratch built with the middle legs being soldered to the main body of the wire. The bottom foot platform is an Evergreen styrene L-bracket I cut down to make it smaller.

The nose grab iron systems was installed originally by the Burlington and survived into BN commuter service.  The bottom and long side nose grab are a scale 6' in length. I layout of the grabs was covered with copies of original Q engineering drawings in the Burlington Route Historical Society or BRHS issue number 10 which covered the Q's E's from the E5 to the E9.




The nose MU door is a Highliner etching. I traced out the door on the nose and removed the material. I then used some styrene to back the MU door so the door fits flush with the nose, like the prototype. I also drilled out the nose for the MU signal hoses and removed the louvers on the nose as these had been removed when the ex-Q E's were rebuilt by M-K.

[stevef45]

Man between you and onequicknova, you guys got the E's and F's down pat!! I seriously envy you two as you've built more models in the 5 1/2 months this year then i've been able to finish over the last 2 LOL.


Can you get some more close up's of the HEP exhaust and also how you made it? My NJ Transit GP40PH-2B project will require a hep exhaust and i'de like to see how i should go about it.

[Deleted]

They say "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" or "If you can't beat them, join them". Since I'm not the brightest bulb on the porch, I mostly followed along how John(Onequiknova) did the pilot on his BN E-unit build.

Here

The pilot on the BN commuter E9Am's was vertical with little or no slope. There is WAY too much slope on the BLI pilot, in fact the passenger pilot on the BLI model is really not very good. The Highliner pilot is not a slanted but still too slanted for a true BN commuter unit. 

Like John, I started with the Highliners passenger pilot. First, I cut the pilot portion off, the passenger pilot, supplied with with the BLI model, leaving only the anti-climber.

I then marked the Highliner pilot and removed some material on the sides to get the pilot face to be vertical like the prototype. I then removed some material with a file on the bottom of the pilot face to straighten and flatten the bottom.

This leaves us with crooked steps on the Highliner pilot face. I marked the highliner pilot face with a Sharpie, scribed a cut line and remove the edge of the Highliner pilot face to allow the grafting of some styrene to solve the step problem.





I used some styrene which I worked so it was curved. I then cemented it to the Highliner pilot and let it dry. Working from prototype photos, I shaped the styrene extension. I added the etched corner step from Highliners for a passenger style pilot.







Now I get to do the other side.

[Deleted]

May 24, 2014 22:13:30 GMT -8 stevef45 said:

Man between you and onequicknova, you guys got the E's and F's down pat!! I seriously envy you two as you've built more models in the 5 1/2 months this year then i've been able to finish over the last 2 LOL.


Can you get some more close up's of the HEP exhaust and also how you made it? My NJ Transit GP40PH-2B project will require a hep exhaust and i'de like to see how i should go about it.

To do the exhaust you need:

Brass tube for the pipes

Soft brass tube for the mufflers

Soldering iron

Flux

Solder

Pliers or vise to make the muffler or soft brass tube oblong

Lighter












1. Figure the length and shape of your muffler. Cut a piece of the soft brass tube, dress the ends square with a file and carefully press it into the shape you need.

2. Using a disposable lighter or other heat source. Heat the small hard brass tube which will be the pipe from locomotive body to muffler. You don't need it melting. Just a few seconds under the flame of the lighter is enough to soften the small brass tube.

3. Bend and cut the pipe leading from the locomotive to the muffler.

4. Solder the this pipe to the larger soft brass tube. The solder will fill the end of your assembly.

5. Determine the shape of the exhaust pipe leaving the muffler

6. Heat the small brass tube again where it will be bent. The heat greatly aids in making the bending easier.

7. Solder the exhaust pipe coming out of the muffler to the muffler, this will fill the other end.

[onequiknova]

Fantastic work Jim.

[Deleted]

May 26, 2014 16:18:38 GMT -8 onequiknova said:

Fantastic work Jim.

Sprout thanks the Master.

[stevef45]

wow thats an awesome tutorial Jim! Thanks.

[nightmare0331]

That looks amazing Jim!

Can't wait to see more photos...both in progress and finished.

Kelley.
www.dufordmodelworks.com

[Deleted]

Getting closer.

Still have to put the small red light under the headlight and the fuel tank/battery box......

For a model that is the cream of the crop of E8/9's, BLI threw snake eyes when it comes to the tooling of the gas tank and back door. The back door is horrid tooling, the fuel tank is a close second.

In his thread a couple of years ago on building a Rock Island E8A, John(Onequiknova) pointed out the reason for the incorrect "slot" in the fuel tank to clear the engine room ladder, is because the tank is tooled too wide. Maybe they tooled up the chassis and tank and THEN tooled the body and found they made a mistake on the tank and the chassis? Don't know, but it needs to be corrected.

After staring at photos of BN E9Am's or E9Au's, pick your model designation, the fuel tank/battery box on the these units are shaped differently from units in photos that are as built. So, I'm going to slim down the chassis, like John did in his build, and scratch build a suitable fuel tank/battery box.

Its after going through this much effort, that I begin to question my SANITY in building these Chicago commuter E-units!

[onequiknova]

I like it.

It appears to me that MK replaced the fuel tanks on these units. They appear to have a rectangular cross section with symmetrical radiuses on all four corners.

The pilot came out nice, though I believe the HL draft gear opening is too narrow for the BN units. I plan to reshape mine a bit.

How do you plan to model the body louvers?

[Deleted]

May 28, 2014 15:41:46 GMT -8 onequiknova said:

I like it.

It appears to me that MK replaced the fuel tanks on these units. They appear to have a rectangular cross section with symmetrical radiuses on all four corners.

The pilot came out nice, though I believe the HL draft gear opening is too narrow for the BN units. I plan to reshape mine a bit.

How do you plan to model the body louvers?

I have the Micromark or Archer louver decals.

[Deleted]

One of the biggest gaffs in the tooling of the BLI E8/9 is the fuel/water tank. The slot to clear the engine room ladder is just so wrong. The good news is that for BN commuter E's the factory BLI tank is the wrong shape and does not have the battery boxes as part of the tank structure. The bad news is you now have to scratch build a fuel tank.

When M-K did the rebuilds of the BN E's they changed the fuel tank. As built the E8's and 9's had a combination fuel and water tank. Since commuter units with HEP have no steam generator, they have no need for thousands of gallons of water. M-K fabricated a tank which has a very rectangular cross section with rounded corners. When the battery boxes were shifted from the walls of the unit in the steam generator area to the fuel tank, this resulted in doors with EMD latches being installed.

BN 9908 perfectly illustrates the fuel/battery box.




The factory BLI tank.




The BLI tank is about 0.030" thick. I cut some 0.030" styrene to fabricate into the new fuel/battery box. The flat for the battery box doors is 0.010" styrene. The radius on the edges of the tank I made with the use of files and sanding sticks.  I still need to add some stripe styrene to the top of the tank and battery boxes. I also need to install the EMD door latches on the battery box doors.







I do need to remove material for the BLI chassis to give depth to the new fuel/battery box tank.

[buffalobill]

Jim: Awesome job on this build. How is working on the BLI unit versus your standard Proto units. I have two of the BLI undecs waiting to become BN E-9-A RB's. I am think one early, and a later version. Following your's and John's project units. Tribute units so to speak. Now if we could only get decent models of the Budd bi-levels, I'd be set. Looks good.
Bill