Diesel in a day: DFT from scratch

DB says: It’s been more than 10 years since I made an NZ120 loco top from scratch, so I’m going to shake the cobwebs off myself and whip up a DFT.

Before you ask, it’s not going to be cast, RP’d or etched. Instead, it will be quick to make, cost next to nothing and require almost no skill. And as long as you don’t make a complete bollox of it, will look just as good as a cast, RP’d or etched top from three feet away.

For those who haven’t scratchbuilt in NZ120 before, it’s really quite easy, so much so that I’m going to try to make it in a day if I can, and then, assuming I remember to take a few pictures, will write up the experience for a few posts on the blog. Starting now.

The night before the day following.
If you want to play along at home, you might have your own plan, but if not, never fear, for I’ve included (at the bottom of the post) one I hodgepodged up this evening, based the drawings in an old Rails article. Interestingly, or perhaps strangely, that original plan had a nose that was way too steeply raked and the position of the cab windows was incorrect as well, as were quite a few of the DFT details. To fix these I found a side-on picture of a DFT I’d taken, placed it behind the plan so it was partially see-through, and traced in the new details. I won't promise it to be a million percent accurate, but its not bad. But I digress.

Beside several copies of the plan, I’ll also need…

• A sharp knife with a fresh blade or two


• Metal straight edge ruler or something to guide that sharp knife.


• Styrene (various)


• Clear styrene (or business shirt boxing – anything see-through, thin and flat) for windows
• Wire for handrails


• Mesh for the rear radiators


• PVA, plastic, contact and super glues


• An old US N scale loco shell (almost anything EMD will do)


• Miscellaneous bits of miscellaneous stuff – wire for brake hoses, misc bits of plastic and paper of various gauges and who knows what else.


• If we get that far: paint and decals.


• Oh, and eventually an N scale sd40-2 chassis (or a dash 8 if you must) to put it on. Kato would be nice if you have one handy.

Right... I’m off to get that stuff together and clear off a few inches on the workbench. I’ve got a busy day ahead.

I don't know what the blog software or your printer will do to this plan, but you'll probably have to scale it down until the length over couplers (the "16688" dimension on the DFT side view) is a smidge over 139 mm. For folks running Windows 1992, even you can right click the above, 'Save Target As', open with Microsoft Paint, and in print setup, there is a scaling function. Or use a photocopier. Or maybe you have your own plan already. Some conditions apply. This offer not available in the Chatham Islands.