| The West Berlin Garden Railroad |
| The RDC Change |
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| I'm glad Aristo Craft finally got around to releasing the RDC-1. It's been "hyped-up" for over 2 years now, and thanks to the overwhelming popularity of the SD-45, Aristo Craft decided to fish while the "fish were biting", so to say. This delayed the release of ALL RDCs' for almost a year. The PRSL RDC was released on May 1st, 2002, and most of us who had them on backorder had them within a few days. Above is a picture as it was shipped from the factory. This is NOT what was advertised! Even their magazine ADs (as of June 2002) state that it has "tinted" windows..IT DOESN'T. The trucks are black, THEY'RE NOT. Aristo's newer diesels all have engineers, IT DOESN'T. To "fix" these inconsistencies is a simple task. I will briefly go through the necessary changes that you need to make so your PRSL RDC look like it was advertised.... SKILL LEVEL REQUIRED is "3" |
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| The RDC is really simple to disassemble. Flip the RDC on it's back and remove the 2 screws on each cab end. Next, remove the 3 small screws on each edge of the car. Once removed, hold the car firmly by the ends and flip it right side up. Next remove the 2 tiny screws on the roof behind the horns. Pull the cab ends gently from the body and fold down. PULL WITH CARE. The wires to the front lights are glued to the cabs.. Now pull up on the car body. |
| Welcome to GLUE GUN 101. All I can say is remove ALL carboard now. Take care with the white "V" reflector piece when removing the "CHEAP" cardboard vestibule ends from the cabs and the "V" , We need them for later. Here is a picture of what to expect.. |
| I used heavy duty poster board (Office Depot) with a foam core to duplicate the vestibule ends and create a floor for the cabs. Once you've done your cutting and fitting ,I made mine fit tight, spray the front side of each end silver. When it dried I inserted the floors, engineer, and back vestibule wall. Remember that the real front on an RDC is the end with the large passenger windows. |
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| Not much on the inside...Top L & R pictures show the cab and the two boards that are attached to the floor. Note the light bulbs just "sticking" up on the boards. The smoke unit wires are attached to one and the speaker wires to the other. Bottom Right. The "Pod" has been removed to ready the car for weathering. The black square on the top is the factory installed speaker. The SD-45 smoke unit is on the "Pod". |
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| Remove the "GOB" of glue at the end of the window panel inside the car body. Once removed, you can slide out the plastic window sheets. There are two sheets per side. One clear sheet, and one frosted sheet. I taped one side of the clear sheet with masking tape and sprayed them "Kelly Green" . This gives a nice "Budd " color to the window. I sprayed 3 coats on each clear strip. While I was painting, I removed the side truck frames (2 screws ea.) and all underbody boxes & tanks and sprayed them flat black.(factory installed these in the wrong locations) Let the windows dry for 3 hours. When dry, slide in the "Kelly Green" window first, painted side in. WHY? Because the paint won't scratch off on the inside AND, the windows will gives nice reflection of trackside buildings and trees. THEN insert the frosted sheet on top of it. REMEMBER the "V" from above?? Glue Gun it in the body as it was before you removed it..It catches smoke fluid spills and prevents light from exiting from the top of the car. |
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| Re-assemble the RDC and this is what you have. I changed the couplers, and removed the traction tires...The tires really aren't needed on the RDC. There is a groove cut into the wheel under the tire but it won't hinder it's operation. |
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