48 Class – A first look

The Auscision Models 48 class.

Straight out of the box, the model is superb. Auscision have once again lifted the bar. I chose to disassemble a non sound unit.

Removing the body is not an easy task. The couplers and body mounting screws are removed easily enough, but then it gets tricky. The hoods/cab sub-assembly is attached to the running boards by six ‘clips/lugs’ that have been moulded along the bottom edge of the hoods. This whole assembly then fits onto the chassis with the lugs going into recesses in the main chassis girders. I was a bit disappointed in the way these lugs are designed, as the main chassis girders are quite prominent below the running boards, and these lugs consequently are also very prominent.

By using a small screwdriver blade inserted behind the lugs, and after much poking and prodding around, the body was finally released. I will fashion some pieces of brass strip that can be inserted behind the clips, all at once, to hopefully make body removal easier on the next one.

Once removed, the lugs were the first things to go, being snipped off with a Zuron cutter. The left over lugs were then cleaned up, along with the inside of the hood mouldings. The running board sub-assembly was then glued to the hoods/cab sub-assembly using MEK. I also found that some of the clear tape inside the hoods that was holding the lighting wiring in place, was enough to prevent the body from slipping on and off easily. The tape was trimmed away from the hood sides and just left attached to the underside of the hood roof.

The sideframes were very easy to remove. They are of a similar design to those on the 45 class. Using some styrene strip, small pieces were cut to size to fill the gaps in the main girders. These were superglued in place. Small pieces of styrene rod were also fixed in place to continue the piping across.

Initially, when test fitting the body back onto the chassis, I thought there was something fouling behind the pilots. I found that the plastic girder mouldings were protruding ever so slightly past the ends of the diecast part. These were filed back.

As mentioned above, this unit was a non-sound version, so a Loksound Select decoder was fitted and a new speaker enclosure fabricated from styrene to suit two sugar cube speakers.

The next task will be to mask the cab windows and dullcote the body in preparation for weathering. The chassis and sideframes will be given a coat of Krylon Camo brown, again in preparation for weathering.