My Model Railroad: December 21, 2011 My Y6b Conversion to a SP MC-1#4002

I purchased three Rivarossi Y6Bs over a period of time on E-Bay about 5 years ago with the intent of Kitbashing them into Southern Pacific locomotives. The Southern Pacific never owned a Y6B, they had a total of 63 Baldwin built AM, MC & MM series 2-8-8-2s. I converted two of the Rivarossi Y6Bs to AC-3 Cab Forwards earlier and the last one to a fairly close version of an MC-1 this fall. I screwed up by not checking all three very closely before I started.

When I started in on the third one I was caught off guard, when I looked at it closely there was some bad heat damage to the shell. Had I seen it before I did the two AC-3s I could have used the heat deformed shell for an AC-3 and the heat damage would have been covered up in the conversion process. I tried to repair the heat damage unsuccessfully, both the boiler/cab and the bottom are badly warped. Because the shell is too far gone to be repaired I watched E-Bay for a Y6B shell and I finally got one.

So now on with my conversion from a Y6B to a SP MC-1.

This is a nude picture of my Y6B frame/chassis without it's shell.

The Y6B frame/chassis is in exceptionally good condition and it is a very good runner. It's a later model as it uses the driver wheels to pick up power from both rails. I used a chip bridge rectifier to power up the white LED headlight so that it isn't directional and a 1N914 diode for the tender LED backup light so that it is directional.

I replaced the Rivarossi motor with a Canon EN-22 can motor, the Canon draws much less current than the original motor and has twice as much power. I'm not going to install a DCC decoder at this time.

The new shell arrived and I have installed the chassis in the bottom half of the shell.

I have completed the top shell by removing a lot of the Y6B details that aren't used on the MC-1. I installed the 1½ volt incandescent Cal-Scale marker lights and applied the decals. The marker lights are powered from a diode shunt in series with the motor.

The headlight is a 2mm white LED powered from a chip bridge diode so that the headlight remains on in both forward & reverse.

I covered the engine cab and number decals with Testors Clear Gloss then covered the entire engine with two coats of Testors Dull Coat. That process eliminates the decal backing from being seen.