Dash 8-40CW's with Manifest Freight

The Santa Fe ordered 152 of these units from GE between 1992 and 1993. They were the predecessors to the Dash 9-44CW's, which had better adhesion trucks and 3-400 more horsepower, as well as better fuel consumption.

As far as the models go, these units pale in comparison to the Kato Dash 9-44CW's. The made in China stamping is the first indication that this would be a poor performing unit, which it is in every way. As with the BNSF, I shall be retiring these Super Fleet units first.

The first car in the consist is the Rio Grande gondola.  All my gondolas on my layout are heavily weathered, as you will see in the following.

CB&Q gondola.  Notice weathering on trucks and wheels.

Santa Fe 60' waffle box car.  MT car issued by Lowell Smith.

Santa Fe 60' DD Hi Cube boxcar.  MT car custom painted and decaled.  Bx-138 class boxcar, modeled after photo from the book Santa FeFreight in Color...The Series. 

The covered gondolas from Micro Trains are really cool models, but way to shinny out of the box.  Weathering on the coverings is a must.

Mildly weathered Chicago and Eastern Illinois gondola.

Couple of examples on a Detroit, Toledo and Ironton gon and a Western Pacific covered gondola.



Back in the late eighties, I spotted a Santa Fe manifest freight heading through Cajon Pass with four of these cars in a row. A few years ago a company in Oregon called LBF made these cars available, whereas I quickly purchased four of them.  I have not heard much lately from this company, but I got these, as well as a UP model.



I think this looks pretty cool!  All slightly weathered.

Covered hopper with replacement hatch and evidence of repair on left.

Custom painted and decaled 50' GN boxcar.  You can see a prototype photo of this car on page 69 of the book "Great Northern Equipment Color Pictorial" by Scott R. Thompson.

UP center depressed flat car with load.  Strapped down, and industrial decals added to whatever this thing is.

Heavily weathered UP 60' single door boxcar.

Atlas tank car from the 70's (?) upgraded with Gold Medal Models brass end plates, walkways and railings.  Really improves the appearance of this model and brings it up to 21st century specifications.  Note the weathered trucks and especially treatment of the MT wheels.

Detail of the rust weathering flowing down from the top of car.

Pyrofax Gas tank car, released originally by Atlas in very late 90's.  The plastic railings are much improved over previous releases.  This tank is still available today.

MR 60' waffle car, slightly weathered.  I have another of these cars weathered much heavier.  Yellow cars look great with a little rust applied.  The photo robs the cars of the subtle weathering applied here.

ATSF 60' single door boxcar.  This is an Atlas model custom painted and decaled.  This Bx-101 car is turning pink with age.  Notice the uncommon black Santa Fe lettering in the 10' Cirlce Cross.  Note the contast in color with the repainted wide cupola caboose, a very nice Atlas model. (I added the caboose to this photo just for contrast.)

 

Thanks for viewing this blog.

 

You can see a video of this train on YouTube at the following link:



                                             http://youtu.be/uFFM92d4b80