Monday, May 5, 2014

1981 Union Pacific SD45 Manifest Freight


Lead unit SD45 3605 was delivered to the Union Pacific from EMD in April of 1968, part of an order of 50 units.  All had 20 cylinder EMD 645 engines producing 3600 hp.  645 refers to the cubic inches per cylinder. (3605 was actually renumbered to number 5 in 1978, but I am going to give myself a pass on that one).

Southern Pacific Tunnel Motor SD40T-2.  8368 was used as a Lococontrol master on SP Tehachapi loop trains with receiver T-2's located as mid-train helpers.  In this case, it is just working off hours owed by the SP to the UP.  It is designated a "T" model   as the air intakes were on the lower rear to get cleaner air in tunnels and snow sheds. Beautiful Intermountain model.

I know very little about this engine other than it probably came thru acquisition and it is a GP40-2.

CN 50' plug door box car from MT

PRR 50' outside braced plug door box car from MT.  Conrail renumbering has not yet caught up to this car.

DM outside braced box car from MT.  Lightly weathered and ready to roll.

A Bachmann car from the 70's, stripped, roof walk removed, custom painted and decaled, MT trucks and couplers, brake wheel and steps. Then weathered. Oldie but a goodie.

BCOL 50' plug and sliding door box from MT.  Lightly weathered.

BN 40' plug and sliding door box, with roof walk removed, weathered.  Retains Bettendorf trucks.

RF&P 50' sliding door box from Micro Trains.  The colors on this car were outstanding, and it took quite a while before I decided to remove the roof walk and weather the car.  Bought another one to keep new.

SP 60' bulkhead flat with aftermarket lumber load

Trailer Train as above.

SSW with lumber load

Atlas CNW double plug door box.  Yellow weathers nicely.

Another short line car from MT

Hydra Cushion SP car with plug doors.  Roof walk removed.

GBW 50' box car, nicely weathered, from MT 

P&LE 50' box car from MT.  Green paint scheme declares that P&LE is part of the old Penn Central system.  Roof walk removed.

GM&O 40 footer.  Short ladders indicate this car from MT issued without roof walks.

Heavily weathered St. Louis San Francisco 50' box car from MT.

Here's one from the original MT 6-pack.  I managed to purchase one of each of the 3 road names in this package.

I removed the roof walk from this GN 50' plug door box car and weathered it some.  The paint is GN Big Sky Blue.  The car is from MT.

The Rahway Valley is represented on the Needles Division by this MT 50' outside braced box car.

Atlas 50' plug door box car, roof walk removed and weathered.  Most UP freight cars had silver trucks and silver painted on the wheel sets.


Atlas 50' double plug door box car.  Light green door probably means the car is designated for some type of special loading.

MILW outside braced 50' box car from MT, suitably weathered.

This Railbox car looks as if it has seen a lot of action. (from MT.)

Black lettering broadcasts Soo Line.  50' outside braced box car from MT.  I avoided the urge to excessively weather this car, as I made it resemble a prototype photo I had.

Another beautiful Centralia caboose

A Video of this train can be seen on YouTube at:

http://youtu.be/Rc65bdqNnt4