1981 Santa Fe Autos and Auto Parts in N Scale (5040)

Heavily weathered SD40-2.  The walkways tend to turn grey over time as the locomotive is exposed to the elements.  This custom painted Kato unit has the usual Santa Fe roof additions; rotating beacon, raised air horns, air conditioning unit and antennae.  Side sills accurately reflects typical weathering of Santa Fe hood diesels.

Heavily weathered SD40-2.  The walkways tend to turn grey over time as the locomotive is exposed to the elements.  This custom painted Kato unit has the usual Santa Fe roof additions; rotating beacon, raised air horns, air conditioning unit and antennae.  Side sills accurately reflects typical weathering of Santa Fe hood diesels.

F45 5927 is basically an SD45 with a cowl body.  The difference between the F45 and FP45 is the lack of a steam generator (P) as they were not designed for passenger service.  The model is powered by a Kato SD45 with the body supplied by JnJ trains.  It has BLMA fans, rotating beacon, antennae, and a custom decaling and paint job.  These were challenging to build, but I had modern F units a decade before Athearn brought them to market.

The model is mildly weathered.

F45 5927 is basically an SD45 with a cowl body.  The difference between the F45 and FP45 is the lack of a steam generator (P) as they were not designed for passenger service.  The model is powered by a Kato SD45 with the body supplied by JnJ trains.  It has BLMA fans, rotating beacon, antennae, and a custom decaling and paint job.  These were challenging to build, but I had modern F units a decade before Athearn brought them to market.

While undergoing a repaint, F45 unit 5938 received an upgraded antennae and an air conditioning unit.  This JnJ shell was painted, decaled, and weathered, and fit to a Kato SD45 mechanism.  This unit also sports BLMA 48"  eight blade fans. Custom painted Santa Fe Bx 101 Atlas 60' Auto Parts car, mildly weathered.  Bx stands for box car. 60 ft. PC Auto Parts Car from MT 86ft. SP Auto Parts car.  This is a very old Atlas? car. 60 ft. Grand Trunk Auto Parts car from MT                     60 ft. Santa Fe Auto Parts car from MT    86ft. CB&Q Auto Parts car. The unpainted aluminum doors weather aluminum doors weather to shades of black. Car made by     Trainworx.                   60 ft. DD Union Pacific Auto Parts car from MT

While undergoing a repaint, F45 unit 5938 received an upgraded antennae and an air conditioning unit.  This JnJ shell was painted, decaled, and weathered, and fit to a Kato SD45 mechanism.  This unit also sports BLMA 48"  eight blade fans.

Custom painted Santa Fe Bx 101 Atlas 60' Auto Parts car, mildly weathered.  Bx stands for box car.

60 ft. PC Auto Parts Car from MT

86ft. SP Auto Parts car.  This is a very old Atlas? car.

60 ft. Grand Trunk Auto Parts car from MT

                    60 ft. Santa Fe Auto Parts car from MT

   86ft. CB&Q Auto Parts car. The unpainted aluminum doors weather aluminum doors weather to shades of black. Car made by     Trainworx.

                  60 ft. DD Union Pacific Auto Parts car from MT

1981 Santa Fe Auto and Auto Parts in N Scale (8050)

Santa Fe C30-7 leading a eastbound manifest freight.  In 1976,  GE C30-7 was introduced as the successor to the U30C locomotive and contained several internal and external design changes.  With 16 cylinders and 3000 h.p., this model was GE's challenge to the EMD SD40-2.  Between 1977 and 1982, Santa Fe purchased 157 of these units.

 EMD SD45-2 number 5661 is a 3600 h.p., 20 cylinder locomotive, representing the highest horsepower of any regular production locomotive in the 1970's.  That's 20 diesel cylinders at 645 cubic inches each.  (Today's current V-8 gasoline engines run about 300 cubic inches total.)  the diesel engine provided power to run the six electric motors, mounted one per each axle.  In reality, these locomotives are diesel electric locomotives.   Santa Fe owned 90 of these locomotives.

Weathered SD45 from Kato, custom painted with typical cab roof additions.  5430 had an interesting history, as the original 20 cylinder 3600 hp engine was replaced by a 645F3 16 cylinder engine rated at 3500 hp.  It is essentially a SD40 in a SD45 carbody.  This was done to 12 different units as an experiment to overcome the "quirky" 20 cylinder 645E3 engines.  This experiment proved to be too expensive to repeat on further units.

F45 5924 is a custom model, kit bashed from a Kato SD45 frame and a JnJ body shell.  Construction methods were shown in a previous blogs.  The 5924 has been recently repainted and had air conditioning installed along with a Sinclair antennae.

Great Northern 6O ft. DD Box from MT Roof walk removed.

Union Pacific 60 ft. box weathered, from Micro Trains

Lightly weathered 86' Auto Parts box.  Unknown manufacturer.

Rio Grande DD Waffle Box from MT

Union Pacific DD 60' Ribbed box.  Rare paint scheme.

Very old Atlas NYC Auto Parts 86 footer.  Heavily weathered.

UP heavily weathered 60 ft. box from MT.

                              Atlas GT Auto Parts 86' car.  Heavily weathered.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAHhCEglVPc

1981 N Scale Auto Rack led by SD40-2 5040

 Four EMD units lead this westbound Auto Rack train, probably train #678 from Tulsa and Memphis.  The units are SD40-2's 5040 and "snoot" 5026, FP45 5941, and F45 5938.

Three Red Caboose (now Intermountain Rwy) Bi Level auto racks are right behind the four locomotives.  These units have been previously covered in my 9/16/13 blog on auto racks led by GP38 3532.

This is Athearn's latest release, a triple deck open sided auto carrier, manufactured sometime in the 1960's.  I inserted this picture as a contrast to my modified auto racks as they would have looked like in 1981

Micro Trains ATSF triple deck "Autoveyor".  The name did not catch on in the industry. I added the side panels.

Northern Pacific triple deck auto rack recently released by Athearn.  All my open sided auto racks have been modified with aluminum side panels in the 70's and early 80's.

Athearn Frisco auto rack.  All of my auto racks are carrying new Chevrolet Impalas manufactured by Classic Metal Works.

Seabord Coast Lines 3 deck auto rack. Notice that the side panels are of different heights on many of my auto racks.

Missouri Pacific auto rack by Athearn. The autos on the lower decks are Toyotas by Kato.

The plastic Toyotas are necessary because using all CMW Impalas, the units become very top heavy and tend to topple on super elevated curves.

Another MT triple deck loaded with Impalas (supposedly).

Double deck Southern railway as built by Athearn but weathered by yours truly.

Seaboard auto rack specifically designed for truck transportation.

Wabash auto rack filled with eight Ford pick up trucks by Atlas.
Though made as 1971 trucks, they can easily pass for 1981 trucks. 

The side panels are actually plastic. Look at the end of this blog for information on where to get the plastic.

Illinois Central

Rock Island

Northern Pacific

Special limited run Erie Lackawanna from MT.

These sheets are available from JTT Architectural.  I got mine on Ebay.

For a video of this train:

               https://youtu.be/EmbsVa9djG4

Thanks for your interest!

1954 Fast Mail Express No. 8

Today's Fast Mail Express...

Santa Fe 50' Double Door Express Box Car.  There are several in this train.  The model is Con Cor and is custom painted and decaled.

Santa Fe 50' Double Door Express Box Car. These are the original paint scheme on the Express 50' Box.  In 1954, probably most had  been repainted and had express trucks replaced.  But I couldn't resist putting a few in the Fast Mail.  These models are MT.

MT 50' express cars

Santa Fe 50' Express Wood Refrigerator on express trucks.

PRR REA  70' Express baggage by Rivarossi custom painted.

Santa Fe 70' REA Express baggage by Rivarossi.  There are several in this train.

Katy 40' Express baggage by MT.

ATSF 70' baggage and mail car 2027. These cars are different from RPO's. A true Railway Post Office was dedicated to the PO and were only assigned to daily trains. 

ATSF 70' baggage and mail car 2038.  Baggage and Mail cars were on most Fast Mail Express trains.

Santa Fe RPO 75 is a true 60' Railway Post Office, as the Fast Mail Express ran daily, and usually in more than one section.

Santa Fe 60' RPO has an added skylight. 

50' Wagon Top Wood Refrigerator on express trucks.

40' REA steel refrigerator 1170

 Santa Fe 50' steel refrigerator on express trucks.  Car by MT.

Rider Express car 2602 by Rivarossi.  FRA required at least a combine to provide ridership on every fast mail train. Thanks to Rivarossi for producing these way back when!

Please view video at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCz28ROxfck&t=2s