Monday, April 29, 2013

Westbound Manifest Freight led by SD40-2 5040

A typical Santa Fe manifest freight.....



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.

Freshly painted ATSF "snoot" SD40-2 loco.  Every diesel on your Santa Fe roster does not have to weathered as diesels are constantly being repainted.  Additional antennae on roof establish this loco as capable of being operated by remote control.

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.

Before you weather your precious, expensive, N Scale locomotive, do some research and find representative prototypes for you to copy.   Above are some of the reference photos I used before starting the weathering.  I used a great resource, Railroad Picture Archives.   The website is at:
 
 
You can search by locomotive type or in some cases by railroad, then by type on that railroad

Micro Trains 60' double door plug boxcar.

Gondolas should be beat up and heavily weathered
MT center beam and Bulkhead flat

More GT 60' action

I once saw an article in Model Railroader that I knew I would have to reproduce some day.  That's it!

One of my favorite boxcars on my layout.  This is a very old MRC 50' boxcar with the roofwalk removed, custom painted, decaled and weathered.  This is a rather unique boxcar in that the decals are decades old Walthers N Scale decals, and this is one of the first models I painted and decaled some 30 years ago!  Try finding Hydroframe-60 decals somewhere.

One of two on my layout, lightly weathered

Another of my favorites, A Bx-138 60' double plug box.  It was stripped, custom painted and decaled, and lightly weathered. This is the as delivered paint job from Thrall manufacturing.

Special Edition 60' "Waffle" boxcar
Heavily weathered gondolas (Micro Trains)

Custom painted and decaled GN plug and sliding door boxcar.  This car features billboard lettering.  This car has one of seven different paint jobs on this class of car.*


Stock MT car, part of the second Western Road 5-Pack featuring Santa Fe plug door boxcars, sponsored by "N Scale Collectors"
Custom painted 50' Shock Control car.


One of two custom Santa Fe single door 60' boxcars on my layout.  Painted with white added to the Indian Red paint of the Santa Fe to represent fading to a "pink" level.

Two mildly weathered cars
PC cars were always thoroughly weathered!

Mildly weathered
 

I detailed the equipment load, which made it a lot more interesting.  ATSF 90000 is a one of a kind flat on the Santa Fe.
Custom 50' box, a holdover from the 50's.  This is and old MRC car, recycled with roofwalk removed.  Caboose is a Ce-6 with as delivered black platforms and steps.

 
* Please see N Scale Railroading magazine's Nov 2005 issue for my article titled "Great Northern's Colorful Boxcars" for more information on the different paint schemes of GN boxcars.



You can find a video of this train on YouTube at:


                                                http://youtu.be/mcp22y2WCUY

Monday, April 15, 2013

Eastbound Manifest Freight led by SD39 4013

While Santa Fe was a leader in promoting TOFC/COFC traffic, boxcars, hoppers and  other revenue cars still dominated rail traffic.  Train types included unit coal and grain trains, high priority manifest, regular manifest, vehicle trains, and so on.  Some had regularly scheduled motive power, but oftentimes, Santa Fe just assembled motive power of what was around, calculated tonnage vs. horsepower/tractive effort, and sent the train rolling.  Today's train would be a typical manifest freight with power of different types, and could be run as an "extra" with designation "Extra 4013".

A video of this train is posted on YouTube at:

                      http://youtu.be/c-TijDkzZdU

All the diesels in this train were custom painted and decaled, and weathered by the author.

This manifest freight is lead by SD39 4013.  This model was made from a SD40 as they shared the same body.  Difference?  Only two radiator fans instead of three, as the SD39 has only a 12 cylinder turbocharged 645 diesel engine (2300 hp) as opposed to the SD40's 16 cylinder 3000 hp engine.  The antennae placement differs as the SD39 has it mounted on a sheet metal plane above the sandbox with external wiring connecting it to the cab. The SD39 manufactured by EMD was intended for use on local freights, but tht never prevented Santa Fe from using it in Class One mainline service.  The model is mildly weathered.

U36C 8759, 3600 horsepower unit purchased by Santa Fe in the 1970's.  Weathered unit sporting air conditioning, rotating beacon and radio antennae.  This model started as a Kato U30C,  and I converted it to a U36C using a N Scale of Nevada conversion kit.  Occasionally you can find these kits on Ebay.  U stands for "Universal" locomotive, 36 for 3600 horsepower, and C for three axle trucks.
 

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.
Kato SD45, weathered with a little rust and black soot on top of the long hood.  Looks like this unit had a dymamic brake fire somewhere long the way. 


Close up of blistered paint.

UP 50' plug door box


Custom painted and weathered MC 50' Outside braced boxcar.

The Orange paint really needed to be toned down on this unit.



Very cool CAT on a center depredded flatcar.

Weathered MT car.

I have a picture of this somewhere, a green door replacement on a Sky Blus GN car.

Mildly weathered custom painted DD Box by MT

Couple ATSF hoppers

One of the first cars I purchased back in the 70's, a UP 50" ob boxcar, sold by Model Rectifier Corp.  I removed the roofwalk and severely weathered this car.  UP stuff weathers very easily because of the yellow color. 

Atlas tank from late 90's

Rust (chalks) weathering on white tanks looks so good.

Very old Atlas tank, painted black, with brass railings by Gold Medal Models.


Custom painted MR 50' box.  Not the easiest of paint jobs in lining up the door paint with the rest of the boxcar.  Weathered down to the wheels and trucks.

More Atlas tanks and another very old caboose with Micro Trains frame, trucks, end ladders and custom paint and decals.

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Westbound Hotshot TOFC led by FP45 5948


My last posting introduced you to the 1981 version of my Needles Division.  The FP45's are a perfect example of the time frame choice, June, 1981.  In the months following, the FP45's would be rebuilt and the appearance would change with the addition of smoke deflectors on the roof.  A very unsightly addition in my opinion.  In 1980, FP45 #5943 was rebuilt as a prototype for future remanufacturing of this class.  However, at that time, the smoke deflectors had not been added.  (I modeled this rebuild, and you will see it in a future posting.)  After much research, the following FP45's are weathered as they might have looked prior to their rebuilds in '81 snd '82. 

What are the chances that four F units would be in one train?  Well, in 1985, I photographed four F units together westbound in Cajon Pass, and a B&W photo of this scene made it into CTC  Board magazine in April of  '85.

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

                              http://youtu.be/GytKoccl-gw


Back to the model RR.  The following train could easily represent  hotshot train 189 (Chicago to Southern California, including Barstow; intermodal) or 199 (Chicago to Northern California, west of Barstow; intermodal).

Lead unit 5948.  All FP45's in this blog are old Lima units (70's) rebuilt with frames from Kato C44-9W's
5941 with fuel tank from SD75M and steps from J&J Trains.

5940 with trucks from Kato SD45's

FP45 #5946.  Fans are from BLMA.  Rotating beacon, antennae and new air horns added.


Weathering included rust along top of cab, extending along the hood.  Black soot along entire hood length.  Subtle weathering on fuel tanks and trucks.  Blue paint weathered (lightened).

Two custom MT trailers on MT 89' Trailer Train flat. Most trailers subtly weathered.

Custom MT trailer and EL trailer from Athearn

Atlas 45' Vermont trailer and 40' Chessie from Athearn

45' Santa Fe from Atlas and 40' UP trailer from Athearn.

 ConCor 45' trailer with MT wheelset and landing gear.  PC 40' from Athearn, atop TT 89' trailer in original 60's paint scheme.


Atlas Preferred 45 with MT wheelset and KCS MT 40' trailer.

Couple more MT trailers.

Atlas Preferred Pool and MT 40' trailer

MT Rio Grande and custom painted and decaled Santa Fe MT 40 footer.

ICG 45' trailer from MT and drop frame trailer from Trainworx.

Atlas 45' and ICG 40 footer from Athearn

Another 45' from MT and drop frame Santa Fe from TWX.

Custom painted and decaled 45 foot MT trailer and 40' Santa Fe trailer from Athearn.

Custom Soo Line and white Santa Fe refrigerated unit from TWX.
 

45' MT and drop frame MoPac trailer from TWX.

Another custom Soo Line and weathered 40' Athearn unit.

Two Trainworx trailers on BLMA 89' F-89-J flat car in original 60's paint scheme.


Beautiful ATSF caboose from Centralia Shops.

Thanks for viewing this posting!