1981 Santa Fe train #678 Autos and Auto Parts in N Scale (5002)

1. Electro Motive Division SD40 5002.  This is part of an order of 20 delivered in 1966.  The SD40's were rebuilt in the late 70's and brought up as close as possible  to the SD40-2 standards, primarily in the electrical components area.  Of course, these locos received air conditioning, "can" antennae, raised air horns, and a rotating beacon.  They also had their footboards removed from the pilot, and replaced with snow plows.  All received the Yellow Warbonnet paint scheme.

SD40 5012, part of initial order of 20 locomotives in 1966 (5000-5019).  Santa Fe then targeted the SD45 for future deliveries, until 1977 with the initial purchases of the SD40-2.  Delivered in the Yellow Stripe paint scheme and numbered 1700-1719, they were part of a remanufacturing program during 1980 and 1981.  Unit 5012 appears as if it has just been released from it's rebuilding!

Trailing unit 5945.  Many of my FP45's are old Lima units (70's) rebuilt with frames from Kato C44-9W's. This unit also sports SD-45 trucks, Fuel tank from SD-75M, fan covers from BLMA, and steps from J&J.

The Auto Rack cars were highlighted in "1981 Auto Rack" blog.

aut

UP 60' DD Box from MT (Auto Parts)

 

SP 86 ft Open Air Auto Rack from Athearn

WP 60 ft DD box (Auto Parts)

60 ft. Auto Parts car from Atlas

Frisco 86' Auto Parts car from Blueford Shops

You can view a video of this train at:

https://youtu.be/-1yxxGmx9Bk

Thanks for viewing my blog!

1981 Santa Fe Auto and Auto Parts in N Scale (5512)

SD45 5512, straight from the paint shop in San Bernardino.

SD45 5512, straight from the paint shop in San Bernardino.

General Electric U36C, created from a U30C Kato frame and a N Scale of Nevada (now OOB) U36C conversion kit.  You can occasionally find these kits on Ebay.  Custom painted with the normal roof additions.

General Electric U36C, created from a U30C Kato frame and a N Scale of Nevada (now OOB) U36C conversion kit.  You can occasionally find these kits on Ebay.  Custom painted with the normal roof additions.

U30CG was a General Electric custom project for the Santa Fe.  I have a thorough description of the modifications done to a similar Trix unit in my July 21, 2012 blog, the most important being the use of a Kato chassis.  Although these units were retired in September of 1980, I couldn't resist having one these on my roster in June of 1981. Santa Fe SD39 4015.  Please refer to my April 15, 2013 blog for a thorough review of the SD39's on my roster (three).  This  particular unit represents a freshly repainted unit.  UP 60ft. Hi Cube box car from Micro Trains 86 ft. Mo Pac Auto Parts car from Trainworx Athearn  60 ft C&O Double Door Auto Parts car, Heavily Weathered Micro Trains 60' single door Grand Trunk Hi Cube box car Micro Trains 60 ft Auto Parts car, Roof Walk removed 60' Custom Painted single door box car from Atlas Santa Fe 86 ft Auto Parts car from Trainworx Detroit and Toledo Shore Line 86' Auto Parts car from Bluford Shops Heavily weathered UP 60' Auto Parts car from Atlas. 86' Santa Fe Auto Parts car, possibly very old Atlas car, weathered and partially repainted.  You can see a video of this train at: https://youtu.be/xYpC4GEvOPE

U30CG was a General Electric custom project for the Santa Fe.  I have a thorough description of the modifications done to a similar Trix unit in my July 21, 2012 blog, the most important being the use of a Kato chassis.  Although these units were retired in September of 1980, I couldn't resist having one these on my roster in June of 1981.

Santa Fe SD39 4015.  Please refer to my April 15, 2013 blog for a thorough review of the SD39's on my roster (three).  This 
particular unit represents a freshly repainted unit. 

UP 60ft. Hi Cube box car from Micro Trains

86 ft. Mo Pac Auto Parts car from Trainworx Athearn  60 ft C&O Double Door Auto Parts car, Heavily Weathered Micro Trains 60' single door Grand Trunk Hi Cube box car Micro Trains 60 ft Auto Parts car, Roof Walk removed 60' Custom Painted single door box car from Atlas Santa Fe 86 ft Auto Parts car from Trainworx Detroit and Toledo Shore Line 86' Auto Parts car from Bluford Shops Heavily weathered UP 60' Auto Parts car from Atlas. 86' Santa Fe Auto Parts car, possibly very old Atlas car, weathered and partially repainted.  You can see a video of this train at: https://youtu.be/xYpC4GEvOPE

86 ft. Mo Pac Auto Parts car from Trainworx

Athearn  60 ft C&O Double Door Auto Parts car, Heavily Weathered

Micro Trains 60' single door Grand Trunk Hi Cube box car

Micro Trains 60 ft Auto Parts car, Roof Walk removed

60' Custom Painted single door box car from Atlas

Santa Fe 86 ft Auto Parts car from Trainworx

Detroit and Toledo Shore Line 86' Auto Parts car from Bluford Shops

Heavily weathered UP 60' Auto Parts car from Atlas.

86' Santa Fe Auto Parts car, possibly very old Atlas car, weathered and partially repainted. 

You can see a video of this train at:

https://youtu.be/xYpC4GEvOPE

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!