Paint Shop

[ScaleCraft]

Started out with the pilot deck attached to the cylinders, then whacked and brass steps made up and installed.
You know how the class lights are often broken off the smokebox fronts? That was the condition of this one..so filed them off, filled as necessary, then replacement lights mounted as per prototype back a bit on the smokebox.

When I did this, I had discovered K4 and L1 used the same boiler....and a 675 is a k4-ish, so why not?

[healey36]

Sarge did a nice job. Help me out with one thing. Christmas in July or slow to put away decorations ?

LOL, somehow I got a Christmas-themed cookie jar that my wife has taken to keeping the dog treats in. Sits on the kitchen counter 24/7/365.

Robert, you must have been deadly in the "I spy with my little eye" game...

[rogruth]

Dave,
Do you still rebuild locos like that?
My guess you do in larger scale now.

[healey36]

Started out with the pilot deck attached to the cylinders, then whacked and brass steps made up and installed.
You know how the class lights are often broken off the smokebox fronts? That was the condition of this one..so filed them off, filled as necessary, then replacement lights mounted as per prototype back a bit on the smokebox.

When I did this, I had discovered K4 and L1 used the same boiler....and a 675 is a k4-ish, so why not?

A decent effort back in the day. Somewhere around here I have a Lou Hertz book with examples of how folks rebuilt a prewar 249E or 263E into various other configurations.

[De Bruin]

Sarge does great modeling and agree his technique on this PRR hog is very good; in fact looking like post-war photos of L1's and the other 8 and 10 drivered classes as they were shopped/taken care of less and less, until the slid into the scrap pile, never getting a good wash and developing that distinctive brown patina.
It's uncanny how he caught that look.
Humbling, thanks for posting.
Like Dave's modified cast Mike too, if I could have built three rail power that looked like that when I was in it
I might still be Gargraves World. Always coveted those Lionel Berkshires too, one of their last substantial die-cast engines before the near death and then General Mills/MPC years

never got one though. 8^(

[ScaleCraft]

My two....plus a 226E which is the boiler used for the Berks. The 5001 has the stack fixed....matches the 226E.

[healey36]

Nice Dave. Lionel got a lot of mileage out of that casting. The 226E was on my search-and-acquire list for a long time...for whatever reason, they seem to have held up fairly well value-wise (unlike most of the prewar stuff).

[ScaleCraft]

The 226E had the stack directly over the blast pipes. When they did the first 726 Berk in 46, the "smoke unit" was a HUGE horizontally mounted bulb with a dimple to hold the pellet...and they moved the stack back to accommodate said huge bulb. And they never fixed it in postwar.
You have to whack the stack and base off, fill the hole, and mount a new stack in the proper location, as is done on the 5001.
You also need to circumcise the front of the firebox to un-hide the rear half of the rear drivers (remember this started as a 2-6-4 226E) as has been done to both of mine.

[sarge]

Some subterfuge becomes a fun project.

Here is a fun project, a freelanced "lease" unit.

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

Starting with a Weaver GP38, added some details, a Tom Yorke A/C unit on the roof, wire-wooled the factory lettering off, blends of orange, Woodland alphabet and number dry transfers, a bit of weather.

Why? I needed the Blombergs for a different project but couldn't quite accept having to sacrifice the entire loco rather than build something of it someone can use. Since I had a ton of Alco trucks kicking around, why not. GP35 and earlier are sometime found on other-builder trade-in trucks, but by the time the 38-2 came out, that practice was pretty much over, and actually they might have been no longer compatible.

Hence the fiction, a loco rebuilder/broker name on the hood, and their leasing arm's reporting marks on the black patch on the battery box. An enjoyable freelance that follows practice (I'm such a neurotic) and gives me the trucks I need (for a Kemtron GP20 I'm building).

[R.K. Maroon]

Brian --

By coincidence I am re-working a chassis of a GP35 with AAR type-B trucks for Fred Bradley. The prototype is GM&O, which indeed traded in FA or RS units to get the new GPs. Fred moved the truck centers of the CLW model to accommodate the AAR type-B trucks, but I am not sure he has the spacing of the trucks to the frame or the locations of fuel and air tanks correct. Did you make any such modifications here, and if so did you have any information on the prototype to guide you?

Jim

[bob turner]

Oh, me, too! I have SD-35 bodies, Atlas had Alco 6 wheel power trucks for cheap - could not resist. This sort of stuff drives 3-railers nuts!

[rex desilets]

Why?
Besides, I thought you hated & despised plastic...

[ScaleCraft]

Why?
Besides, I thought you hated & despised plastic...

Ah, but HIS are Les Myerson built-up brass bodies from 1966, I think. Lots of add-on details. Not painted other than the Sharpie lettering on the side.
He discovered the Atlas trucks are far easier to pose for photos with one wheel off the track.
Where have you been?

[sarge]

Brian --

By coincidence I am re-working a chassis of a GP35 with AAR type-B trucks for Fred Bradley. The prototype is GM&O, which indeed traded in FA or RS units to get the new GPs. Fred moved the truck centers of the CLW model to accommodate the AAR type-B trucks, but I am not sure he has the spacing of the trucks to the frame or the locations of fuel and air tanks correct. Did you make any such modifications here, and if so did you have any information on the prototype to guide you?

Jim

Jim, I found no clearance issues, and the truck bolsters fell centre to the existing body bolster castings with no modification. Depending on the capacity of the tank and the airtank locations you might need to shorten the tank, but there were no such issues here. If I'm honest, since no clearance issues cropped up and I modified nothing, I didn't really research any prototypical change requirement. Just bolted 'em up, fit the drive and went on my way.

Both have bolster centre distances of 34', so the killer will be tank length (there were several choices upon ordering from EMD).

[bob turner]

I do not collect plastic, but I do have three Train Masters and two freelanced Atlas SDP 35 Diesels. And maybe five Roco/Atlas plastic cars, one plastic GGD Pullman, and one MTH old time coach. Sometimes a plastic model is so cost-effective I cannot resist. The SDP bodies were leftovers from some Seacrest project. Cannot give them away!