FMIG 21 U-25B Hi-Nose

So You Want a Frisco Hi-Nose U-Boat?

By BRIAN WEBB

The story of my Hi Nose U25B started when I purchased, quite innocently, a slide of Frisco U25B 802 from Vincent Porreca by mail. After admiring said same slide for six months, my greed to own a model of this locomotive got the better of me. The next question I asked myself was how?

The only answer that gremlin sitting on my shoulder came up with was "Make One". Having decided this was the only way logo, I headed for the train room and grabbed a pretty obnoxious NW U28B that was passing at the time. I then promptly sat down and stared at the darn thing for the next hour or so. What follows is my way of getting a hi-nose U25B.

The first thing you need is a desire to own a model of one of Frisco's extremely rare high nose U25B's. Only Frisco and Union Pacific originally had them. Conrail now has several of the Frisco trade ins to GE on lease.

Second, if your desire runs to an exact copy, don't bother to read any further as this article is not for you. If you would be satisfied with a fairly good look alike, then read on.

Take an Athearn U28B and remove the body, snap off the cab, and file off the four roof vents. With a very sharp knife, carefully cut the headlight and number boards off flush with the cab front, saving these because you will need the number boards later.

Make a nose cut I as per FIGURE 1. Measure a scale three feet on the hood behind the cab and make cut 2 vertically down to the step line. Make the horizontal cut 3 and remove this piece.

Glue the cab back on the body in the new position. I do not know if this is correct, but from the photo I have it looks right. Glue the three-foot piece that was removed from behind the cab to the front of the cab then glue the nose top to this. Try to line up the top of the nose and filling piece as close as possible to save an awfully lot of time and sanding later.

If you are still with me this far, you should have something that looks like FIGURE 2 with a thumping great hole where there should be a nice smooth high nose. I made the nose stronger by filling the gaps with styrene sheet. This also makes the base for your favorite epoxy filler. When filling out the nose area with the epoxy, you should overfill the area and sand smooth when dry.

By this time you will either have given up in disgust and headed for the local hobby shop to buy a new U28B body, or be feeling pretty good with yourself. After I finished my model, a friend pointed out that I had 4 cab windows and the prototype has only 2. If you want to copy this feature, fill in the 2 small oval windows on each cab side.

The next step is to fill in the holes in the top of the battery boxes in front of the cab. Sheet styrene once again took care of this. Mount the number boards to the top of the short hood. The vertical headlight has to be cut out and discarded as the headlights in the high hood units are horizontal. I made a new headlight out of a piece of scrap styrene. Check the photos for placement of number boards and the headlights.

We now move to the rear of the body so that you can do much agonizing over the radiators These stick out to blazes on the U28. The U25 radiators should be flush with the body. I chickened out with my model and left them as they were. It is up to the individual modeler and his skill to decide if he is going to do the extensive modifications required here. Having made my easy-way-out decision, I made up two boxes 8 ft XI ft out of sheet styrene then mounted them on both sides of the walkways centrally above the rear trucks.

Use a photo of the prototype unit you are modeling for painting, details, colors, weathering, etc. After painting, detailing, and decaling, mount the Athearn handrail stanchions and fabricate new handrails from brass wire. The chassis was slightly modified by removing the air tanks from either end of the fuel tank. File the fuel tank rear half flush with the chassis sides and remount the air tanks on the side?. I am not too happy with the look of these tanks and plan to replace them with Cal Scale tanks which have more detail. Well, that is about all. For those that are still with me, you should now have a Frisco High Nose U25 "look alike", or, as the rivet counters would say, "a H26 1/2B" COMMENT: This effort of Brian's is to be commended. Those of you wishing to duplicate it would be well advised to refer to the most recent issue of PM for the AT-SF U25B article. Frisco's units differed from those described in the article in that the steps or battery boxes on the walkway are the same length on both sides on Frisco units, You should also write to Keith Davidson for tips on using the AHM U25C casting and to either Bill Wirtel or I for copies of the U25B 800-807 paint diagram. Let the group know how you do on it. DJH



	Photos and model work above by Brian Webb. The prototype 802, at last report, was on CONRAIL still earning its keep, Photo of 805 at left by Harold K. Vollrath. Taken at Olathe, KS October 1964. This is the paint scheme as delivered The true rivet counting modeler will have a ball duplicating those end platforms and steps.

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