Been working on this off and on for a few weeks. Using Athearn Blue Box shells and frame, Cannon,Details west, Detail associates so on and so forth. Used brake rigging from a Lifelike SD7/9 trucks after a whole lot of cutting and sanding managed to attach them thru the mounting posts for the side frames. all new fans used Precision scale cooling fans and some old trainstation dyn fans used the SD 40-2 dynamic hatch turned around cut off the exhaust part and glued on part of a GP 38 dyn hatch trimmed to fit. Used a band saw to trim both ends of the fuel tank and glued styrene ends on a filed them to shape. I am gonna be sad when I run out of blue box kits to bash around. Tom GJ
Nice Tom! Will this be SLSF 296 or 297? I remember the pic (by Dr. Mike Condren I think) of them coming through Eureka, Mo on their way to Tulsa - doing about 40mph, which was about all they could do given their setup. Ken
Tom - Super! As usual, you have these big guys modeled very well. The two at Tulsa, plus the two at Memphis, had a very nice, slow chant while doing their hump duties. I had the pleasure of seeing, and hearing, them at both yard locations. Ken
Thanks Ken Did they work in pairs? The photos I have noticed had them with a SW1500 or GP38. What was the typical hump power in the later years? Thanks Tom GJ
Tom - The few times I saw them, they were mated with a SW1500. I think I have a pic somewhere that shows one of them working the TY yard alone. Since there were only two of them each at TY and CY, it probably had to be a serious hump job to get both of them working together. I can believe a GP38/38-2 mate at CY as well, as the d/b might have been needed. Ken
Those SD38-2s were a hump engineer's dream with the hump control which worked great for several years. Unfortunately, the diesel shop didn't really know what to do with them at times, and they began to fail which made the humping process a little harder as we had to use power against brake for the braking portion of the hump lead in CY. The SW1500s were originally added, but we still didn't have enough power, and management contemplated adding another 1500, but I thought that would be too much independent braking power which might result in broken knuckles or drawbars. If you have never seen the result of that at CY, let me tell you it is very bad. Nothing stops the cut of cars until they pile up sufficiently to stop. We were fortunate that no one was ever hurt when that happened. We did add a GP38 or -2, I can't remember which, and put the SD38-2s on the point, and we had it made. I worked the hump for several years and really enjoyed this setup. Terry
Thanks to all for the encouraging comments and info. I think I will try MUing with a GP 38. If that doesn't work, we'll shove smaller cuts Tom
Great work as usual, Tom, great work. What do the decals read behind the "F" in Frisco on the engineer's side?
The decal right behind the "F" is just a sill stripe, then under the cab is an EMD builders plate. Sometimes these don't last long on locomotives. They seem to walk off in the lunch boxes or hands of people. I put additional decals on this unit like it had been thru a few 92 day inspections like the "HIGH VOLTAGE" stickers that appear sometimes. Years ago when I worked in the back shop there was an electrician that started work every day with a big wad of those high voltage stickers, and light bulbs for the number boards. When he ran out of high voltage stickers and light bulbs he was done for the day. I don't know if that unit would pull the hat off your head, but when it left, with stickers everywhere and clean and well lit number boards Tom
The unit looks great! You did a band up hob on it! Though looking at photo's of the real 296 there is one tiny detail you missed, the head light area is an aluminum color, as you can see in this photo. I understand this would be nearly impossible to paint, but I thought I would mention it. http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1272155
Hi Jim, Yes I did all the shell and frame modifications, as well as paint and decals. I do enjoy learning and doing projects that you cannot find retail. I have been inspired by many master modelers like Andre Ming, Ken Wulfert, and many, many others on this site, I consider great modelers. Whether there knowledge or modeling skills are represented or not, all of these skills I want to learn from, and there is a broad base to learn from here. Regards, Tom
Thanks Ethan I will try to remember this next time. Those headlight housings are not painted Aluminum, they are aluminum, and generally not added till after the unit has been painted. They dont like masking any more than I do Tom
Tom - FYI, I just use a fairly dry Microbrush with Floquil aluminum to get the light housings painted aluminum. That would be a hard item to mask well. You do need a steady hand! Ken ps - The pics I have of SLSF 299 (one of the TY SD38-2's) show it with the light housings red/orange.
Ken- I have hit too many semi-trucks (2 so far). My hand isn't all that steady I am considering painting the tops of the walkways to simulate the Black non-skid paint on my GP 50/40-2's, SD40-2's, that is going to take a steady hand too. I could use the Cannon tread ways but at $22.00 a pop, they might stay Orange for a while Tom
I agree with your statement concerning the builder's plates, and I must confess that I have a couple of the F unit builder's plates that "jumped" from the units into my car one shift when I was hostling. It is nice to have some of those older EMD plates as part of my small Frisco memoribilia. One other item I "appropriated" was the Track 6 sign at Tulsa Union Depot. I went there one Saturday to do my usual inspecting and measuring only to find the concourse on the ground.! Even though I worked for Frisco, I had not heard that they were going to destroy such a wonderful part of the depot. I am glad I had already measured the concourse before it was destoyed. In the rubble was the Depot 6 sign which I grabbed and saved for posterity. Glad to have it. Thanks, Terry
Sure would be nice that one of the modle would come out 4 engines ( with dym brake, 2 without ) that cover all the SD 38-2.
