Here are some photos of the work I’m doing on a ConCor war baby GS-4 I picked up at a train show. (And a photo of the real locomotive)
I think at one time ALL classes were painted black, with and without skirts, and called war babies. The GS-6s were the only ones built black.
Once upon a time Concor was offering a trade in of old Concor engines (including Rivarossi's) for other engines that they sold. I ended up with 2 CC GS-4's and 2-3 GS-6's. One of these days I'm going to dig them out and run them...if they don't run all that great, I have at least one Kato that could use a GS-6 shell...
More work done to GS4. Changed cab numbers, added crew, and added Kato piping/blow downs. About all that’s left now is builder plates
OC Engineer, I love that 'War Baby' ! I think it looks just right, the weathering is spot-on and like the details you've added. It doesn't 'look' n scale which takes some doing! Good job! Phil
Jerry, your War Baby is lovely. My only experience with a War Baby was in November, 1945. The CR&IP/SP Golden State had been assigned a War Baby at Dalhart, TX. When we stopped at El Paso, the War Baby uncoupled and went forward to the water jack. I wish I could post the images in my memory. But what 10 year old kid has his own camera. Thanks for your work.
...and because they were built during WW2, they didn't 'need' the Daylight skirts (metal was being rationed) so they came skirtless. SP was able to convince the war board that the skyline casing was necessary as a 'smoke lifter'. Originally there were 16 engines ordered, but in the end 10 were built for the SP numbered 4460 through 4469. The other 6 were sent to the WP numbered 481 through 486. The WP referred to them as GS-64-77s instead of GS-6s. The WP also installed 'elephant ear' smoke deflectors to their engines as well. By 1953 the WP became 100% diesel so they sold their 6 engines back to the SP for parts but kept the tenders for their rotary snowplows.
As for the GS-4's, during WWII and in the first years after the war some of the GS-4 locomotives were painted black. By 1948 all had been repainted into Daylight colors but in 1949 most were painted black again as they lost the job of pulling the Daylight passenger trains to diesels and had their side skirts removed for easier maintenance.
Here's the GS-4 that I'm going to start modeling: And here's a link to an EXCELLENT blog (even if it IS HO) by NightOwl (Jason Hill). He builds very scale trains to run on the La Mesa layout in San Diego and this is some additional info about the GS-3 and GS-4 locos including which ones were deskirted: http://nightowlmodeler.blogspot.com/p/sp-gs-series-deskirting-dates.html
Damn you, now I've fallen down this rabbit hole and I can't get back out. All GS's lost their skirts, the majority in 1950. Twelve engines, 4448-4459, kept their skirts until about 1955. In nine cases, all GS-4's, the cab and tender were still painted in Daylight colors although the rest of the locomotive was black...but this was a short lived paint scheme. It appears that 4435 was skirtless and black by 1952. Another source with dates for the deskirting: https://www.urbaneagle.com/sp/GSpaint.html and one final page with GS info about 1/2 way down (as well as other SP engines, but all references to models are for HO): http://www.modelingthesp.com/Steam_Locomotives/Steam_Locos_IV..html
Not a steam expert by any means, but would my Kato AFT steamer be accurate ??? Over the years I have found skirt removal to provide much better access for maintenance. Guess it worked for trains, too !!!