Just kicking around an idea....Atlas makes a great GP40-2. Intermountain makes a Southern Pacific nose and an EMD L Cab.....would an Intermountain cab and nose fit on an Atlas GP40-2 chassis and long hood? http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/gp40-2_photos/7666_sp-gp40-2-clyde_king.jpg
This is very doable. I'm planning a roughly similar project: a Utah Belt SD50 using a spare IM Cotton Belt SD40T-2 nose (no L-window cab). The nose matches the Atlas SD50 node width and will fit on the Atlas SD50 mech, but I'll probably have to file down the shell locking bumps on the frame since the new cab won't have matching dimples. The IM nose will probably look better than anything I could do and will save time to boot. Oh, I'd probably recommend keeping the Atlas cab and just making it an L-window. I did one for my Frisco SD45. It shouldn't be too much trouble and the stock cab might provide a better fit than an IM one.
Though this represents a 1984 built unit without the L-window, I do plan on building an earlier built unit with the L-window. http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/group.php?discussionid=852&do=discuss
very nice! the idea was a quick and dirty build to get the SP lights, and to try to get something close on the rear. I really hate drilling holes for the BLMA sunvisors, and IM did a neat thing by making their sunshads slide into the cab......you are making me think of a better build.....
