I’ve posted a few pictures of these two in the Workbench thread, but I suppose I should properly document these paired builds before they get far enough along that even I’ve forgotten what I did to them (a very real risk I’ve found in hindsight!) Both locos are Southern Pacific freight GP9s, but they are about as different as freight-spec GP9s come. Apart from the small detail parts (grab irons, sunshades, MU hoses) just about every aspect of these two will need to be approached differently. The first unit will become SP 3611; a pretty ordinary phase-II GP9 that happened to be one of the last SP locomotives (if not THE last one) to stay painted in original Black Widow colors, well into the mid-1970s. Apart from the SP-specific modifications, the Atlas Phase-II GP9 shell (seen here alongside its twin GP9 and other workbench denizens) will be used in its entirety: That will be the easy one. I haven’t settled on a number for the second unit, but it will be one of SP’s Phase III GP9s. These were some of the last GP9s built in the U.S., and externally they were a strange amalgamation of GP9, GP18, and GP20 spotting features that will take some serious kitbashing: Image from http://www.railgoat/railfan.net The base is the sill, cab, and nose from a Life-Like GP20 paired with the long hood from a LL GP18. The fans will be replaced with round-top 3D printed fans, and the oven-rack radiator grilles replaced with chicken wire GP9-style grilles from a Gold Medal Models etched brass set. This unholy amalgamation will get me in the right ballpark to add the small details: I’ll focus on 3611 first though, since I have made some headway on it while searching for a suitable mechanism for the low-nose unit. Unfortunately the best option seems to be Life-Like’s split frame GP18 mechanism, which are hard to find, to put it mildly!
At one point, someone did sell a short hood conversion kit to convert the LL plastic frame/no flywheel GP-18 to a GP-20. This was prior to LL's issuing the GP-20. This will not make much difference to Original Poster, as he already has done the work (and a nice job, at that!) but it might save anyone else who tries this the price if an entire GP-20 just to get the short hood. I actually have one of those LL GP-20s-from-18. Someone had the conversion done then had it painted and gave it to me as a gift. It is out of my era and a road that I do not run but I do like it and will run it from time to time just to run it. As I did live on the SF Peninsula in the era that Original Poster is modelling, I follow such SP projects with interest.
I never knew that about the GP18 conversion! When Life-Like updated the GP18 to a split frame, the updated mechanism was subsequently used for GP18s and GP20s. Unfortunately they don't seem to have made anywhere near as many of these updated GP20s (or of the 3rd, decoder ready frame Spookshow says exists but I have never found) as they did of the first version. In the meantime I'm rebuilding the side frames of both units. Rather than the ‘normal’ straight skirt above the fuel tank, SP opted for a complex arrangement of zigs, zags, and access doors that differ from left side to right side, unit to unit, and on the same unit over time; all in the interest of allowing easier access for maintenance. Luckily I found suitable doors on the sill of an Atlas SD24 shell. The SD7/9 and SD24/26 all have doors that will work with a little cutting and trimming. The rest is being scratchbuilt out of styrene strip and/or cut down from the existing side frame. The glue on the other side of each sill is still drying, so no photo yet The front sight glasses on 3611 were scraped off the spare GP18 sill and glued onto the GP9. The front fuel fillers (and all 4 of the fillers for the low-nose unit that I haven't glued on yet) are scratchbuilt from 0.005" styrene sheet. They're not perfect, but short of buying even more shells and hoping I can scrape the fillers off them cleanly, I'm out of options. I could have sworn someone made photo-etched GP9-style fillers at one point, but if they did they are long gone now.
The side frames are slow going; every angle, door, and filler is another piece that has to be glued, allowed to cure, sanded, and double checked before I can move on to the next. And that's not even counting the pieces I've had to glue back on after getting careless with the file In the meantime, the ends of 3611 have gotten lots of attention: Both pilot ends have been scraped clean of unwanted detail and converted to MT Z-scale couplers. The front plow is a modified Miniatures By Eric casting. I'm going to have to reconsider leaving the trip pin on the coupler to clear it! Both ends have number board access doors salvaged from the spare GP20 shell, along with the right SP signal light equipment. Turns out I don't have the correct headlights for either GP9 (naturally, they don't share the same headlight type) in my parts drawer, so those are on order now. On the short-nose Geep is an easier job, since it has no plow. I only need to clean off the molded-in details for now. And I'm putting off the coupler conversion until I have a mechanism for it and I can actually put it on the track next to a Micro-Trains height gauge; I've found there's quite a bit of variation in what kind of shims are needed to get the Z scale coupler at the correct height to play well with N couplers.
The headlights arrived from Shapeways, and the pilots of 3611 are pretty much complete: I'd forgotten how much of a love-hate relationship I have with BLMA's MU hoses. They look great, but every attempt to bend the hoses causes the base to pop loose. It ended up being a three-handed job; one to clamp the base down, one to bend the hoses, and one to keep the whole shell from flying off the bench. Next up, dealing with my perennial bugbear: the huge gaps around the trucks where the locomotive's frame should be:
Great work!! Very impressed! I may have missed it, but what were the access doors below the numberboards fashioned from?
I remember reading years ago of guys who cut a piece of rail and turn it with the 'web' up and glue it to the bottom of the sill to hide that gap. Just a thought.
Way back I used the rail technique on an Atlas B40-8W that had over a scale foot of daylight between the trucks and sill. Luckily the At las GP9 is nowhere near that bad. I cut and glued few angled pieces of styrene at the ends of the fuel tank and behind the steps to recreate the silhouette of the prototype's frame. That and a little piece of angled pipe next to the right front step (any GP9 experts know what it's for?) make for a more realistic, less see-through side profile: I ordered a few CN-GP decoders and the paint for the shell, which means I have almost everything I need to finish 3611. The only thing still missing is grab irons. I prefer to install grab irons before painting, but this time I'm changing things up for two important reasons. First, the complexity of the Black Widow scheme would make masking and decaling around grab irons a nightmare. And second (and more importantly), there are exactly four grab irons left in my stockpile and no one has more in stock. The low-nose unit is progressing much more slowly, but not forgotten. I have a couple leads on suitable mechanisms, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed one pans out!
The paints for 3611's Black Widow scheme arrived today. Well, 2/3 of them did anyway. Turns out Daylight Red is backordered. With a stated restock date of "darned if we know," I'll try out a few paint mixes to see if I can match Daylight Red with what I have. Plus I finally have no more excuses to do the number board doors on the low-nose Geep. The local train show is coming up later this month, and I've got my fingers crossed that the mechanism I need for it will be hiding out there.
My first attempt at Black Widow colors is coming along, even though I am appreciating why the SP bean counters decided the Bloody Nose scheme could save on labor costs. With the TCP Daylight Red backordered I massacred a few index cards until I found my own paint mix that's a dead-on match for the MT car I'm using as a Daylight Red reference. So if my shade is off you can blame Micro-Trains. But the mix I ended up with is: • 4 parts Mr. Color Russet • 3 parts Mr. Color Shine Red • A dash of Mr. Color White The Engine Black is also a custom mix (Mr. Color GX Ueno Black with a splash of Mr. Color Neutral Gray), but in hindsight I could have added even more Neutral Gray to the mix. The Ueno Black is a VERY deep dark black that soaks up any attempt at lightening it. It's all black, no engine, but weathering will address that. The only straight-out-of-the-bottle color is the aluminum, which is Tru Color Aluminum. I was worried about how well the Tru Color paint would match up with the Microscale decals for the nose wings (which are calibrated for the old Floquil/Polly Scale days), but the color match is absolutely seamless. I genuinely can't tell where my paint ends and the decal begins. And speaking of nose wings and precision, the Black Widow paint's contiguous horizontal stripes turn out to be a pretty harsh test of how accurately I've placed all the nose details. On the prototype the orange, black, and aluminum stripes thread a delicate line between the number board hatches, grab irons, and headlights. In close-up shots you can see that I placed the number board doors just a hair too low and they dip into the black stripe separating the aluminum and orange: If I was modeling 3611 in the heyday of her Black Widow days I'd be worried about perfecting the stripes (and the slightly-crooked numbers). But by the mid-1970s she was the last SP loco to wear those colors, and they were getting pretty shabby with lots of black showing through in unexpected places. Interestingly, when SP finally realized in ~1976 that there was an overlooked loco left in Black Widow colors they didn't even bother to repaint more than the bare minimum, resulting in a sort of Frankenstein scheme that I considered recreating for a while before realizing it felt wrong: (image from espee.railfan.net)
You're insane and very skilled. I would never have the patience, but you pull it off beautifully. Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk
Thanks for the kind words! I'm just muddling along, the real credit goes to the folks who made my wearable magnifier and incredibly tiny tweezers; without those I am lucky if I can manage something as delicate as tying my shoes And now a question for the SP Experts. Should there be a road number somewhere on the end of the long hood? I can't for the life of me find a clear rear-end shot of 3611 or any other GP9 in Black Widow paint.
MAYBE THAT is what I need. I have one of those arm things with the alligator clips and it is aggravating as all get out. it never wants to hold stuff where I need it held to view. Your GP look GREAT.
There are only orange stripes on both ends if a SP GP-9 had dual controls for passenger use. While it seems like nobody took pictures of the back end of a GP-9, this side view lets you see where the numbers were.
