Hello everybody, while waffling around on what american scale I want to go with ( I model german railways with Marklin HO at the moment) I dug out this old PRR green Atlas/Roco SD35 I took for payment fixing another train. Being that I am a fan of the Turtle Creek series in Model Railroader, I decided to paint the unit in another color and decal her up for the TCRR. I found some red paint at work that I really liked, made by Krylon in one of thier interior paint series rattle cans. Color is "Colonial Red", basicly a nice dark red. I removed the PRR lettering and road numbers with my pocket knife and primed the shell before lunch. After lunch I layed down 2 nice color coats and stuck the shell under a light on the work bench to cure till it was time to go home. I plan to use the TCRR decals putting the white name on the long hood, the "Route of the Dashing Turtle" on the sides of the cab under the road number and the turtle logo at the very end of the long hood under the rad intakes. I also plan to put white baricade stripes on the nose, twin firecracker antennas and a working double pulse white strobe light at the rear of the cab roof. I will build a second matching unit as soon as I aquire another SD35. For the money, you really cant beat how well the old Roco drives ran, still a bit of a growl, but not near as bad as some athearn, and much smoother with a good throttle pack. I found a nice circuit for the strobe on Ebay, uses 2 small watch batteries and give upwards of 400hrs of operation, should work for my needs. I would love to go with Richmond controls and gain directional lights, but Jim has quite the backlog and its several months wait for custom circuits. Plus I can leave the units "idling" with the strobes flashing on the ready tracks when switching with the yard goat. I will post some pics as soon as I get some of the decals applied. I only have a couple of the needed decals so I am going to go order a couple more sets from Microscale. Once we get moved, I will start building the railroad for them to run on. Its going to be set in the midwest as a small shortline handling unit grain trains, various other ag supplies and some general freight. There is a huge soybean processer in central IL that the TPW and the IC serve. They have the nicest looking green modern smooth side hoppers I have seen. While I cant spell it right, its called Incobrassa Industries. I plan to have a siding that leads to that company as well as either a Cargil or ADM grainery that will handle the large unit trains I plan to model. Cheers Mike
Ok, picture time, here she is so far. I put the twin firecracker antennas on the roof, and put on what decals I have left over from past Turtle Creek projects I have done. I just ordered 2 sets of TCRR decals, a set of baricade stripes for the nose and some data and road numbers that I like the style of. The strobe light circuit is on its way as well. I should be able to finish up the decaling and detailing this week. I tore down the trucks, cleaned and regreased them with Labelle lube. Enjoy the first pic. Mike and Michele T.
Nice! Now all you need is a pair of Kadee number 7 couplers, and you're good to go. I have several Atlas engines with the Roco drives, and aside from the oversize handrails, they're good- also run well.
I think someone made a better handrail kit for these units at one time. Had the etched brass stanchions and fine wire handrail. I will get some more pics once the remaining stuff arrives this week. mike
Nice job on the SD35, I have 3 or 4 of those packed away awaiting details and paint. They do run pretty nice, though.
