BN BN newbie

Hi,

I'm a long time dormant member, looking but not posting, primarily i'm into transition/first generation diesel N&W and NKP, but due to my love of grunge music i've recently been thinking about doing a small industrial switching layout set in Seattle in early 1992. My research points me to BN as the primary railroad at the time i'm looking to model.

The layout is purely in the thought process and nothing is confirmed yet other than a simple switching theme. My problem comes in that my knowledge of this era motive power and rolling stock are limited/none existant. my gut feel would have been a SW1500 or maybe a MP15 but the option of a run down say GP30 would be nice.

I have the option of looking through a large collection tomorrow and it might be the ideal oppurtunity to kick start the roster for my BN.

Basically can anyone offer a quick advice as to what locos/stock might be appropriate and what liverys might be most suitable for this era.

Much Appreciated

 

Well, I'm not acutely familiar with the Seattle area BN stuff, but from your first hack at it I'd say the SW1500 might be the best guess. The BN MP15's spent most of their life in the Tulsa area I believe, and I'd say most GP30's were either gone or part of the rebuild program and would probably have still been heading up mainline trains in '92. You might consider GP9's per http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2605326 or possibly SD9's, SW1200's, or GP38/38-2's?. If it were me I'd probably pick a "run down" GP9. SW1500 would probably be my second choice but--amazingly enough--they don't exist in n-scale. I'm guessing you're talking HO though.

 

I'd aim at a GP9. I saw these moving intermodal around in Seattle when visiting in the early 90's and they are easy enough to find in N or HO (you didn't mention a scale in your post).

 

Sw1500 were around Seattle in the 90's. GP9's rarer, GP38's were more common. SD9's were rare.

 

I second the "run down" GP9. You could even go for a GP 7u as they were even more "rare" yet then anything others mentioned, but a GP 7u would also require substantial kitbashing too.

 

Thanks for the great advice, I really wouldn't have known where to start other wise!

I'm in HO guage by the way.

I picked up a Athearn BB SW1500, although it was labelled as an SW1000, i'm sure one of your eagles eyes would be able to clarify which but has some nice extra detailing. There were no GP38s and SD9s, SD9s have too many axles for my plans sadly. I ended up picking up a Proto 2K GP9 too, along with half a dozen or more items of rolling stock, box cars and covered hoppers primarily.