I managed to find a BNSF SD-60M locally. I still have one on order with BLW, though, and am planning on renumbering one of them, since Atlas only saw fit to do one road number in H2. I have never done anything like this...is there anyway to get just the road numbers off of the side of the cab and leave the orange paint intact? I am guessing I can just paint the front and rear number boards black and decal them. Ski
Hi Ski. Be really carefull and you can put a blob of Walthers Solvaset on the numbers and let it dry, then repeat. The second time around you take a number 2 pencil eraser to the lettering VERY, VERY softly and move the eraser in a round motion untill the lettering comes off. Atlas's paint is pretty easy to take off by doing this so dont rub very hard. As for the number boards, yes, paint them black then decal them. As for the H II SD60M, there is only one in real life (unless others have been painted), that's why Atlas only saw fit to do one. (#9299) I have seen this loco in person!
Thanks Craig! I thought I saw where 9290, 9286, 9276, 9263, 9258, 9249,and 9203 were in H2. Here is 9258: http://www.trainweb.org/bnsfmpa/bnsf/bnsf9258.jpg Ski
Another method that I have had much success with is rubbing alcohol, a Q-tip and patience. I removed the lettering off of a pair of SD-35's. I wanted to keep the base color(Brunswick Green), but reletter for my local road. The Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol and gently rubbed across the lettering removed it nice and clean. Be careful, removing the base coat isn't hard to do. BTW, I have used both the 70% and 90% versions and had success with it. I also recently took the lettering off a Life-Like E8 that way. Jeff Augsburg & Concord R.R. (a fictional shortline in Central Illinois) http://www.geocities.com/revnjeff/index.html
Here's BNSF9299 as the trailing unit on a stack train, somewhere in Southern California, judging from the palm trees and station architecture: http://www.trainweb.org/bnsfmpa/bnsf/bnsf9299.jpg If you want to check other units in this scheme, as noted above, just replace the unit number in the file string above with the appropriate 92XX number. If it's on file at the BNSF Motive Power Archive, the photo will display; if not, you will get a 404-File Not Found error notice. The following MicroScale N decal sets all have BNSF H2 cab numbers, which may (or may NOT) match the font/size/color of the cab numbers on the Atlas units. If they do not match you may need to change all 4 digits in the cab number. Note the artwork is for the HO decal, but the N decal should use the same artwork. Change the 87 prefix to 60 to order the N decals. http://www.microscale.com/Decal_Sheets/871024.jpg http://www.microscale.com/Decal_Sheets/871044.jpg http://www.microscale.com/Decal_Sheets/871076.jpg To recap on how models are decorated, the base color and most secondary body colors are paint. The logo, cab numbers and most narrow striping are ink. These use different thinners and dissolve at different rates. As noted above either Walthers Solvaset or rubbing alcohol should work. Work slowly and lightly and check your work often. Once you start getting into the painted area (under the ink numbers) continued rubbing can tend to leave a shiny spot where the paint used to be semi-gloss. Good luck on your project..... 8=) Don B
I have re-numbered many engines and so the best way I have found is rubbing alcohol on a q-tip and rub it over the number's, but on a BNSF HII engine it is a little more complicated then a simple BN green/black. You need to be extra carefull to not rub off any of the striping. I have never had problems rubbing off the background color though, in fact I have never been succesfull in striping a Katop or Atlas completly. Kevin
Don, that link you gave to BNSF 9299 was taken by me. It was taken at Fullerton railroad station about a year ago in may, just 2 weeks after it was repainted. They probably sent it straight from the paint shops to southern california, I mean the paint on this was sparkling. It is interesting, I have seen pictures of other Heritage II SD60Ms, and they have 2 stripes on the bottom and a off-color "non-fade" orange. When I saw the model, it looked a little odd with the yellow walway side, but a glance t my photo told me that was the way of the prototype. I was real worried when I saw he advertisment, and it showed 9299 with a green roof! Of course it has the orange! Anyhow, if there is anything you would like to know about this unit let me know. I have already seen it abou 5 times...
I can second Joes claim. We were railfanning at Fullerton together that day and I have almost the same shot, but mine is a little more directly above the SF GP60. Nice day, nice breeze, nice trains, what more could yuh ask for????
