Finally finished it!! For you SP fans out there - check out the decals. Custom made by TiVo - the Dash 9 decals that MS offers are too large. He nailed it!. I still need to add some detail parts to the roof, but other than that I'm done. I photographed this unit on the point of a coal train on the loop in August of 1995, when it was brand new - that's the look I'm going for - very lightly weathered.
Traindork, This was originally an oil tank in the upper Dunsmiur Yard. It is now a water tank. I believe it has a 55,000 gal capacity. The mural was painted around 1988 ( I think this is accurate) when D&RGW bought SP.
Sweeeeet!!! Since I model the Moffat Route, I'm tempted to snatch about 6 of these ACeez up for my out of era roster, just because they ain't Armour Yellow! Now, what about getting some of those decals????
This seems to be the right forum to ask: If I were to paint these into Espee colors, what model phase of the AC4400 would I need to source? It would be awesome to be able to recreate this scene from last year:
This ain't too bad (just ignore the patch on the leader of the midtrain set)... Old Tunnel 17, on the old D&RGW:
Thanks guys - it was a fun project - and I've got another 2 undecs waiting in the wings for similiar treatment! For those of you interested in the decals - send an email to TiVo @ technologywrangler@gmail.com. They are definitely worth it - 3 sets per sheet. Hemi - you want Kato #176-7000, the high numberboard version. It's not perfect, and if you can live with the vent on the top 'notch' of the long hood being in the wrong place, it works (for me, anyway, with the mods I made). They're hard to find, but I found a couple at Wig Wag a few weeks ago. Here's the inspiration for my #232. I took this shot on 9-10-95, on my first trip to the loop. the AC's were new that year - they looked sharp!! Back when Gray and Scarlet (& red & silver) ruled the hill, and SP ran long loaded coal trains from Colorado, over Donner, Tehachapi, and Cajon to LA (the long, hard way!). Ahh, the good ol' days. .. . It's one of my favorite shots. Check out the mid-train helper set above tunnel 9, and the Santa Fe Dash8 waiting in the hole at the west switch. You could hear this train coming for 15 minutes before it popped out of the tunnel. I think my #232 needs a couple more passes of dust from the airbrush, and a little more grime on the trucks. . .
Dave, I made the trip to Tehachapi in '98, and those units still looked sharp! Yeah, the good old days indeed
Thanks for the help! Maybe someday I'll paint some. Not now, just not enough money, and another round of D&RGW tunnel motors coming this summer...
An early SD7 tiger stripe and friends, switching Westside San Antonio, awaits it's turn on the main as a five unit set of black widows blasts' by on the main line with a fast freight. The main line lashup is Trainmaster/GP9/SD9/Trainmaster/GP9. The tiger stripe SD7 is an older original and will get black widow paint at the very end. But, out on the main, the lead Trainmaster is in Halloween colors and thus signals the end of the black widow era in the near future. Continued change is the only certainty.
This thread is awesome. . . Sapacif - great picture. The weathering on the Cotton Belt GP in the foreground (closest track to the camera) looks great - can you show the whole unit? Russ - nice pic, nice light. Those Dash 9's sure looked good when they were new. Scott - Yesterday as in April 22 2005?? Who owns it now? VERY cool.
