Hello everyone! First I would like to say thanks to those of you that have helped me out in the past, I appreciate it very much. I have somewhat of a dilemma on my hands. I am modeling BNSF 2177, a GP38 or some may refer to it as a GP38X. I have seen pictures of this unit but some of the dates don’t match up with what has been done to the locomotive. My first question refers to almost all BNSF units out there that might be getting overhauled in any way. Are the unit’s headlights being switched from cab to nose or nose to cab? I have seen this unit with both and some of the dates shown have it getting this switch 2 to 3 times which I can’t imagine being cost effective for BNSF. Horn configuration is my next question…Some pictures of this unit have a cab mounted horn and others have it upper rear near fans? My third and last question would involve snowplows…I have seen this unit with 5 different types of plows on it and in different colors and stripes believe it or not and 2 photo’s of it with out a plow at all. Any ideas? Well again I appreciate any help any of you have in regards to this. Many Thanks!
I know the striped plow was applied due to the engine being used on the Christmas train a few years back.I have pics of it with and without the striped plow on it also.I also have the pics with the engine on the Christmas train. I will check my pics and info on the other issues.
Through a source at BNSF I was told that the reason for the switch from cab mounted to nose mounted headlight was because of a few reasons. One being the amount of injuries that occur while changing bulbs on the cab, the nose is safer. Second was because of glare coming down on the hood. There was however a few complaints to this lowering and that was because a few of the crew have brushed up against some of the lights and have received some pretty bad burns. Though I didn’t receive a official answer so to speak the reasons do make sense.
What year are you modelling? If you cannot nail down details to a certain date, go with what you like, according to other pictures. From what I have seen, when BN picked these units up from Conrail, the horn was mounted near the front of the cab. They stayed this was when painted green. The horns started to move after the BNSF merger, as did the headlights. Looks like they all came with plows from Conrail.
I just did some quick research on this unit and was unable to find any evidence of the lights being switched more than once, (from top to nose) which appeared to have happened sometime between late 1997 and early 1999. The striped plow also appeared to have come about during that period, but was gone as of at least late 2003. But Dan has the right idea...figure out what year you want to model and maybe we can gather more info.
