Does anyone know of a good N scale model of a N&W SD40-2, I know Kato makes a mid-production, but changes besides paint would I have to make to it to make protiypical for the NW paint scheme era?
You would have to raise the short hood to be roof high...and add appropriate bells. Mark 4 Design makes the high hood kit.
You didn't specify which SD40-2 you wanted to model. If you are modeling the 6000 series then you have very little to do but paint it black and add a bell on the long hood. Most of the 6000 series was delivered to run long hood forward so there is also a AWW on the engineers side (brake ratchet side). These units are very close to the Katos in appearance. You will need to add a third brake cylinder on each truck side.
The early units would be more appropriate. They have the brake ratchet and not a brake wheel and they don't have the ditch lights (per NW's era).
One of the Tuscan Red units, good choice. That will be a stunning engine. BLMA 48" fans without centerplate. 10 blades on the dynamics, 8 blades on the radiators. Bell on the end of the long hood. No plow on that unit, firecracker antenna and a five chime airhorn on the cab roof (it looks like a Leslie R-S5T-RRO) take a BLMA 226 and turn the top 2 horns to face the long hood. An early Kato should work with no changes to the body. What a sharp looking engine. Post pics when you get the project rolling!
Well the ditch lights are easy to remove. And swap the nose out for one from a GP35 as I did on about 9 SD40-2s, as BN had most ratchet brake, but corrugated radiators, not chicken wire, like the early ones have. You'd have to do that to make 6175 that you posted Actually you'd have to modify the radiator section, the early's are chicken wire, not corrugated
I did a brief search and 6175 is the only "red" NW SD40-2 engine I could find. Was this color unique? Passenger color?
It was to that SD40-2 and a C30-7 ordered at the same time, 8010. They were used on business car trains and other specials, as well as in general service. A year later, N&W ordered five more C30-7s painted in the same color, 8076-8080.
If you don't want to mess around with removing ditchlights and the other road-specific features of the newer runs of Kato SD40-2s... you can use one of the older runs of the Kato 'snoot' SD40-2s. Replace the nose with one from an Atlas SD50/60, just carve off the toilet access hatch on top of the nose. The bell and bracket on the long hood can be sourced from Atlas, from their high-hood SD35 or GP38, they're separate pieces.
doing this would still have the brake wheel, they need a ratchet brake, which is why I recommend a GP35 nose. That and the GP35 being old Kato tooling is slightly too wide, so it matches the SD40-2 better than the SD50/60 nose
