Rock Island Model Parade

Thanks, definitely another addition to my round tuit list

-Mark

 

I don't know if Rock Island ever operated any express reefers like this one, but since Athearn did them in HO I figured that was validation enough for me to do one of my own -



-Mark

 

Y'all inspired me to finally finish renumbering the U30C shell I got from the Kato parts department a while back. Trouble is, I see that Kato decided to give these black handrails (as opposed to the gray ones that they used on the old RTR models). What's odd is that both are apparently incorrect. Suppose I'll have to do something about that some day



-Mark

 

Hey Mark,
Not sure if your statement is correct or not. Not that's it a big deal either way...but.
I have several of these U30C's from the first run [blue box liner] and a few others that came in a green box liner.
Everyone of them that I have has black trucks, tanks and handrails/walkways. I've never seen them with grey.
Not unless I just got lucky and all mine were black.

The only model that I know of that ever came with grey anything in the Red/Yellow scheme were the LifeLike GP18's and they were way too light of grey.

 

My gray handrail U30C came from eBay, so I suppose it's entirely possible that they were switched out by somebody somewhere along the line. But no matter how you slice it, they're definitely not red

-Mark

 

More than likely!

Boxcab, if your wondering about the handrails, generally they were the same color as the long hood with white end rails. On the Maroon and Yellow units like the GP40's these were actually silver. Atlas got this right when they released the GP40's.

One thing I've wondered about, was what color were the walkways? Some look red while others look black. Same question with the Blue an White units, were they white or black?

I've also got one picture of a Red and Yellow GP7 where the steps were yellow, not the normal red. This is one thing I really like about modeling The Rock, there were some many little differences. I suppose this could be said for almost any road though.

 

I think the U30C walkways were black - or at least that's how they appear in a couple of pictures in Rock Island Color Pictorial Volume 3 (Marre).

-Mark

 

Wanna say the same, that and most units, esp if they had been on the road a while, have paint worn off and walkways pretty weathered that they are either black or grimy.

 

Here's a nifty little Kato NW2 that I picked up at my LHS a few years ago - custom paint by Dream Designs



-Mark

 

The trouble with this Jim, it's hard to find any shots that were taken from above. Of the few that I have found, most are of just enough of angle that the it's hard to see anything clearly.
I agree with Ike. What I've been trying to do is to paint the walkways the the same as the long hood, then weather so you can just see the original paint.
Here a few shots that I've gathered of the B/W units that show a difference in color and couple that could go either way.

White



Blue



These could go either way





The last pic shows those crew cars shortly after they were released, they were on a railfan special out of Enid or El Reno. These are not my shots BTW, scrounged them off the net for reference.

 

Here's one that I finished just in time for Black Friday.
One of the ten units they got second hand from the D&RGW.








Those little black zits on the side sill are 1 mm red jewels, but the indoor light didn't let them shine like I'd hope they would.

 

It was the only thing that came to mind! LOL

Thank you Eagle2!

 

Here are some Rock Island engines made by raul Ameca of the Belmont Shore Model Railroad in San Pedro, CA. The pictures are several years old.

 

Nice work guys. I always thought the Red and Yellow RI scheme was cool.

 

Thanks for the kind words Hemi!
I almost hated to defile the logo on this unit when I started, but.....I've always wanted one of these.
I kept telling myself "It's OK, it's OK, I have a SD45 and Tunnel motor that will represent some Grande pool power" It was a custom painted unit that I picked up at a swap meet a couple of years ago and the decal job wasn't that great which made it easier and the price was right. lol

I hear you painting all black! A buddy from years ago fell in love with the Grande and we spent an entire weekend painting all of his equipment BLACK. That was easiest painting I've ever done!