Hi all, I have recently ordered two Atlas B23-7 in yellow warbonnet paint sheme. Although I have some good information from the book "super freight and wheat lines" on the way the real engines looked like in the early 80's,there is a bunch of details which I don't even know the ù^$ù$^name, like a sort of square box on cab roof.Does anyone know of a good detailing set or part I could use to make this little marvels looks more like prototype? Thanks for your help, marc "don't tell guys on the Camas Prairie RR yahoo group I choose to model ATSF in the 80's, I bothered them for 6 months with questions on the way NP steam and diesel was like in the 50's "
Marc, the box on the cab roof is an airconditioner. Detail Associates makec two cast styrene a/c units - a Vapor and a Prime (two brands). Which one is used I don't know, not being a SF modeller myself, but there will be someone here who would know. Mankind?. Gary.
Marc There is a whole group of ATSF B23-7 photos here http://www.qstation.org/abpr/atsf/atsf_ge.html#B23-7 and more ATSF B23-7's here: http://atsf.railfan.net/sfkodcrm/b23-7.htm and the BNSF B23-7 photos are here http://www.qstation.org/abpr/bnsf/bnsf_ge.html#B23-7 along with ATSF roster info/photos here http://archive.trainpix.com/ATSF/GE/B23-7/ and BNSF roster/photo info here http://archive.trainpix.com/BNSF/GE/B23-7/ and two detail shots of BNSF4252 (ATSF6395)here http://archive.trainpix.com/BNSF/GEORIG/B23-7/4252.HTM and here http://archive.trainpix.com/BNSF/GEORIG/B23-7/4252B.HTM eNjoy Don B [ 21 July 2001: Message edited by: dbn160 ]</p> [ 21 July 2001: Message edited by: dbn160 ]</p>
Here is a B23-7 I am currently working on. Also, I am coming out with 10 new parts later this month and one is the large style SF Antenna plate. Not sure if the B23's had this or not.
Thank you guys, Don for giving me the solution on the "strange box" issue and Gary for the very useful links. Seems Craig is experimenting problem with photopoint, hope it will be fix soon, I am very curious to see his B23-7 and take inspiration for mine. What would I be without trainboard ? marc
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gats: Marc, the box on the cab roof is an airconditioner. Detail Associates makec two cast styrene a/c units - a Vapor and a Prime (two brands). Which one is used I don't know, not being a SF modeller myself, but there will be someone here who would know. Mankind?. Gary.<hr></blockquote> Somebody call? From looking at a few pics, it looks like they had Prime a/c's (same brand SP used on their 4-axle GE's; in fact, the roof setup looks almost identical to SP's arrangement on their Dash-7's...I wonder if it was a GE standard?). The box behind the a/c is basically a ground plane for the antenna; most pics show a Sinclair "ice skate" antenna mounted on it. I don't know if anybody makes the radio box in N (I know they don't in my scale, HO, so I made my own from styrene for my SP B30-7), but it shouldn't be too difficult to scratchbuild. It's located immediately behind the a/c (gap between it and the a/c is only a few inches) and extends to the back edge of the cab roof; it looks like its roughly the same height as the a/c. It also looks like there is a small "mushroom" cab vent on top of the roof, conductors side, towards the rear edge, next to the antenna box. This page has a couple of shots that show the roof details fairly well: http://atsf.railfan.net/sfkodcrm/i6404.htm As always, try to find pics of a particular unit you wish to model, since ATSF changed things around on these units over the years.
Wow mankind ! Seems you have been a B23-7 in an other life Thank you very much for the great info. In fact, not being a rivet counter, I don't mean to model a specific egine but rather a generic "dress" style for the era and place I want to model (Kansas early 80's) But you are right, I will end focusing on a few pics and pretending every other mates were the same, for a given time span. Thanks again, marc "What would I be without trainboard and Mankind ?"
Well, here finally is a picture of my SF B23-7. It is not done yet as it is missing the large antenna plate (which I am coming out with soon as a BLMA part and will have a picture of as soon as I upload it). Hope you can get some ideas.
Hi Craig, Very nice work indeed.Looking at your pics, I suppose ATSF has renumbered B23-7 from 6350-6419 to new number given merger with BN... Atlas model seems to be more in the later style "dressing" with a hood mount horn instead of front cab one. Light package has also gone from cab top to nose... Looking at "old" pics from late 70's and early 80's, it seems that roof air conditionner was not present with early production-delivery engines, rotary beacon where positionned on middle front of cab roof, and horn slightly aside.Then, later pics from mid 80's show air conditionner installed, horn in front of it and rotary beacon on a small bracket on left side of cab roof. Class lights seem to have been removed in the mean time. I am curious to know when this additions/ transformations have been made. Thanks for your support and congrats for your nice detailing, showing that N-scale has nothing to envy to larger scales with good crafmanship. marc
Thanks for the compliments Marc. I just used whatever number I felt looked cool for the B23-7, prototypical or not (I really wanted to finish it but had no roster numbering info).
