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Here we have an Atlas B40-8W, in the Santa Fe red and silver warbonnet scheme. Although this paint scheme is too new for my modeling time frame, I just love the warbonnet paint! Just like the B40-8's, these come pretty well detailed from the factory. Reference pictures were very plentiful on the internet, so it was pretty easy to work on. Compared to some of my other Santa Fe units, this one is very easy to detail up. Atlas supplied the sun shades, plow and large MU cable. The hardest part of detailing this loco was putting in the cut levers in the front. Since the ditch lights go over the front of the cut lever, I had to cut one of the stock mounting pins away and file a groove in the back of each ditch light so they would clear the cut levers. This was the first B40-8W I acquired that did not come with a stock Lenz decoder, so trying to fit a DZ123 in it was a bit of a challenge. On most Atlas locomotives, the DZ123 will slide right under the rear light board, but not on these. I ended up cutting the light board off right at the reat frame mounts. I then unsoldered everything but the capacitor. After that, I flipped the LED over and resoldered it to the underside of the light board, keeping the polarity correct for the capacitor. I then soldered on the yellow and blue wires and taped the light board on top of the decoder. Once this was done, the shell went back on and the decoder was programmed and speed matched. Another loco ready for service!
Details include:
BLMA cut levers, rear view mirrors, windshield wipers, MU hoses and air hoses
Modified Atlas plow
Weathered with chalks
Z scale couplers
Digitrax DZ123 decoder

 

Stock (563 is exactly the same)

 

Detailed

 

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