Up this round is an Atlas GP35 "classic" series, Santa Fe #2939. I found plenty of pictures on the internet of SF's Geep 35s, since they owend quite a few of them, and a few pics of this particular loco. It started life out as #3305, which is a correct number for a GP35 up till about '84. Santa Fe did a large rebuilding program at that time, and all the 35's were renumbered. So the first thing on the list was to get rid of the cab numbers, and the numbers in the numberboards. The cab numbers were "erased", and the numberboards were painted over. For the horn, I took and cut off the 2 nubs that hang down and glued them in the 2 stock holes in the roof and sanded them smooth. I then took an old piece of plastic and filed it down till it looked like a stand for the horn. I then glued the horn to the stand and made sure it cleared the AC unit before gluing it down.
One thing that stood out on almost every picture I looked at on the net was the shields that stick up on the roof behind the cab and on the Dynamic Brake housing. I wanted to model these, but didn't know how tall they were or even what to use to make them look correct. So I took some quick measurements on a few side shots on the net and found that they were about as tall as the numbers on the side of the cab. While thinking about this, I was looking at the frame and motor of this loco and noticed the contact strips. That just might work! So I pulled one off and they are a perfect size! Needless to say, I'm gonna have to buy more contact strips from Atlas.
On to the frame, I added a TCS DCC decoder, a CN-GP, which with a little frame modification, fit right in, although for the price, I could have just milled the frame a bit more and put a Digitrax DZ123 in and saved about $12 bucks. A learning venture non the less. Once the decoder was in, the shell was put back on, CV's were programmed, and another loco is now on the roster for the Owens Valley Sub.
On a side note....One thing that I really don't like is the numberboards. Apparently Atlas made the numberboard openings a bit too small, since the correct 8" numbers didn't fit to well. I might change this later on, we'll see.
Details include:
BLMA cut levers, MU hoses, air hoses, sunshades, windshield wipers, rear view mirrors, AC unit, Antenna stands and lift rings
Renumbered using Micro Scale decals
custom made exhaust shields
Weathered using chalks
Z scale couplers
TCS CN GP decoder
Stock
Detailed
All material on The Owens Valley Subdivision website is Copyright 2007-20xx by Michael Stoner. None of the material (including text and photographs) on this web site may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission.