Oh no! It's the dreaded Life Like/Walthers Proto GP38-2! Why these locos were bagged on and made fun of, I just don't know. Minus a few things that are pretty much non noticeable, they are as good as my other manufacturer's locomotives in both looks and operation, and they are a unique model at that. Now on to the important stuff...
Santa Fe aquired 11 GP38-2's from the TP&W, and they all came without Dynamic Brake units and all had the shorter fuel tank. I found quite a few pictures of these units on the 'net to reference to while I worked, and a couple really good pics of #2371. The first six 38-2's were painted into the SPSF merger scheme, and since these locos are pretty cheap to buy, I got a few to have custom painted into the "Kodachrome" scheme. I contacted a guy on trainboard named Jeff Gowers, and he said he could do them, no problem. Jeff is an awesome painter, as this loco proves. Once I got this loco back from him, it was on to the detailing.
Once all the molded on details were shaved off, I started on the steps by painting the ends yellow. The front numberboards were painted red, and the rear one's yellow. The rear molded on grabs were painted red. On to the pilots, and they got cut levers, MU hoses, and air hoses - all BLMA. The front recieved a Sunrise Enterprises Plow, which matches the prototype, although this one is different than the normal ATSF plows. On to the cab, and I added BLMA AC unit, Antenna stand with an antenna, a Beacon mounting platform, rear view mirrors, sunshades, and relocated the horn to the front above the lights. For some reason the horn on prototype #2371 is grey, not yellow, so this was copied. The numbers on the cab are Microscale decals and the numberboard numbers are Shell Scale decals.
On to the underside of the loco I added some frame rails made of Atlas code 55 rail flipped upside down and glued to the bottom of the sills to fill in the gap between the trucks and body. Another thing I had to fabricate was a sight glass for the long hood. This was made from small wire and painted to match. Once all this was done, I added a Digitrax DCC decoder and programed it to match the rest of the fleet. After the loco was back together, I installed some Z scale couplers and weathered it with chalks.
Finally, the first Kodachrome loco detailed for the OVS!
Stock
Detailed
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