Up this round is a Kato SD45. ATSF had quite a few of these locos on their roster, so it was easy to find reference photos of them on the 'net. This loco started life as #5300. I wanted to do one of Santa Fe's SD45's that came with high mount brake trucks and plows, so the number was changed to #5380, using Microscale decals for the cab and numberboards. The first issue of business was getting those black handrails painted the correct color - yellow. While the handrails were out, I painted the walkways blue and the step ends yellow. Details to the pilots include a Sunrise Enterprise's plow, BLMA MU hoses, air hoses and cut levers. I painted the the inside of the trucks black to get rid of the silver color when looked at from the side. I also added an Atlas bell to the sill. On to the front of the loco, I added some grabs to the nose and painted the side cab window frames silver. Details to the cab include rear view mirrors, sunshades, windshield wipers, AC unit, 2 antenna stands and antenna, a beacon stand and a modified horn. After adding a few more decals to the sill and painting the fuel cap red, I added some Z scale couplers and installed a Digitrax DZ123 decoder. I then weathered it up using chalks.
I hope to get more of these done since this one turned out pretty good. Time to put it in service on the OVS!
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