In hopeful anticipation of a Pennsy GP9 (this is a shameful plea to the powers that be at MT) I decided to make a GP9B unit. The only railroads that had them were the Pennsy and the UP. And, since the Pennsy had 40 of them, I needed at least one. Only problem was that the B units were all ordered after EMD went from 36" to 48" cooling fans. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, but I was too lazy to get out my real flash and gloss locomotive green doesn't photograph too well. Edit: I was only referring to the Pennsy B units all being 48" fans. I don't know about the UP. Dan S.
Well, my world ends in 1957, so the GP9 is about as modern of a B that I can do. Of course, I do have Pennsy, PC, and Conrail GP35s to run at shows......so, you never know. Dan S.
Unfortunately, No unpainted or during bash photos. I messed up the filler panels with the portholes so many times and proved once again that CA sticks best where it's not supposed to. Things were just looking too ugly and I got in a hurry to cover it up. The 48 inch fans were made by gluing the grills from BLMA fans to pieces of .010" styrene that I punched out with a 1/4" hole punch. I thought of using tubing and installing the entire BLMA fan kit, but I'm just too lazy for that. Dan S.
Dan, looks really good, another first!!! Congratulations! I was already thinking of a Geep B-unit, but non of my favorit lines got one...
I dont think a undec GP9 was ever release. I think MTL is still working on it. You may want to get in touch with Joe D. He may be able to help you.
I think it says "coming Soon" in the GP9 listing on Z Scale Monster. But, that might just be a space holder. There is also a reservation form, so, maybe Anthony is using that to show demand. Dan S.
Geep B Units Thanks. Not many lines did B units in GPs. Only the ATSF got GP7Bs (and only about 4-6 of them). Only the PRR and UP got GP9Bs. 40 went to the Pennsy (oddly enough, most of them survived into the Conrail era), and 120+ went to the UP. I think all of the GP30Bs went to the UP. The ATSF had some later GP B units that made it to BNSF paint, but I don't know what model or if they are still around. I just saw one once back in the mid-late 90s and asked someone about it. I'm not sure if there were any SD B units. Hood unit Bs seem to be an extreme rarity. Dan S.
The ATSF had 5 GP7Bs; IIRC, one was scrapped and the others went into the GP7u program, coming out with angled cabs. Their late B-units you're thinking of were GP60Bs. Delivered in 1991, they were the last new B-units. All are still in service. The only new SD B-units were SD24Bs for UP. However, there were a number of rebuilds to B-units, mainly by ATSF and BN. ATSF made some SD45Bs and eight (?) SD45-2Bs. BN made four GP9Bs, three SD40-2Bs, and one each of the GP38-2B, SD40B and U30CB. MP made another U30CB, and SP made a B36-7B. Another hood B-unit made in significant numbers was the B30-7AB for BN. More relevant to this thread, weren't at least some of UP's GP9Bs earlier units with paired 36" fans?
Some of the UP B units might have had 36" fans. I was only researching the Pennsy Bs. By the time the Pennsy had ordered any, it was 1957 and They all came through with 48". 1957 was the year that EMD made the change. Early in the year, some units had dual 36", but by the end of the year they all had single 48" Dan S.
Hi, you don'y need really the undecorated Geeps, the paint is getting off the MTL locos so easy, it's a joy! Not like AZL..... I think a lot the ATSF/BN B-units were just converted A-units still having the cabine w/o windows and controls, so relativly easy to make.
UP GP9Bs According to the "UNofficial EMD Homepage", at least 75 of the UPs B units were built before the 48" cooling fan change. So, anyone wanting to make a UP B unit doesn't have to worry about the fan conversion. It looks like the final 50 or so were built in late 1957, so that order was probably all 48" fans. So, anyway, as long as you pick the right road number, a UP conversien would require very little destruction. Dan S.
I was only counting Bs that had the cab removed. If you count ones with the cab with windows plated over, then there was one BN GP38, ten CP ex-SOU/NS highnose SD40-2s, several CP regular SD40-2s and possibly some M636s, CSX BQ23-7s, and I don't know how many more.
