My Helm Leasing SD45-2 under construction

In the spirit of John's posts of his numerous projects, I thought you fellas might like to see something I've been working on over the past few weeks. It's not anywhere near complete, so these are just photos of it under construction.



First view of the SD45-2. This model has been fitted with numerous detail parts and remains to be fitted with many more before painting. Among the most visible parts added are Cannon's Dash 2 cab, subbase and nose as well as modified radiator grilles. The body shell is by the now defunct Rail Power Products, and the chassis and trucks are modified Athearn SD40-2 parts.



This photo shows the cab front as well as the modified nose which has been fitted with a headlight. The pilot details are visible as well and include: ditch lights, cut levers, MU cables and trainline cables.



This overall view shows the proportions of this large locomotive.



This photo shows the sheet styrene used to blank out the cab interior (if you look into the cab, you'll see those stark white areas). The plan is to scratchbuild an interior for this model and leave the doors and windows open.



In order to blank out the interior and get the front truck to attach to the frame, I had to trim a sheet of 0.1" styrene to fit the Athearn truck's mounting claws. It holds the truck securely to the frame, but the truck is unpowered. Also visible is a portion of the frame removed with my trusty bandsaw to clear the SD45-2 shell.



Here's the rear end of the locomotive. This is what started the whole project. The shell's hood end casting was so ugly, I had to remove it and replace it with the Cannon & Co. equivalent. Unfortunately, this small surgical procedure led to the decision to replace the other offending parts (which gets expensive really quick). However, since I model Southern, N&W and NS, I've grown used to looking at this end of a locomotive and often give it a great deal of attention.



Here's a detail shot of the modified Cannon radiator grille. The RPP grille was absolutely awful, but no replacement existed for it until I realized I could splice two Cannon radiator grille castings. The SD45-2's radiator is larger than any of the other EMD products offered at the time of the SD45-2, but its grilles bear a great resemblance to the shorter grilles on SD40-2s and the like. I simply cut the ends off one grille and cut the middle out of another and glued them back together with MEK to form a grille that loosely resembles the prototype. A thin strip of styrene was MEK'd to the top of the grille to match prototype photos.



Same story as the right side, but this side has the neat bell casting! There's still so much more to do to this model, including: stripping the fuel tank/chassis casting, polishing the tank, adding the Cannon fuel tank detail set, detailing the trucks, adding sanding lines, air reservoirs, air lines, oil and air filters, brake hoses, handrails....

I don't have any idea when it will be complete, but I promise to post pictures along the way and certainly for the final product.

 

<font color="336633">This is one of the reasons I like HO scale! I think I may accually prefer this type of thing than running them....

Very nice work

The worst thing about Railpower shells are the fans, I use Train Station Products ones, not cheap but damn good.

What is HELM leasing paint like???</font>

 

Very very nice, shows all the details you can apply in HO... but how are you gonna power the front truck??!

 

First rate work!

That is going to be a fine looking model when it’s done.

 

Thanks for all the kind responses! I'd like to answer a few questions raised here, so here goes:

I plan to paint the locomotive in the red and blue paint worn by #914. The photo on George Elwood's site (among others) is the inspiration for this project.

As for the front truck, I don't plan on powering it. I'll just have to live with 6 wheel power, but then again, none of my locomotives operate as singles anyway. I hope to get this locomotive equipped with a sound decoder as well someday, so I'll likely use all that space the drivetrain would occupy forward of the motor for a speaker and baffle.

As far as the Train Station Products fans are concerned, I'm considering those for replacement of the existing fans. I attached the existing RPP fans before the shells became "extinct" since I had planned to build an ex-EL CR SD45-2 originally to sell. Well, since then, I decided it was time to do a few models for myself instead of for sale. I found out pretty early on in the custom building game that only a few specific details, features and modifications will elevate the sale price very high and anything beyond that point just ends up costing me. But, my personal taste dictates more details, so I've added them!

I've done a Santa Fe SD45-2 years ago, long before I cared too much about details and instead focused on the weathering.



I've also done a pair of SD45-2Bs, only one of which I have photos of.



As for N scale, forgetaboutit! I can barely see this HO stuff!

I have a few other projects I have in the works as well, and I'd like to post a "diary" of their construction as well. Two of them are C39-8s, one is a CF7 and sometime in the not-too-distant future is a pair of NS D940Cs (using Atlas components this time instead of RPP parts like on the first three).

 

RC,
From Professional to Professional... Thats GREAT work! Altho, my diesel work isn't as good (I admit to it) I'm not to fanatical on diesels, however steam is a different story! I do a "basic" detail job on diesels, with fifferent things, unless I want some preticular, par say, my B&O E-8's, which will be a 4 unit ABBA set when I'm done....

BUT thats some nice work RC. Good to look at an get my insparation going to do more detail on diesels then I actually have done in the past!