Tim, if you can find that black wagontop pic, I would love to see it. Do you have any idea of the time frame of the picture? I have both the Jones and Hubler books and there is no reference that I can find in either to a black I-12. The early schemes had black handrails on a Devils Red body but the hand rails were changed to yellow by the 50's for saftey improvements. I-5B # C2502 was painted gray with black lettering for the 1939-40 New York Worlds Fair. The I5A (2501) and I5B (2502-2507) were rebuilds on an I-5 wooden cabooose frame. These 7 cabooses were built in 1935, 5 years before the I-12's. They had shorter 15' truck centers. Cabooses 2502-2507 were rebuilt in the 40's to match the specs of the I-12's with 19' truck centers and other saftey upgrades.
Greg, glad you joined. I was trying to get someone to post those pictures that you sent me. They were so huge I couldn't really see the overall view. Look really good in the shots on here.
Thanks! First thanks to Rick for sending me a link to the website. I had searched along time for a place like this on the web. Alot of knowledgeable folks here. Also thanks for the nice comments on the cabs. They are wonderful kits and maybe and evening of work to put together. Painting is a bit tricky due to the ribs. Masking the Chessie scheme was a bit of a pain. The decals I used were a hodge-podge from the Microscale B&O/C&O diesel set, the C&O pinstripes from a C&O diesel set, various Chessie safety cab sets, as well as Chessie loco decals. They're not purr-fect, but certainly close enough for my 90% rule. Greg
Greg- I saw your article in the latest NSR. Truly amazing job. Also the weathering you've done on the caboose, cars and GP9 is amazing. That Geep looked just like photos I've seen of B&O equipment in the late 60s to early 70s.
I think I located the photo I was talking about - and I'll bet that the color really is dark blue - it's just very old paint and very dirty... I'll see about getting it posted here. The caboose number is C2243 which makes it a B&O I-12 (Chessie System C-18).
Thanks for the compliments. I appreciate it very much. The story on that engine is as follows. When I was a child growing up in East Dayton, Ohio, the B&O Wellston Sub ran through our backyard. The guys would pull in the siding behind the house and let me come up on the engine and sit and talk. (What a 6 year old had to say of interest...I don't know.) They also would take me for rides to switch a few local industries. The engineer would sit me in his lap and let me blow the horn and turn on the bell. The model engine pictured is based on one my folks had an old snap-shot of me climbing up on for "my" switchng chores. I was decked out in my hickory striped bibbed splendor, with my engineers cap starched high over a Crisco Shortning can. I think I even had my lantern with me. When I do custom work, I always try to find some reason to do a particular engine or car of interest. Something "meaningful". IE my shortline engines are numbered using my mom and dads month and year of birth, etc. By the way, that same engineer sent me 10 bucks every Christmas until he passed away. He went so far as to find our address after we moved from the house in East Dayton in 1979, and the rails were torn up the next year. Sighhhhh. Christmas memories... Thanks for making me remember all of that. Sorry to blab on! Greg
Not a blab at all! It's nice to hear the old stories like that, especially since (sadly) in this day and age, there's no way you're going to see any Class 1 engineers letting kids on their trains. The B&O, like many railroads back then, believed in goodwill. And interacting with the neighborhoods was one way of spreading that. My guess is the engineers back then figured maybe one day you would remember those events with a smile. And they were right~ But like I said in my prior post- I've got a lot of books on the B&O, and your work is remarkable at catching that "haven't seen a paint shack or wash rack" look the B&O had in that period.
Once again...thanks for the nice thoughts. I usually work from pictures from books or Fallen Flags website. I try to get close to what I remember from my childhood too. I have so many vivid memories of the B&O and still remember seeing my first Chessie locomotive and thinking..."Dear God! What have they done!" Of course now I'd spend hours chasing the occassional "Chessie visitor" in Toledo. I don't know if you saw the article I did on B&O Midland City in N-Scale Mag, but the photography of the finihsed model was particlularly good. It was all luck, but believeable in my opinion. Thanks again for the kind words! Greg
