Got a pack of replacement detail parts in about 4 days. Tweezers threw, and carpet caught, the microscopic parts! Also have a big plastic tub by where I was working. Might have to clean my video tapes from it, and see what a magnet might find! A grab iron or two and about HALF of the blasted windshield wipers! Now, if I can only get them to run right under DCC? With TCS decoders installed, they don't run together at all. On DC power though, they run pretty good!
Ryan, that is an excellent question! I guess I'm banking on someone needing a mech for a project (repowering a LL GP60, or a F59PH, or the like) and willing to buy the whole shebang and selling me the shell. OR, if someone wants to buy my 60B mech and then I'll just buy a whole 'nother GP60M, or something like that. On occasion a shell will turn up on eBay for whatever reason. FVM might also have extras but doubtful...Atlas seemed to have some extra shells there for a while and I bought some SD60's and 60M's that way. I'll probably hold off for now, to see if FVM does some kind of redesign on the ditchlights, but I'll probably eventually post a "Want Ad", which has been successful in the past. About half my locos have a "swap shell" or two for variety. It's a good way to get some foreign power without burning a mech and decoder for a loco that only "crosses the stage" on occasion. So for example, I have a BN SD60M, but I can swap it with 50/60/60M shells (I have DRGW, KCS, BN 3-window, and SOO...they all have black trucks and fuel tank) for variety. I did the same thing with my Atlas NS Dash 8-40C...found a CSX CW shell and also a CNW as well...3 locos for the price of...less than two. With the GP60M's and B's...well they weren't an every day occurrence for the era and locale I model...they did show up fairly often, but extremely rare to see A-B lashup so one unit should suffice. And I can still run an A-B Warbonnet set with my Atlas Dash 8. (yep, you guessed it....with either an ATSF or BNSF silver warbonnet shell!!!) And, if I don't come across a GP60M shell then that'll be ok too. Given the differences with the fuel tank, it's not an ideal swap anyway. Of course, now that I'm telling you guys my secret, I may be killing my market... hboy:
I'll try not to bid against you if I see any I think it's rather expensive for a remotoring project but I'm sure there are some out that that would do it. Thinking a bit more...I really wish I could use these mechanisms for a trio of Kato GP50s that were scratch built into GP60s about 20 years ago. I don't think that's possible though without causing major damage. I'll probably just hard wire in decoders. I do look forward to FVM offering standard cab GP60s in SP, SSW & DRGW. GP50s would be great too, BN and ATSF for me. Your shell swapping sounds like a good way to add variety. Now that I'm converting everything to DCC, it's even more cost effective to do the shell swapping vs buying a full loco + decoder.
Guess what I saw on the way to work today? #123 in tandem with another GP60M, but I went by too fast on the freeway to catch the # of the second unit. They were positioning tank cars at the Miller Brewing plant in Irwindale, CA.
Westfalen & Gulf 666 fresh out of the paint shop in the new horse and star logo scheme. The W&G had three ABA sets tacked onto the Santa Fe order for use on run through intermodal trains with A units numbered 600 to 670 (even numbers) and B units 661 to 663 (odd numbers).
That's a sharp paints scheme right there Westfalen! Looking forward to seeing your B units too. Good job!
Might be too late for some of you - as it is for me... FVM normally insulates the frame with Kapton tape in the appropriate location to prevent the light board shorting to the chassis when DCC converted. But I recently found two locos (out of five total) with no tape in place. When the shell is pushed down onto the chassis, the board will short and destroy the DCC chips. I only hope Digitrax will honor their "No Worries" guaranty...
I'm happy with mine. very attempted to get the Maersk one to go with the NS SD40-2 http://youtu.be/SpWE8Mwlcko
I have heard from a reliable source that the blue on the Maersk loco is completely wrong. It is a med to dark blue instead of a light blue like it is supposed to be.
I thought they had the blue wrong too , but after seeing the blue on the maersk containers lately I think the darker blue is actually the right color . I will probably wait for the lighter blue as it will probably be a closer match to the Kato maersk unit Alex
If the FVM announcement is showing the blue that will be used, then it will be way too dark. There are a fair number of photos on the internet, but also the colors on the original containers all show a fairly light milky blue.
I think I saw somewhere that there was going to be a second release of the Maersk unit with a lighter shade of blue. It may have even been earlier in this thread, but I'm too lazy to look (which is a pretty sad state of affairs).
Matt very clearly indicated why the blue he used was chosen in the release. It's called Maersk blue, and it was taken from sources. The second run will be lighter, as he had the same concerns about the blue on the first run. Seeing the blue in person at Trainfest, I didn't think it was as light as it shows in prototype pics, but it looked good, and pretty close. Trainfest lighting isn't all that wonderful either.
Jim, I have this same issue with all of the GP60's and a half dozen of the Gevos. The last straw for me. No more FVM locomotives.
