Dang Bruce, your right and I even have that one! Interesting story. I run that locomotive sometimes with my newer power since that locomotive was repainted into the Minute Man scheme by the B&M Historical Society in the late 1970's or 80's. I'll verify. Can't speak for the rest of the modelers here, but I don't like Guilford or the Guilford Gauntlet as I call it. I was able to watch rebuilt GP7, 9's and 18's switch cars in Concord and even Pennacook until 1983-4. After the strike of 86-87, the Northern was abandoned.
Never liked the Star Wars Rebel Alliance grey and orange paint scheme they adopted. It made a five shade, beat up blue dip look nice. PAR, not as offensive. At least it's blue.
Pure fantasy but I wrote an alternate universe story line once where Guilford never purchased the B&M. Instead the B&M went into partnership with Conrail and invested in more intermodal using the Boston and Albany Route and the Northern into Montreal. By 1990, they had purchased the failed Guilford purchased Maine Central and Springfield Terminal. Here is what I envisioned as a B&M SD60M.
Yes, LL did, and I have two, #'s 1223 and 1231, both good runners. http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/llsw.html, though interestingly the MR review did not mention the B&M scheme.
This is true, but the Life Like SWs came long after the 1992 BL2 release and long long after the Bev Bel RS-3, F7A and GP-38. I remember not buying the SW8 when it first came out because I figured something that good would always be on the market and there wouldnt be any rush, plus I had no need for it at the time. Im smarter about things now, when a B&M unit comes out for the era I model, I buy it whether I need it or not. Too bad Walthers doesnt rerun the SWs in B&M Minute Man, perhaps if the maroon RS-2 does well they will consider it.
Excuse the poor photo, but here's an Atlas special run GP-9 #1733 & #1749 from 2005 or so, and from the early to mid 90s, Atlas GP-7 #1557, Life-Like SW-9 #1223, and E-7 #3804. I'm always amused by the various shades of maroon...
Hi mramsey, Welcome to the TrainBoard, always happy to have another B&M enthusiast join the group. As for shades of maroon, I explain it due to weather exposure, shop crew attention, and the results of buying paint from the lowest bidder. Seriously, you should have seen the grundgey condition of the FTs and F2s working the western Fitchburg Division in the late 40s and early 50s. On the other hand, the E7s were usually spiffy, and the Minute Man (#6000) shone like a new penny.
I would be nice if Atlas decided to re-run these Blue Birds instead of the late nearly Blue Dip scheme they picked. There is hope for the future but Atlas rarely seems to re-run paint. I agree that it is nice that so many B&M fans are popping up. I currently live in the mid-west and am pretty isolated from other B&M modelers. I think B&M is enjoying an N scale modeling renassaince of sorts (at least with diesel power) and a growing market base can only help. Right now we have the Bachmann 44 tonner and RS-3, Life-Like RS-2, IM FT as delivered (to be released) and Atlas GP9 (to be released). Without any help from older equipment a new modeler could still make a decent go at a B&M layout with what is, or is going to be, available.
I'm just realizing that the Life-Like GP-18 low nose hasn't been mentioned yet. It's not a great model, but it was released in 1996 in Bluebird paint with two numbers.
Good point... but if I recall that locomotive is only correct for 1755. The other GP-18s were rebuilds from earlier locomotives (the B&M BL2s and an F7 I think) and had four roof fans (not including the dynamic brake fan). Still it was a factory locomotive with the Blue Bird scheme... difficult to find too. Actually, I am thinking of kit bashing one of the four fan GP-18s.
If I were you I would start with a modern Atlas GP-9 and chop the nose. That would be a lot less work than getting the Life-Like to be both accurate and well performing
I did an IC GP-10 using an old GP-18 chassis and cab with a cut down Atlas GP-7 frame, short hood and modified long hood, runs decent but not perfect. I own a GP-18 short hood that someone modified with Micro Trains and painted, I was going to strip the paint and begin with that unit. I already have a spare Atlas GP-7 long hood I was going to cut the top off and use it to replace the GP-18's hood top then tweak the other parts as need. Eventually I was thinking of using this project to try out making my own wire handrails per Randgust's excellent example. Still, for the purpose of my collection I would like to track down the LL B&M GP-18. On a side note, my Bev Bel GP-38 arrived yesterday and runs great (for how old it is). My Second N scale locomotive was an undec LL GP-38 that I still have (many paint jobs later), it is currently awaiting its final repaint which will probably be for the Clarendon and Pittsford (VTR/VRS).
I know this is an old thread, but you can fix those GP-18s real easy. Buy a newer, split-frame, LL GP-20 and swap the body. Mine runs like a champ now.
Arnold did their one and only release of the SW1 in both the blue/ white and also the black Minuteman scheme.
Boxcab, The blue and white version will work for your purposes too. Just clip off the long handrail flush with the second stancion.
