I recently picked up one of the new Atlas GP7's. This one had the "Torpedo Tubes" on top when it served in passenger service but had been repainted and put back in freight service. It's kind of an odd duck as it's painted in the maroon and yellow of the 60's but had the speed lettering from the 70's applied. There were actually several different models of locos that wore this scheme but not many of the GP7's. There wasn't much that I had to do this loco other than remove the shield and the number, paint the ends with yellow then weather it and add the new decals. It started out like this: And ended up like this: This and the previous red one knocks off 2 of the 8 GP7's that I have on my bucket list.
I'm beginning to think that I'm really becoming addicted to the fumes? Since the #1299 didn't take very long to complete, I decided to grab two more and work on a couple of easy schemes. These are in the 400 number series and were from the first 12 GP7's that Rock Island acquired in July of 1950. The 434 did not last until the shutdown (March 1980). It was slated to be rebuilt and renumbered to 4495 (Blue and White) but instead it was traded to PNC (Precision National Corp) during the CRP (Capital Rebuilding Program) that was initiated in 1974, a program to rebuild the large majority of Rock Island's aging GP7's, which also included GP9's and GP18's. So it will continue to run on my layout... I've really been wanting to get some GP7's on the roster and the layout as they were the backbone of the Rock Island and their main workhorse and could be found system wide. The GP7's, GP9's and GP18's along with the GP35's were very prevalent on The Little Rock line as well. Not to mention one of my favorite locos. I didn't add much for details as it was pretty plain. The the spark arrestors are a new product that I found on Shapeways designed by Wutter, these are 3D printed and turned out very nice. I'm trying to decide if I should an All Weather Window on the engineers side? I have a brass JNJ kit, but it has 3 panes and not two. The cab shade on the fireman's side looks like an old canvas type? I'm trying to the get the 439 finished this evening.
Dunno why, but I have always liked seeing Geeps with that style of spark arrestor. They just state that a 567B is inside, which is my favorite EMD sound generator.
Same here Boxcab, it just adds a nice touch. When you see a GP without them, they look kind of bland?
This evening I got the finishing touches on the #439, but after seeing it through the lens, I noticed a couple more minor things to touch up. Unlike the 434, the 439 was one of the unlucky GP7's that never got rebuilt during the CRP and soldiered on until the shutdown wearing this early maroon scheme. I weathered it pretty much the same way I did the 434 and the others. Pan Pastels and Panel liner. I'm thinking about adding the all weather windows? I have some JNJ Brass frets, but I'm also considering seeing if anyone could print me a couple. I think I really need to add them? Just for the record I used all Tru-Color paints for the last six builds. This is about half of the GP7's that will make up my roster, There's at least four or five more schemes I want to paint up yet. But for now, I've about reached my limit of building locos and I really want/need to get back to the layout and work on a couple of my scenes. Thanks for following along.
