A Revised ex-Conrail Atlas Dash 8-40CW #8353

[NSTopHat]

A couple of weeks back over on Trainorders, I posted an inquiry to the membership regarding issues I was having with the QSI sound system that was originally installed in several of my Atlas GE Dash 8-40CW's. I received several helpful responses and I do appreciate those, unfortunately to no avail. I searched through QSI's websites to no success for help and ended up calling Atlas direct. I spoke with a gentleman named Jim Miller who was kind, polite, patient, and helpful. He gave me a list of things to try, including change the CV for the speed curve. Unfortunately for me, none of this worked. Why, I don't know, I not sure if it's me or what, but in the end I decided to back-up and punt.

I pulled the locomotive apart and removed the QSI decoder from the drive, and installed a SoundTraxx decoder, a TSU-AT 1000. That being said there was a little more work than just a simple swap. The drop in decoder that SoundTraxx has for Atlas GE's doesn't match the QSI board in any way shape or form. I ended up building a false board from styrene and used the aluminum heat sink as the rear mounting point and foam taped the new decoder in place. I am extremely pleased with the results. I did have to add some resistors and heat shrink tubing to complete the job. I will warn you, the wiring for the front end lights is a rats nest coming FROM Atlas, which would be my only complaint.

That being said, I wanted to get this thing running for next week's NTS, so I had some outside work to do on it. The unit started out as CR #6151 and was re-lettered to NS #8353, and patched per prototype photos. I used a slim chisel to remove the class lights. I back painted using PollyScale CR Blue, which is a dead-on match for the blue Atlas used on this model (YEAH, Winner! Winner, Chicken Dinner!). I used the small bolted cover plates from BLMA and painted them black, following NS practice. I added an Overland Large Sinclair antenna to the front engineer's side of the cab roof. I also added spare knuckle holders to the rear pilot face from Details West. Though a buddy of mine (Tony Sissons) has etched the correct NS air conditioner as a separate detail part as a flat kit, it is beautiful, however I chose not to use it on this motor. You could use the one from DW, but I found that I needed to do as much clean-up on that as I would spend on building Tony's version. That being said, I cheated and painted the factory AC unit black, using PollyScale Engine Black and a fine paint brush. I did add a block of styrene behind the tallest stanchion for support, which helped, I just now need to glue the base pin into the mounting hole at the bottom. I did change the plow out to one from Details West.

The number board decals are from ShellSchale, Set #124 and the block-outs, numbers and sublettering si from Microscale set # 87-1182.

I used a Kadee #153 coupler on the rear and a #158 on the front, both with whisker springs in the Atlas coupler box, and removed the trip pins. Couplers and wheel faces are painted PollyScale Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) Brown. I also used this color on the spare knuckles inside the DW brackets.

In looking at prototype images, I found that the top of the nose was not painted black on the prototype and was in fact painted blue at GE. Again back to the bottle of CR Blue from PollyScale and the same fine paint brush as before. I then weathered it close to the prototype images. I used a couple of different things, including Mig and CMK Weather Powders, PollyScale paints and 70% Isopropyl Alcohol. And in case you have not tried, Floquil's Flat Finish brushes very nicely!

Now this thing runs the way I want it to and looks the part for a now 22 year old GE.

Enjoy.

Regards,
Russ

[NSTopHat]

A couple more images.

Regards,
Russ

[NSTopHat]

Last one.

Regards,
Russ

[Badhorse79]

That's a good looking loco there !

[NSMoWandS]

Beautiful work Russ! That is the one model(D8-40CW) that has yet to make it into my roster... and I am not sure why? LOL! Keep up the great work! DE Dan