NS Horseheads

[scooter3798]

Here are some shots of some Horsehead units that I finished up a couple of months back. The first is a Genesis SD70M that I painted as a future incarnation of the 2585. Since I wanted to do a straight radiator 70 I had to sort of guess as far as which one will end up in the new scheme first. I added a Details West detail kit to it and a bunch of other parts. The second unit, in the next post, is an Athearn RTR SD50 that I painted, again as a future scheme, 6515. I replaced the anticlimbers on it with Cannon parts and then added a couple of other parts to it. The hardest part was finding room to put bulbs in for the ditch lights and headlights on both ends of the unit!

Enjoy

Scooter

[scooter3798]

A couple more shots of the 70 and the 50

[Michael Knight]

Very nice! The SD50 will never see that new scheme. Wasn't it wrecked in Illonois a few years back?  GP38-2 5005 climbed up on it's front pilot and went through the radiator.

[scooter3798]

The wreck was the reason for picking it. I did it for a guy who picked it out because of the wreck. I was working on it in Feb of this year and he felt pretty confident that the unit would be rebuilt this year sometime. Since I have finished the model I really never checked to find out what really did happen to the real 6515 though! If any one does know its fate I would like to know. I had my fingers crossed while doing the model that it would be rebuilt. I remeber looking at the pictures and it didn't look too bad, it seemed like most of the damage was to the body of the unit, and the frame looked to be in good shape, but then again the last time I looked at a shot of it was over a half a year ago.

Scooter

[Michael Knight]

Most of the SOU SD50s were already gone when the 6515 was wrecked. SD50s and C39-8s are being retired; thus, none should receive new paint. The 6515 is already off the roster, and roughly one-third of the twenty- four original SOU SD50s are all that remain.

Unlike CSX, which still relies heavily on their SD50s, NS has enough newer power to be able to phase older units out.

[Hoydie17]

Here's the only one I have in the "Horsehead" scheme. 

NS 9799, it was just a run of the mill Athearn Bluebox Dash 9, it's a dummy unit now as I never liked the bluebox motors.  The headlight has been moved up over the cab which is prototypical to NS's GE's. 

I'll start a new thread to post some of the other engines in my collection, mostly CSX, but there's some other stuff as well.

Sean

[darkhorse2]

very nice work

[scooter3798]

First off thanks for the info on the 6515 nsboxcar, although I'm kind of wishing now that I didn't know! Sean I like the catfish you have there. I have done a couple of N scale ones for friends of mine, but I have yet to do an HO one. What surprises me is that for as ubiquitous as the CW40-9's are in real life, almost no one wants to put any real effort into doing models of them, myself included as far as HO ones go. I guess the whole headlight thing is a real turnoff to most, even though there are some other differences that theycarry compared to their higher horsepower cousins. Thank you for the compliments as well darkhorse. Finally here is a shot of some of my home road locos, the Pittsburgh, Chicago and Lake Erie. From left to right there is an Athearn Gen SD75I, Atlas C30-7, Athearn SD75I, Athearn SD75M, Atlas GP38, Athearn RTR SD50, and an Athearn GP38-2. The 38-2 wasn't quite finished in the picture, as I have since redone the pilot to fill in the gap around the coupler box.

Scooter

[Michael Knight]

You're welcome; although, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news to your modeling world. But since it's model railroading, you're in control and can have want you want- weather it's prototypical or not.

When I was involved, I found irregularities in Athearn's blue box Dash 9s. Several NS decorated units I had purchased were of Athearn's phase one dash 9 production. These units featured rad-cab vents that were all of a uniform height; a feature found on the earliest dash 9s produced. One unit, however, featured the rad cab venting in several sizes, which is prototypical to NS's units. This particular model was an Athearn phase two production and, aside from the headlight and air reservoirs, was very prototypical.

[scooter3798]

Here is another horsehead. This time a GP40-2, and again another fingers crossed that it will get done unit. I finished this loco about a month or tow ago and used the 3000 as a prototype for it since the ex RDG units are a match to the body style on the old Athearn GP40-2's. I had the unit finished and about three or four days later I learned of the new GP40 rebuild program. The new units would also have been very close to the Athearn unit, and would have required far less modification than trying to match one of the Ex CR units. Oh well. Here is to hoping that when they upgrade the thing to a slug master that it gets some fresh paint.

Scooter

[NSDash9]

NS 3000 has been in horsehead paint since March of 2004.


Chris Toth

NSDash9.com
http://www.nsdash9.com

[darkhorse2]

hey scooter,dont sweat the details.i just picked up a proto sd50,just to find out it was traded in to nrex. so if i want to do it right i have to paint out all of the ns markings > i like you home road fleet. lets see some individual unit shots.

[scooter3798]

Well, I shot myself in the foot with the GP40-2, I just really lucked out that it didn't end up too far off from the prototype, which I looked up some shots of last night. Normally I take the time and check as many places as I can for info on a unit that I am going to do, that wasn't the case with the 3000. I had looked around and found just a couple of shots of it, and the 3002. The 3002 still wears CR paint, and they must have gotten switched around in my head. The fact that I didn't print out any picutres of the unit when working on it really helped to seel the deal. Any way after looking at the pictures of the real 3000's current state I think that it will be passable. I know that the horn is wrong and that some of the lettering is off a little. Also I used the older style PRR looking logo under the cab number, I always thought it was neat looking, instead of the appropriate NS which is on the prototype. Other than that I never intended the unit to be any kind of award winner, just a nice filler loco. Any way thank you again for the comments darkhorse, and a NREX SD50 might look pretty cool, especially one of those ones where they put the huge letters on the side of, I have never seen one of those in model form yet. Also thank you Chris for pointing out the paint job on the 3000.

Scooter