Atlas and an unexpected Kato...

I managed to pick up an Atlas C30-7 on ebay for £30 - perfect for the Redbird project, and much more detailed than the Railpower shell.

This model was advertised as having a missing fuel tank, but I also picked up a box of assorted detail parts from the same seller and discovered the missing fuel tank was actually in the second lot.  So I have a complete C30-7 ready for stripping and detailing.

The second lot was advertised as containing a railpower GP35 shell, which I though might be useful to swap with the Athearn RTR I bought recently (the Athearn RTR is based on the Railpower shell). 

However when I looked at the GP35 shell it turned out to be a Kato GP35, not a Railpower, so I'm not sure what I will do with that one.  I don't have any Kato spares, and there are no handrails or cab glazing for the shell.  It is beautifully detailed with walkway tread and very finely cast details, so I will probably try to get it up and running some day, perhaps on an adapted Railpower chassis.

The rest of the lot was an assortment of whitemetal detail parts and some Atlas details, along with a stripped blue-box GP9 shell.

Rail Power for the Redbird?

While casting around for parts I picked up some more Rail Power Products shells on ebay recently and the first of them arrived this morning.  It's a Phase II GE C30-7 shell (Railpower part #60-501) designed to fit onto an Athearn u-boat chassis.

Mounting pin holes cast into walkway edge (lower left)

This shell dates from around 1989 and is one of the earliest models produced by the company, it is certainly on a par with the Athearn models of the day, although it does feature cast on mounting pin holes on the walkway sides to fit the Athearn frames, a feature that Athearn dropped after the SD40-2 in 1980. 

Other than some flash here and there, this is a pretty good basis for a 'four foot' model, but it may be a simple way to improve it for the N&W Redbird project. 

I have an Atlas B23-7 shell in the parts bin, so I'm thinking that with some careful cutting, it might be possible to assemble a composite model by splicing the Railpower hood inbetween the Atlas cab and radiator sections, the Atlas parts are modern and high detail, so the end result will probably look much more detailed than the Railpower shell on it's own.

Norfolk and Western Redbirds - Tuscan Locomotives

I recently picked up a copy of "Norfolk & Western in Color Volume 3" by Morning Sun Books, an excellent book which I hoped might provide some useful reference for my planned Peoria layout.

The book has hundreds of full colour images showing a wealth of details on N&W and Norfolk Southern locomotives and facilities.  Really a great read and I highly recommend it.  See here for more details:  http://www.morningsunbooks.com/southcat.html#nw_v3

Image from Norfolk & Western in color - Morning Sun Books

One of the interesting finds in the book was a series of pictures showing the Tuscan Red C30-7's and SD40-2 that were delivered to N&W in 1978/79.  These locomotives featured a metallic red pain scheme with gold lettering and they look very sharp indeed.

Photograph by Leon Kay http://www.flickr.com/photos/8226029@N06/2255359017/

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=46167&nseq=9

I've ordered a set of Microscale decals (Set HO110) which cover the required logos and numbers for all seven units that featured this scheme.

http://www.shellscale.com/HO110page.htm

This should be a good project, although I am now on the lookout for a cheap C30-7 as a base unit for this project. There are several different versions available, including an old Railpower shell and versions by Atlas and Broadway Limited so I'm sure something will turn up sooner or later.