Geep Wreck - Proto Packaging Claims Another Victim

I picked up a nice looking mint condition Proto GP9 in the early maroon paint scheme, but unfortunately the curse of the Proto 2000 packaging struck while it was en-route to me in the post.

These older Proto models are designed to be shipped with the body shell and the chassis in separate parts of the box.  The seller didn't realise this and shipped the model in one piece.  There is too much room in the box and the model was free to slide back and forth in transit. So much so that the front pilot ended up completely mashed and most of the rooftop details were shorn off.

It was certainly a sorry sight when I opened the box.  Turned out that the seller was a top bloke and he sorted everything out for me, but I now have yet another unexpected basket case for the 'to do' box.

I was hoping to put this unit straight to work on Godinez, but with the damage it's sustained it will take a while before it sees the rails again.

If you are buying a boxed Proto on eBay then be sure to e-mail the seller and ask them to dismantle the model before shipping.  It's unlikely to make the journey in one piece otherwise!

It's all in the details...

Another impulse buy from eBay.  I spotted this collection of detail parts going for a song so I snapped them up.  There are about forty packets of parts, including several complete sets of Smokey Valley handrails. 

Several of the parts are for SD50/60 locomotives, inluding a set of brass handrails, which will be perfect for my old school blue-box SD60 kitbash.

 
I also picked up a couple of Athearn GP60 Shells to use for the build, one of which turned out to be an in-progress Santa Fe unit which has already had a considerable amount of detailing time put into it.  

The SD60 build will require only parts of a shell and it would be a shame to undo all that great work.  I expect this locomotive will get finished off and painted instead of being hacked up, although I don't have any SF decals at the moment...

 
At this rate I will need to get a second organiser to keep my parts in, I've got a surprising amount of bits-n-pieces I've accumulated over the past couple of years, with all manner of small details west and Cannon parts in the box.   Even with all those packets I still never seem to have the actual part I need at any time though!

Unexpected Kato #2 - Another GP35 arrives.

I noticed this mysterious unboxed locomotive on ebay, advertised as an unknown make and model, I could see from the picture that it was a GP35 and the running number matched the Athearn Wisconsin Central GP35 so I assumed it was an Athearn RTR model.

It arrived today and turns out it is actually a repainted Kato, very nicely detailed and in good shape.  A bit of a surprise and a pretty good result as I paid less than £20 for it, and Kato GP35's generally go for at least £40, even repainted.

The only damage is a broken rear porch handrail, the top rail is split on the right-hand side and will need to be patched or replaced.   The original owner also fitted an all-weather window that has dropped off and needs re-glued.

It's a beautifully smooth running engine, but I haven't had a chance to look under the hood yet, and I suspect this engine probably won't be the later DCC friendly version.  I may have to invest in a new lighting board for it.  

The Kato website has some details on how to fit DCC to the original release GP35 and SD40's here (link).

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.

Even more exact...

I received my second Exactrail box car today, it's a patched former Southern Pacific Hi-Cube boxcar from the Evolution series of models.

This boxcar is a superb model, the amount of detail is astonishing, right down to the walkways on each end and the very finely detailed underframe.

This one was a second-hand ebay purchase, the seller had mis-labelled the auction so I was able to pick it up very cheaply indeed, but now that I have two of these Exact Rail cars I'm starting to really notice the issues with my old blue box ones! 

I will need to see if I can rework a blue box to the standard of these ready-to-run ones!  That will be an interesting project!

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Thinning out the collection.

I've been avidly buying up locomotives for the past year and a half, and this weekend I did an inventory of the many (many, many, many) boxes piled up in my modeling space.  It was starting to look like that warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark!

I quickly decided it was time for a clearout.

I have a number of locomotives from 'other' roads including CSX, Chessie, Union Pacific, Canadian National, Santa Fe, Southern Pacific and a few others, which I purchased either because they were cheap, or because I planned to repaint them.

Most of them are modern locomotives (post nineties) and would not be suitable for my planned 1980's layout, and others are basket cases that simply need to be repaired and then sold on.

So I spent a few hours taking photographs this afternoon and listing them on ebay.  It's definitely against the grain for my 'hoarders instinct' but I reckon it makes sense to thin out the collection, not least of all so I can raise some funds to buy the new engines I need.

There are around a dozen assorted RTR SD50's, SD60's and SD70's to be listed, plus a whole load of spare bodyshells, random boxcars and other oddities.  So if you are on the lookout for a bargain then check out the buy-it-now section of ebay :)

In the meantime, I will keep hunting for cheap geeps...

Kato Geep - another ebay cheapie

I picked up another older Kato, this one is a GP7 that was marketed by Atlas in the late eighties.  It's unboxed but in good condition, the previous owner has applied some weathering using chalks or powders, but it seems like that will rub off without any problems.

I'm loving the weight of this unit, it's got a solid metal frame, and the body detail is very nice, apart from the moulded on grab-irons. It's a shame that Kato didn't take a leaf from Athearns book and only mould in the location dimples.

The walkways include tread detail on the lower edges, and the plastic handrails are not too oversized, looking more or less the same as a modern Kato unit in thickness.

I will be repainting this model along with my brass geep, both of them becoming locomotives for my planned Peoria layout.