Athearn RTR GP35 - Project Locomotive

Another cheap geep for the Peoria project.  This one is an Athearn RTR GP35 in Western Pacific silver and orange livery. 

The ebay listing advertised it as a basket-case but this locomotive is actually in very good shape.  This is a reissue of the old Rail Power Products shell, with some extra detailing and see-through fans.  The chassis is DCC ready and it's a nice little model.  The only issues with this one are missing coupler pockets, snapped handrails and a front truck with damaged sideframes.

The previous owner has broken the sideframe mounting pins and then attempted to fix the problem by drilling holes through the plastic and using plastruct tube to refit the frames.  It's a bit of a mess of glue and plastic, so the easiest way to fix it will be a replacement truck (any Athearn GP7 or F7 truck will fit).  So it needs a little work, but for the price it was a steal.

Photograph of High Hood N&W #1309 from http://www.nwhs.org/

I plan to turn this loco into a high-hood N&W unit, the handrails will either be glued back together or replaced with brass wire and I will fit a Cannon high nose.

Modelling the Peoria Local - Motive Power

Here is a look at the second part of the Prototype Modeler magazine article on modeling the Peoria Local train.  This is from the September/October 1988 issue and details how to build and detail two of the most common locomotives then seen on the Bloomington line.

The article covers two different locomotives, a high nose Southern GP38-2 and a low nose N&W GP30, the older geep being unusual as a low nose unit because most of these locomotives were high hood units on the Norfolk & Western and Southern routes.

The article goes into a lot of detail on how to improve and detail the old Front Range (Bachmann) GP30 and create a detailed and accurate model of these unique locomotives.
A great project and two very nice looking locomotives, although these days there are off the shelf options for both of these prototypes, including the Life Like Proto 2000 GP30 (in both high and low nose versions) and the new Athearn Genesis GP38-2 as a high nose Southern prototype.

The Athearn Genesis GP38-2 in Southern Livery 

The Proto 2000 GP30 High Nose in Norfolk and Western Livery 

I will definitely be picking up one of the new Athearn GP38-2's when they are released at the end of the year, but getting a Proto 2000 high nose GP30 will be a lot harder, they really seem to be like gold dust, even the low nose versions are thin on the ground.  I will be keeping an eye on ebay just in case one becomes available.

You can read the entire article on this link here:  Link

Track plan for Peoria V2.0

I've spent some time working up a second version of the track plan for my planned Peoria layout.  This one features more track for extra operating options, and I have moved the Mackinaw River bridge to the corner area. 

In real life the bridge is not curved, but I'm expecting that with some careful terrain occlusion the scene will not be so different from eye-level.

Picture by Jon J Roma on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonroma/

I'm pleased with how the plan has developed for this version, and it definitely feels like it is heading in the right direction, this version also features larger main curves with 18" radius, although ideally I would get up to at least 20" to allow for the 89ft flat cars and autoracks.

 Picture by Jon J Roma on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonroma/

This plan is still a closed loop, I intend to try and add some kind of fiddle yard under the layout, so my next design will include a first attempt at adding the lead tracks that access the staging area.

 Photo by Steve Smedley on Railpictures http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=320444&showexif=1

First track plan for Peoria

After fiddling in Xtrack Cad for a while, I've come up with my first draft trackplan for the new layout.  This one features the two key visual elements I wanted to capture from the article - the Mackinaw Bridge and the outskirts of Bloomington.

Anti-clockwise from the top.  The bridge is represented by the long rectangle along the top line, then comes the grain elevator at Goodfield, then the purple box represents the Midwest Fibre recycling plant on the outskirts of Bloomington, and the lower straight is Bloomington itself with the former freight depot.

I've arranged the layout in two sides, with the idea that I could reconfigure it as an end-to-end for exhibition use.

This first version is already working fairly well, but I am trying to get a little more track into the grain elevator, and especially a small runaround loop on that corner.

The curves are tight, but as I only have a 4ft width there won't be much I can do about that.  One of the key types of freight for the trains is 89ft flatcars loaded with containers and dry van trailers, as well as the occasional Autorack from the Diamond Star motors plant.

So, still a lot of work to do, but the concept of a continuous run does feel like it will fit with the space I have available.  There is a lot more design and planning yet to do - especially in terms of fiddle yard/storage for the layout.  I have an idea that it might be possible to shoehorn an under-the-layout fiddle yard by installing a gradient at the right hand end, but until I do some mock-ups and testing, I don't know how practical that will be.

Over the next week or two I hope to be able to hone this trackplan into one that is truly ready to build.