Regional Transportation Authority RTA EMD E9A #511

[Great-Northern-Willmar Div]

One of my favorite builds of all time!

RTA 511 former CNW 511, UP 949 was the only E9A to wear the RTA's powder blue. Eventually 511 went on to fame as one of the UP executive units and is again UP 949.

I cut the ugly P2K passenger pilot off and substituted a Highliners pilot. The pilot was modified to match that of 511.

 

The HEP pipes running on the roof between the forward and rear radiators for the Cummins genset used Precision Scale pipe fitting castings and PSC pipe clamp castings. The "pipe" is Detail Associate brass wire.







This was one of the UP E9A's which had a ladder on the back to gain access to the roof. Some UP E's had ladders and others didn't.

I scratch built mine out of brass strip stock from DA and the rungs are wire from DA. This ladder is actually incorrect. When looking at photos I counted six runs, the number of grab irons an E9 would have to gain the roof. The UP ladders were actually seven rung.









RTA 511 retained its air horn over the forward winterization hatch. This is a favorite location for horns on the UP E-units.

[Great-Northern-Willmar Div]

Finished


My photography is improving!

[slowfreight]

I'm not a fan of the single headlight and passenger pilot, but the model looks fantastic. I like the units that had their grills shortened in the back--another one of those North Western touches. Did this one finally get the Archer decals?

[Great-Northern-Willmar Div]

Jan 28, 2015 20:16:18 GMT -8 slowfreight said:

I'm not a fan of the single headlight and passenger pilot, but the model looks fantastic. I like the units that had their grills shortened in the back--another one of those North Western touches. Did this one finally get the Archer decals?

This is the last one I did with Micro-Marks's resin decal set.

The brown band and powder blue really hide the louvers.

This is my BN E9Au with the Archer decals.




You can see how subtle the Archer decals are on the panels. The Micro-Mark aren't that bad, its just that they are a little wider with the resin.

[slowfreight]

Weathering really picks out louvers. Dirt is what makes them stand out on the prototype, anyway.

[onequiknova]

A bit off topic, but your BN unit reminded me of something I haven't been able to figure out yet. You didn't add shutters to the openings in the steam generator compartment. I see the retooled Proto units have shutters in those openings. So, did they remove the shutters when they HEP'd them, or were there never shutters back there?