Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2012 15:40:22 GMT -8
I'm putting the finishing touches on an A-B-A set of Great Northern freight F7's. The GN used these three unit F7 sets in service on the Iron Range in Minnesota hauling iron ore and later taconite. The 317A-B-C were phase II F7's with 48" dynamic brake fans, vertical car body louvers and Farr air intake grilles. The GN partially de-skirted the units not too long after delivery from EMD. The models are painted in what GN fans refer to as the "Empire Builder" scheme. This scheme features dulux gold stripping between the paint seperations and an imitation aluminum lower band. The models themselves are Stewart/Kato models. Details added are GN specific horn, grabs, partial de-skirting, fuel tank modifications, grabs, radio antenna, lift rings and cab air intake. Here are some construction photos of the units.    The paint on this unit is a true confidence builder!!!!! Just the masking alone took hours, it took a another pile of hours to lay four stripes too! Actually the detailing was easy and faster than the paint. The paint is Omaha Orange, Pullman Green, Black and Silver on the grilles.   |
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Post by SantaFeJim on May 25, 2012 15:44:13 GMT -8
VERY NICE!!!  |
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Post by calzephyr on May 25, 2012 17:11:28 GMT -8
Jim
I certaily agree with Santafe Jim that those units are very nice and look to be detailed very well to the prototype units. The Stewart units were shaped very nice and were the standard in the early 90's. I detailed a set of SP Black Widow units and drilling out for those handrails was not so easy. Mine still run like new. KATO sure made a good drive chassis and shell.
Nice!
Larry
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Post by craigz on May 25, 2012 18:41:27 GMT -8
Stunners. Just gorgeous.
The Stewarts are still the next best thing for an F unit nose if you can't get a Highliner shell...
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Post by calzephyr on May 26, 2012 5:29:52 GMT -8
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Post by railthunder on May 26, 2012 6:27:05 GMT -8
All I can say is you do a fantastic job with E and F units across the board. Great looking and great work on the GN units. I really enjoy seeing your efforts.
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Post by riogrande on May 26, 2012 8:56:35 GMT -8
Nice photo. It looks like it is on an ore train up somewhere in Wisconsin. The GN paint job was handsome and I can see the appeal of modeling it in th 50's and 60's.
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Post by edwardsutorik on May 26, 2012 11:19:16 GMT -8
Strange. On the PROTOTYPE photo, it looks like they got the numberboard on the right on crooked--a detail I would be extremely hesitant to reproduce.
Ed
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Post by riggelweg on May 26, 2012 18:14:59 GMT -8
Very nice work!
Why did certain railroads remove the shirting on their F units? I know the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific did, and it seems that a lot of roads did.
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Post by calzephyr on May 26, 2012 21:07:36 GMT -8
Very nice work! Why did certain railroads remove the shirting on their F units? I know the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific did, and it seems that a lot of roads did. Most all of the railroads removed the Skirting for maintenance reasons so they could access the hard to reach areas better. The Union Pacific retained the original look on their E units but most all other railroads removed the skirting on all E and F units around 1960 era. That was the year the ladders were added to the nose mandated by the FRA and certainly other changes were ordered also that were mandated. Larry |
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Post by riggelweg on May 27, 2012 6:09:04 GMT -8
Very nice work! Why did certain railroads remove the shirting on their F units? I know the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific did, and it seems that a lot of roads did. Most all of the railroads removed the Skirting for maintenance reasons so they could access the hard to reach areas better. The Union Pacific retained the original look on their E units but most all other railroads removed the skirting on all E and F units around 1960 era. That was the year the ladders were added to the nose mandated by the FRA and certainly other changes were ordered also that were mandated. Larry Thanks. I was also wondering about the ladders. Good to know. |
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Post by riogrande on May 27, 2012 6:27:43 GMT -8
The D&RGW seemed to be one of the few that didn't remove skirting from the F-units for some reason - it remained on most, if not all, of them thru retirement. The WP had a curious skirting change where the front part appeared to be partically removed - Athearn Genesis actually partially simulated this on the WP FP7A.
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Post by KIM on May 27, 2012 12:17:20 GMT -8
Your work is amazing, and I like the way that you supply background information.
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bcrn
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Post by bcrn on May 27, 2012 16:26:43 GMT -8
does anybody know what style gyralite in on these f units?
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bcrn
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Post by bcrn on May 27, 2012 16:28:54 GMT -8
oops, wrong thread!!!!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2012 15:59:54 GMT -8
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Post by mlehman on Jun 1, 2012 20:52:45 GMT -8
Hey, I remember those from a thread on the Atlas forum.... Which unfortunately died an all too early death, but not due to the usual reasons for dead threads there....  Good to see it revived here. They are coming along very nicely. The GN scheme is one of my favorites among Roads I Do Not Model. |
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Post by rhpd42002 on Jun 2, 2012 6:42:14 GMT -8
Those units sure do look purty, Jim. Excellent work!! Mike, take the plunge, get yourself just one and let it run off some horsepower hours the GN owes your RR.  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2012 5:16:21 GMT -8
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Post by rhpd42002 on Jun 11, 2012 15:26:21 GMT -8
Nicely done and VERY impressive, Jim. Great work!  |
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Post by antoniofp45 on Jun 14, 2012 11:52:30 GMT -8
Jim,
Excellent paint, decal, and detailing work! Looking at how well your paint job came out, I can imagine that the masking operations could have been tedious at times.
For the grabs on the engineer's side of the nose, did you make a template to get the holes aligned and spaced?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2012 12:13:33 GMT -8
Jim, Excellent paint, decal, and detailing work! Looking at how well your paint job came out, I can imagine that the masking operations could have been tedious at times. For the grabs on the engineer's side of the nose, did you make a template to get the holes aligned and spaced? I used a BLMA grab iron template for the side nose grabs. A most wonderful tool. |
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Post by antoniofp45 on Jun 15, 2012 6:58:08 GMT -8
Jim, I googled BLMA Templates and found this YouTube video. I like it and now plan on getting the HO scale version of the templates. Thanks! |
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Post by Christian on Jun 15, 2012 8:02:33 GMT -8
I wonder why it took soooo many years for someone like BLMA to market a useful grab template. Also, the BLMA grabs are very, very nice.
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Post by riggelweg on Jun 15, 2012 13:31:53 GMT -8
Looks very nice.
What brand of grab irons did you use?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2012 17:21:25 GMT -8
Looks very nice. What brand of grab irons did you use? The fancy multiple bend grabs on the corner of the nose are Detail Associates. The ladder grabs are hand bent as are side grabs by the doors and corners. |
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Post by onequiknova on Jun 15, 2012 17:29:39 GMT -8
Impressive models! It shows how those Stewarts can still hold up to today's standards with a bit of detailing. Your decal work looks good too. I know how much of a pain in the ass those pinstripes can be.  An ABA set would drive me crazy. |
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Post by riggelweg on Jun 16, 2012 5:10:07 GMT -8
Looks very nice. What brand of grab irons did you use? The fancy multiple bend grabs on the corner of the nose are Detail Associates. The ladder grabs are hand bent as are side grabs by the doors and corners. Thanks. It appeared to me that the bolts were also brass. I am not aware of any grabs that have brass bolts attached to them, hence my question. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2012 5:17:16 GMT -8
The fancy multiple bend grabs on the corner of the nose are Detail Associates. The ladder grabs are hand bent as are side grabs by the doors and corners. Thanks. It appeared to me that the bolts were also brass. I am not aware of any grabs that have brass bolts attached to them, hence my question. The bolts are a detail part from Details Associates number 2203. |
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Post by valenciajim on Jun 18, 2012 14:15:05 GMT -8
Fabuolous models, Jim!
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