[pimanjc]

Last March, my home university, Wichita State University Shockers were in the March Madness again after going to the final four the year before. The Kansas & Oklahoma RR painted a GP40-2W in the Shocker black and gold with WSU graphics. See The attached links for pictures: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3348613

I decided to model that engine using an Ebay $26 toy unpowered GP35 loco:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3895718



Here is my completed loco:

The GP40-2W has the wide nose. The front end was built from 0.040 styrene. The overhanging radiators were cut back and the roof refitted, Prototypical lighting was installed, the front eyebrow over the windshield was fashioned with a bell from Hobby Lobby, windows and figures were added, and steps on the nose and rear were added [more to be told about this later]. Motor blocks from USAT were adapted with the original toy sideframes. An early Airwire 10A board and Phoenix 2k2 were set up and configured.

The snowplow blade and detail were scratch built from styrene [Please notice the difference in the finished product and the above picture]. KDs were adapted for bodymount . Graphics were scanned or created to Photoshop and Powerpoint, and printed on color lazer waterproof mailing labels, with clearcoat after application.
I hope you are enjoying my project. This is my first serious modeling in two years.
JimC

 

[noelw]

Nice work J C.

Keep them coming.

 

[Jerry Barnes]

Looks great Jim! Good to have you back in the fold.

 

[pimanjc]

Building the wide nose.

Closer view of locomotive and snow plow.

Jerry and Noel, thanks for your comments.
JimC

 

[Henson]

Nice job Jim, thanks for the pic's also enjoyed the building pic's.

 

[reeveha]

Looking good Jim - You need to bring it to Botanica for the Tour on Sept 20th

 

[ewarhol]

WOW!!! That is really neat.

Did you guess at the dimensions for the cab, or is there a place to find out the dimensions?

 

[Stan Cedarleaf]

Very, very nicely done, Jim.... Was there much modification to the frame to fit the USA trucks under it????

 

[pimanjc]

Stan, I had to modify the floor very little, but had to cut the top off the toy blocks to mount the USA blocks. Aristo blocks would be too large to fit.

JimC.

 

[pimanjc]

WOW!!! That is really neat.

Did you guess at the dimensions for the cab, or is there a place to find out the dimensions?

Yes, I guessed the dimensions for the cab based on several prototype pictures.
Jim

 

[pimanjc]

Very, very nicely done, Jim.... Was there much modification to the frame to fit the USA trucks under it????

There was no modification to the frame. The toy motorblock was destroyed. I cut the top off it and drilled it to match the four screws on the USA block. This allowed me to mount the USA block to the original toy mountings.
The sideframes were removed from the toy and modified to allow use with the USA blocks. A u-shaped styrene piece was superglued to the
side of the USA block to act as a mounting point for the sideframes after the track pickups were removed.
Jim

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Nice going JC and NICE TO SEE YOU on the forum!

Greg