Lehigh Valley PAs

[amato1969]

Here's my latest project.  I am working on 5 Kato PAs in N scale - power for the Black Diamond, Maple Leaf, and one of the smaller trains.  The newest release is DCC-ready, and will save me the effort of modifying the mech to accept a decoder.

I made the following modifications to the body shells:

- stripped the Santa Fe paint (worst part of the job so far)
- removed the dynamic brakes
- filled the lower headlight
- removed the single-chime horns and filled the holes
- drilled a hole for the air hose (train line) on the pilot





They look a little rough at this point, but a nice coat of primer will reveal any dings that need attention prior to the red paint.  Here are two of the shells all primed:



You may notice two changes I did not make.  First, I didn't feel I could do a good job making openings for the coupler levers on the pilots (these would be tough to keep square).  Second, I did not remove the trim strips just above the windshields - the Santa Fe units had these but the LV units did not.  I didn't feel it was worth the effort to remove them (the black paint should hide them nicely).

After patching and sanding a few rough spots, the shells were ready for the paint shop.  Of course, that required me to come up with some "Cornell Red", and LV modelers all know how lengthy that discussion can become. The recipe I used was "around" 2:1 ModelFlex Signal Red:Cornell Red.  This mix gave me a nice deep red somewhat darker than the "as-delivered" color, but lighter than the Cornell straight from the bottle.  Generally, I like to start with a brighter color and darken it with weathering (your mileage may vary).



I need to touch up some black on the roof, as well as a few spots where the tape pulled off some red paint.  Decals are next!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Where's Black Diamond? He's love this...

[Mark5]

Is this the scheme you're doing?


http://www.rr-fallenflags.org

[amato1969]

I'm doing these in the 5-stripe scheme -- the trailing unit in the fallen flags picture.

[Sokramiketes]

Looks like that lead unit has the tirm strip above the windows... unless I'm confused as to what trim strip you're talking about?

[amato1969]

Skibbe, you're correct -- the LV units have that "ledge" above the windshield, but not the raised strip as you move toward the horns.  This photo (also on fallen flags) shows the "flush" roof a little more clearly:



Again, not a show stopper by any means  ;D

[ryourstone]

I'm doing these in the 5-stripe scheme -- the trailing unit in the fallen flags picture.

Do you know if the units were delivered with black painted roofs, or is that accumulated exhaust? When I did my PA I left the roof red then just weathered the heck out of it.

-Rich

[amato1969]

Rich, I don't have the definitive answer, but I believe Alco delivered the units with red roofs, and the LV repaints had black roofs.  I bet the answer is in the ARHS Flags Diamonds & Statues Vol 4 issue about the LV PAs, but it's out of print.  Vol 4 is the next issue to be released on CD.

Do you have a picture you could post of your PAs?

[ryourstone]

My train stuff has all been packed away for nearly a year now, but 2 weeks ago I finally got me a new house... Lots to do but I'm hoping to be unpacking all those boxes marked "T" by the end of the month!  ;D

When I find it I'll take a pic. There was also a cover shot with it on MRG about a year ago:

http://www.modelrailroadingmag.com/html/2006_issues.htm

Since then I've added some more weathering, I was working with a tight deadline at the time.

-Rich

[The Donkey]

This may or may not be of help, but there's 2 or 3 pics in "America's
Colorful Railroads" from the summer of 1955. I don't have the book
on hand, but there's 3 shots of maroon units in Patenburg, NJ. 1 or
2 may be FAs, but I'm not sure. I also believe they're in the
striped scheme.

I always thought that book was a great reference for 50's color
shots, especially locos.

[bsoplinger]

The as delivered scheme was all Cornell Red. The Cornell Red with yellow numbers repaint had the black roof. I'd guess that they realized how filthy the roofs got from the exhaust and decided to just paint the roof black to help hide that.

Although there are a few errors in it, if you're a LV modeler this is an invaluable book for diesel paint schemes:

Steckler, Carl: Lehigh Valley Railroad Diesel Paint Schemes (1925-1976), Carl Steckler, 40 Simms Hill Rd, Dryden, NY 13053, 1993. A complete listing of all the color schemes used on LV diesels, with a painting history of each locomotive. Illustrated with b&w photos of one locomotive illustrating each color scheme. Reprints available from the author at this address, $30/copy including shipping.

[ryourstone]

Here is a very, very bad, grainy picture of my PA1. I unpacked my camera to find the CCD was fried, so I sent it back to Nikon yesterday. In the meantime I tried my wife's SLR which I still have no idea how to work properly. I'll take a better shot once my camera is back.



-Rich

[amato1969]

Nice picture, Rich -- thanks for posting!  I'm applying the stripes on my units, so hopefully I'll have some progress to report on soon.

[ryourstone]

Thanks, doing those stripes must be a chore on 5 units. This was the L-L model, I also removed the dynamic brakes but left the incorrectly aligned exhaust stack. (As Dirty Harry says, a good man knows his limitations). Your Kato models will be a little more accurate. This one came painted for LV but I redid it to get the red right. FWIW I use Pollyscale Soo Line Red for early Cornell Red and for post-1972 stuff I use a mixture of Caboose Red and CP Red. Also waiting for paint in thise scheme are a VO1000, RS2, and a couple FA2's.

Looking forward to seeing you get yours finished, they'll probably look good on the Delaware bridge!

-Rich

[ryourstone]

Got my camera back from Nikon already, here's another pic from more familiar turf:



And a roof shot, I guess I could have just started with a black roof there is so much weathering:



I'm still not thinking the Soo Line Red is 100% right for early Cornell. Though much closer than the bottled Cornell Red. I could have probably mixed in 20% or so Signal Red and brightened it up even more. Looking forward to seeing your results after weathering because you're starting with what looks like a brighter red.

-Rich