Looking for some locomotive suggestions

[MichaelT]

I've been doing some research on a local shortline railroad here in Arkansas. I emailed the company and the operations manager was very helpful, sent me a pretty good list of what rolling stock they use for different customers, some scenic areas that he suggested I visit, and also sent me a detailed list of their locomotive roster. I'm putting this here because I don't know if any loco companies have ever made these engines, or if I'm going to either have to find decent stand in's, or possibly remodel some loco's to make them look close enough, so I thought I'd see what some of you might know, maybe you've seen these loco's before, or might have kitbashed into one;

GP 8's
GP 9's
GP 10's

The others, GP 35's and SW1200's I know are made by Atlas or others, so I can find those around to fill the roster, but the 8 - 9 - 10's I have no clue....so any thoughts?

[John]

atlas makes a GP9 .. the others you can bash from a GP18 ..

[wcfn100]

atlas makes a GP9 .. the others you can bash from a GP18 ..

GP8s and GP10 are products of the IC's Paducah shops.  They are rebuilt GP7,9,18s (GP10).

All the pieces are available to make a low nose geep but it does require some modeling. And I think the air filters have been made in various incarnations.


Jason

[central.vermont]

MichaelT,
What short line is this your thinking of doing. It may help for us to
know this to give you much more detailed ideas as to what to do.

Jon

[MichaelT]

I forgot to mention, all their engines are low nosed models.

Jon, the railroad is the Arkansas Midland.

http://www.pinsly.com/companies/akmd/

They run GP35's which is no problem, find some undec's and do the paint and decals.
SW1200's the same if they're available;

It's the other models that will be slow going, but that's ok, I'm going to be quite patient with this project...it's kind of grown on me.

They have a few shots on railpictures.net

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=137165&nseq=1

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=38314&nseq=2

Lee gave me some suggestions earlier, and he's looking into a few things as well for me. Any help I can get with this will be definitely appreciated. Basically, my thought line is this:

The Arkansas Midland runs 6 disconnected branch lines around the state. They're all quite short, the longest being around 42 miles. My thought for a somewhat long term project is to build six hollow core door layouts, one to represent each branchline of the AKMD. And each interchange track on each door layout will be able to be connected to another door layout, so I can take these on the go to some local train shows and connect them doubled up, three or four, or all six if space permits. It may be a little "out there", but it's something that I've kept going over and the idea keeps growing on me.

[wcfn100]

As long as you have a nice flat surface to sand with (and a dial calipers will help), a standard low nose chop isn't too bad.




You might be able to use the cab from an SD24/26 as-is.  I had to graph it onto my SD7 because the SDs cab is 'taller' than and SD24 (shorter battery boxes).


Jason

[MichaelT]

I'm also planning a few Saturday road trips when the weather (snow) moves out, and get some shots of their engines and some of their scenic areas. The Ops manager gave me some suggestions in an email and hopefully I can get permission to get some shots of either their engine shops, car shops, or something.

[John]

thats a nice paint scheme ..

[Dave Schneider]

What scale are you modeling?  I had assumed N but you mention that and SW-1500s are available. Perhaps you meant SW-1200s or are you doing HO?

Nice choice of railroad. Is this the same AM that was featured in the Model Railroader series? It might be cool to do that era now that there good C-420s available.

Best wishes, Dave

[MichaelT]

Dave,

I did mean SW1200's, sorry for the confusion; I am doing an N scale Plan for this project. AM is the Arkansas & Missouri railroad, and I've considered that too, but I like the look of the Arkansas Midland (AKMD) and them having the different branches just led to building multiple door layouts, one for each branch.

Michael

[wm3798]

You can simplify the surgery for the drop nose with one of my handy dandy brass cab fronts...


I think I have a spare with the split window...  You'll just have to drill it out to get the headlight/number board assembly to light up.

Lee

[Dave Schneider]

Michael,

Thanks for the clarification on the SWs and sorry to add to the confusion on the AMs. It would be great if Atlas tooled up a couple of different versions of chop nose GP-7 or -9s. I have heard the argument that there were too many different versions of rebuilds, but many of these shared common characteristics. It seems like another winning business opportunity from someone like myself who has no clue about how the model rail industry really operates. I know that we can always build it and paint it ourselves, but I still think it would be a money maker. Perhaps the mechanism is an issue?

On an unrelated note, has anyone else noticed that their posts that include consecutive letter s gets changed to $$ ? That happened in the posts that Lee and I madev in this thread. I had assumed that Lee had done it on purpose as a subliminal business decision, but it also happened in my post as well.

Best wishes, Dave 

[MichaelT]

Michael,
On an unrelated note, has anyone else noticed that their posts that include consecutive letter s gets changed to $$ ? That happened in the posts that Lee and I madev in this thread. I had a$$umed that Lee had done it on purpose as a subliminal business decision, but it also happened in my post as well.
Best wishes, Dave 

I think there was a mention in another thread of bumping up the profanity filter on the forum. Perhaps that is one of the side effects of it.