Best Of My Children have gone into the world (sniff, sniff) - Bearden Models

[u18b]

I've been modelling for over 30 years.  And in that time I've made a lot of models.
Unfortunately (or maybe, fortunately....), there were moments in my life that I had to sell off big chunks of my collection- mostly to pay hospital bills.

And who knows..... maybe someone here on this board owns one of them!

I was looking through some files on my computer and found that I had taken a picture of most (though not all) of them.

So I'll be sharing them  with you.   I think the number is over 60!  Yikes!  So it will take many days to post photos of all of them.

All of these are custom in some way.  None are stock.
Some are custom paint jobs on stock locos- though one way or another, almost all are custom painted.

A good number of the early ones are stock shells that have been placed on new and better mechanisms- thus they are repowering projects.  I started N scale in “the old days” when there was a lot of crap.... and I was obsessed with getting a loco that would run well.

Most have been detailed in some way.

And many are kitbashes.

Among the kitbashes..... remember that while most of these locomotives are mass produced now,  back when I made these, there was nothing like them.   I always liked making something no one else had at the time.
And thus, quite a number of them have appeared in articles- mostly in N-Scale Mag, though a few others as well.

So without further adieu, here is my family album of my children that have left the nest.
So once again, these are not all the models I've made, just the ones I no longer own.

These won't be presented in any kind of order.  Date ranges will vary widely.

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One of the first.  An old Rivarossi SW1200.  Kitbashed.   I rounded the old original squared roof (which was OK if you were an ICG fan, but not much else) and added fine wire handrails.



GE U30B early phase.   This is probably one of my greatest regrets.  A major kitbash.  The president of the ACL historical society commission me to make this.   But when I started the PhD program, I had to give up modeling for a while.  So I gave it to him like this.  But actually, it only needed one more night of decals.  I don't know what I was thinking.



Kitbashed Alco S4 from an old Arnold S2.  Appeared in article.



A guy in New England commissioned me to make him a U18B.  Appeared in article.




An old Mehano plastic Alco FA-2 repowered with a Kato mechanism- detailed.  And an old 60's era Roco FA-1, also repowered with a Kato mechanism.  Both superdetailed.   These locos made the cover of N-Scale Mag.



Another really old one.  An awful Lima FP45 that has been repowered with an old Bachmann SD40-2.   Fine wire grabs.



Alco RS2- kitbashed from a 60's era Atlas RSC-2 shell and placed on a Kato mechanism.




First generation Kato F3A.  Custom paint.



Completely re-designed NJ Custom Brass/Kumata Baldwin Centepede.   This was a shelf queen- until I got ahold of it.   This is about the worst N scale locomotive Kumata ever made.  I redesigned it the way they SHOULD have made it.   This loco was the subject of a Railwire thread.



All for now.
More in the days to come.

[mecgp7]

Nice work. I think if you stay in the hobby long enough, you end up parting with pieces that you never thought you would.
I like repowering projects to this day. It is a lot easier with all the variations on chassis we have this day and the compatibility of parts.

[u18b]

Thanks MEC.

My extended family included some twins.

One challenging kitbash I did was take the metal shell Arnold S2 and kitbashed a plastic shell/sleeve for it.    I had no use for this at all.  But it was the cool factor.   There was nothing like it at the time.

I then sent it to GHQ to get them to cast it.  I knew it would be pricey, but figured I'd sell some to break even and regain my losses.

The guy from GHQ liked my work so much he asked if he could buy it from me so they could sell it.   So I went from this project costing me money to making me money.

My master used an Atlas/Kato RS1 shell with an Atlas/Kato RS11 nose.  It wasn't perfect, but I think turned out pretty good.

I got two castings and painted them up.





Not long after, the guy from GHQ asked my permission if he could modify my master to make a more accurate NW version.   I said, you bought it, it's yours.  Go for it.  He did, and it was wonderful.

So then I made more.   This loco appeared in an article.









Another set of twins that I did not need at all was from the U25B family.   Atlas/Kato had released the U25B in phase 2 variations.  RMC did an article on the U25B showing other phases and so I made a kitbashed shell of the phase 3 version with the split windshield.

Bryan Bussey got Conrad Richter to make castings.  These locos appeared in an article.







The BN unit came home a few years ago after his adopted new parent passed away.    So I sold him again.


There's one more set of twins.

One of the hardest kitbashes I ever did was make a U18B.  Today it would be pretty easy, but back then it was hard.   The walkway especially was hard.

Bryan Bussey got Conrad to make copies.   Over the years, I sold a few undec.   But a few I painted up.  They were some of the finest models I've ever made.

One is shown above as the General Stark painted for Main Central.

The other was commissioned by Garry Riccio, then president of the ACL historical society.  Here's his.  This one was in 2 articles.




And of course, not twins (since no two are alike), but here's some of the latest members of the family to leave.   Ultra rare brass EP-2.   Imported by me from Kumata, redesigned, and (slowly    ) being released one at a time.   As documented here at Railwire.

[MK]

This is like visiting a Ron Bearden Museum of Locomotives! 

(Not to take away from the Spookshow Reference Library.  )

[Philip H]

U Boats!
U Boats!
U Boats!

Not that I'm biased.

 

[basementcalling]

I can imagine Ron's house - a stairwell filled with framed family portraits of all his engines hanging on the wall like children.

[u18b]

And the family roll call continues.

Brass Silverliner set made by Kumata for NJ Custom Brass.  Tuned with flywheels and other performance improvements, DCC, better detailing like Keystone, numbers in number boards, and operating headlights.

Documented here on Railwire.  Will be in my Kumata book one day.




From the late 80's.  Kato GP38-2 custom painted.
Appeared in one of my first articles (on how to take it apart!).



Kato Steeplecab electric which has been dieselized and Americanized.  Also with homemade decals and decoder added (space is tight!).   Made a great little freelance switcher.   Appeared in article.



Old Atlas/Rivarossi Pacific.  I repowered it with a modern motor and a flywheel.
I remember I sold it at a train show for $60.  A dealer bought it and took it over to his table and put $90 on it.



I've also done a few freight cars.  Here's a caboose I did for someone in Montgomery, Ala.  Clunky Con Cor car that I greatly improved.



Back in the days when the Con Cor 89' flat was the only game in town, I tried to make a variation for something different- with fine details.  Appeared in an article.



One of my favorites.  GM&O took a NE caboose and put an international widevision cupola on it.   That's exactly what I did.    A GM&O fan still owns this in Mobile, Ala.



A highly detailed and improved bay window caboose.  I forgot who made it.  They painted it for Chessie but left the good stuff off.   The tracks safety decal came from some HO scale set I think.  And the Chess-C decal was homemade.  Traced by me and cut out in a tape stencil- and then blue paint was airbrushed on decal paper.  I was really glad when MS final made Chessie decals.



One of my early kitbashes.  A U30B late phase.  Made from a Bachmann shell and a stretched Atlas/Kato RS-3 chassis.   This appeared in a couple of my first articles for Model Railroading and opened the door for me to be an Associate Editor for a while (till I was canned by new management!).



A kitbashed U28C made way back in the early 90s by splicing U25B parts and placing it on a stretched RS-1 chassis with RSD trucks!    This is one of my children that sadly died an early death.    The president of the ACL historical society bought it and ran it for a year or two.  But one day, a puff of smoke came up from the wire mesh on top and the shell warped when the mechanism overheated.  Sigh.   

This is one that made the cover of N-Scale Mag.



And lastly for this instalment..... my very first kitbash.  Made in 1987.  A U18B made from a Bachmann U36B shell and placed on an Atlas/Kato RS3 chassis which had flywheels added.
To be honest, I'm sorry this one is gone.  I'd like to have that one back since it was my firstborn.    The AAR trucks are wrong because it was all I had at the time.  But it was still a pretty good try for my first attempt.

[u18b]

Here are a few cousins.  These are 4 siblings that were part of a LOT of work for an article that never saw the light of day.

Old Timers will remember the Atlas/Kato Geep disaster.  To save money in the 80s, Atlas folks took the highly successful Kato-made RS3 chassis and placed a new GP7/GP9 shell on it.  But the shell did not match the mechanism.  It looked awful!

Well, when the Kato GP35 came out a few years later, I discovered that if you took those old out-of scale shells and placed them on the new low friction GP35 chassis, you now had something that LOOKED great and ran great.  Built these four GEEPS and sent the article to Hundmann where it sat for about 3 or 4 years.  Finally, Atlas re-introduced an all new and accurate GP7 and GP9.  Thus the article died.

Out of these 4, I really like the passenger Central of Georgia GP7.  Classy scheme.









C30-7 with a larger “bathtub” exhaust.  Appeared in an article.



Here is one of my greatest regrets.  Back in the early 90s when I made this, there was nothing like it in plastic or brass.  A B40-8.  Made by cutting down a Bachmann C40-8.  The shell was then placed on a stretched Atlas/Kato GP35 chassis.  The sideframes are casting that someone made from some brass model I think.

Had plans to write an article on this one.  Delayed too long.  Atlas finally announced one- and the article opportunity died.

[eric220]

Brass Silverliner set made by Kumata for NJ Custom Brass.  Tuned with flywheels and other performance improvements, DCC, better detailing like Keystone, numbers in number boards, and operating headlights.

Documented here on Railwire.  Will be in my Kumata book one day.

I recognize those guys!

[nkalanaga]

"An awful Lima FP45 that has been repowered with an old Bachmann SD40-2."

I hope you had better luck with your Bachmann SD40-2 than I did.  Mine was one of the first run, and didn't run much better than the old Mehano(?) SD45s Atlas and ConCor sold.  That was part of the reason I ran Minitrix Fs on my local freight for so long...

[MK]

Ron, you should put all this in a book and self-publish it.

[u18b]

"An awful Lima FP45 that has been repowered with an old Bachmann SD40-2."

I hope you had better luck with your Bachmann SD40-2 than I did.  Mine was one of the first run, and didn't run much better than the old Mehano(?) SD45s Atlas and ConCor sold.  That was part of the reason I ran Minitrix Fs on my local freight for so long...

Nick, my SD40-2 was OK.  Not great, but was better than a lot of stuff at the time.  And mine was definitely better than any Mehano stuff.

[u18b]

Ron, you should put all this in a book and self-publish it.

I think I might be doing it now.

It's called The Railwire!   

[u18b]

Here's an unfinished project.   Many of you know that I'm a performance nut.  Something in my brain wants to figure out how to make something run better.   And if I can't tweak it, then repowering is an option.

If you study the photo, you'll see that this is the latter.  The shell is an ancient Atlas/Con Cor/Rivarossi calf from the cow/calf set from the days when Kato made a mechanism- which ran pretty good (the cow “SW1500”, the calf was a dummy).   So I powered the calf by placing the shell on a Kato mechanism so it would match the cow.   But I also figured out a way to get Life Like trucks in there! 



Here is a small kitbash that avoids foobie-ness.  Kato made a great SD45.   And they released it in Great Northern scheme for the Hustle Muscle loco.  But the Hustle Muscle loco had nose brakes with the ratcheting lever- while the Kato model had a brake wheel in a door near the rear.    This model has all that corrected.




SD45 high hood kitbash.  EMD Lease.
And speaking of foobies..... this one is interesting.  First, the prototype is a loco I photographed on CSX as a leased unit- so this is an early example of modeling something I had personally seen.

Back in the old days, there just was not that many N scale locos that ran very well.  In a narrow body, the Trix U28C was about the only thing.  So my entrance into the world of publishing came when I developed a method for taking a wonderful Atlas/Kato RS3, cutting it and stretching it to make a sort of universal chassis.  Not only was this my first major article, but was the subject of a clinic I led at the NMRA convention in Houston in 1989.

For a 6-axle loco, I actually took an Atlas/Kato RSD truck with uneven wheel spacing and cut it, stretched it, and then placed different sideframes on it.   I made a U30C well before Kato came out with one.  And it would MU to my other locos.

Long story, but cutting and stretching RSD trucks was a pain.
Enter the SD45 lease unit (old Atlas shell, high hood added).  This is a stretched RSD4/5, and I foobied the sideframes.  They are shortened Bachmann sideframes.

That loco is filled with lead and flywheels and could pull a ton.



This Atlas/Kato GP35 painted in Rio Grande was the subject of an article.   The challenge was to take a STOCK loco, and then add as many details as possible- without re-painting.  This loco has something like 40 or so changes to it from the starting point.  I can easily count at least 20 in this photo.

I remember uber-Micro-Trains expert/collector David Sootsman from Michigan bought it from me.   He later graced my home with a visit when I lived outside Montgomery.



GM&O  GP35.   This was a simple attempt at accuracy.    The Atlas/Kato loco was great.  But GM&O bought discounted GP35s from EMD by trading in old Alcos and reusing the trucks.  So this loco has RS3 sideframes on the GP35 trucks.  This child still resides in Mobile with my GM&O friend.   This one was in an early article.    Of course today, you can buy the Atlas GP35 with either truck.  And Atlas has released the red version of this very loco.



RF&P GP35.  I confess, this is one of my children I miss the most.  Atlas made a great GP35- but is was in phase 1a and phase 1b.  This is a phase 2 with the much thinner walkway (among other changes).   If I'm not mistaken, this one ended up with someone in Australia.   This one was in an article.



GP16 kitbash.    Here is another one I kind of miss.  It's an old one.   It is the old Atlas GP9 monstrosity.  This one has a JnJ retro-frame to correct the look.  I chopped the nose and modified the cab and exhaust stacks.  This one didn't run fabulous, but it sure looked great (even if it was slightly too long).  I miss it because it turned out pretty good.... and because a LOT of years have gone by and I still have not made a GP16 to replace it.   Now, I guess my hopes are on Inter-Mountain.

[u18b]

CSX F3Au and F7B.   This pair has a story to them.    The B unit shell is a JnJ casting.  After I was starting to become a little famous from publishing, Jon Cloyd got ahold of me and commissioned me to make him some kitbashed masters so he could sell shells.   I made for him:  F45, FP45 (updated), GP50 long cab, Alco FA-1B, and this EMD F7B shell for the Life Like loco (and probably a few others).

Old Life like stuff was crap.  But then Life Like took baby steps to improve their line. This is the loco with the massive motor and springs in the drive line.  But the shell had problems.  The nose wasn't “quite right.”  I discovered that if you removed the width of a hobby saw (say 1mm) it looked much better.  I added flywheels and detailed this. 

I wrote up all this an submitted the article to Model Railroader.  Publisher Andy Sperandeo sent it to the N scale editor- (can't remember his name).  He rejected the article saying that I did too much to the loco.  The average person wasn't going to go to that much trouble.   LOL.      

I published it in N-Scale instead.