The Alco PA1 project

[randgust]

Well, if you know my postings I try not to get something here until I think it has a 'reasonable' chance of success and/or ever getting finished.

In this case, I'm old enough (and a complete sucker) that I've always wanted a set of Alco PA's in Santa Fe, even though they were gone by late 1967 as trade-in fodder for GP35's and I model 1972.   I was 8 years old when I rode out and back on the Santa Fe in 1965, they 'may' have been on the Grand Canyon or the San Diegan, no idea.   But I was imprinted about 1966 when TRAINS ran an article on the PA's, and in particular, the ATSF units.   Hooked.

PA's are up there in my book with my couple of ATSF steam locomotives.   No, they don't fit, but I still want one!

I never felt much toward the Con-Cor PA's, reliable, but good lord, that cup gear drive.  And I had a guest appearance on my layout of a BLI PA1, that was an exercise in stalling and derailments.   And while I like Katos, doing a decent set (either ABA or ABBA) was more of a wallet-buster than I wanted for something that would, admittedly, spend most of the time in the display case.  So, well, no.  Applies even more for BLI.

Bruce Arbo wore me down too, with his "Fast Mail' project, what a great and interesting train, and when I found photographic proof of PA's handling the train up to the bitter mail end in 1967, OK, I want one.  Maybe four.

The best deals out there, for a a) inexpensive  b) accurate  c) reliable PA's were decided to be vintage Life-Likes.  And, given their pulling reputation, at least one could be a dummy unit, maybe more, cutting down the cost a lot.   And, my experience with LL paint was that it stripped with alcohol really easily, and I fully intended to paint my own.   One of my observations was that Santa Fe warbonnet red was painted over the yellow (it wasn't a yellow stripe, the whole warbonnet was yellow with red over top).  So as it aged, it started to go orange.   And by '67, it wasn't a deep dark red anymore, it was a red-orange.  I did my F-units that way, loved the final look, so given that, I wanted that '67 look of 'rode hard and put away wet' Alco PA's.  And that includes the 'extensive' weathering they accumulated toward the end. 

Best way to show is what I was ultimately after, these are these shots: 

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/549627/    Look at the color, weathering, and details....wow.
https://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=523459&nseq=70

So about a year ago, I started to pick up stuff.... looking for oddball, unloved and wrong-road Life Like PA's, powered and dummy

And, finding a shot of the "Fast Mail' behind them really kicked this into gear....
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5436982,5437003#msg-5437003

I'd held off on a posting...well, because this had the potential for being the 2022 Abandoned Project award.... until maybe yesterday during shakedown trials.

[Sokramiketes]

I'm here for this excellence.   

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Me too. PAs are beautiful.

Dirty, beat a$$ PAs are even better.

[thomasjmdavis]

Watching with interest. Although mine will eventually be detailed for 1956 or thereabouts, this sounds like it will be a worthwhile learning experience.
One of my first modeling magazines was a '66 or '67 issue of RMC, with an article about AT&SF passenger diesels.  Been a fan of the PA ever since.

[oakcreekco]

Love PA's. Sounds like a great project.

When I was a kid, the excitement of the day was watching the D&RGW "Yampa Valley Mail" come burbling down the tracks pulling a mail car and some sort of coach.

Stuck with me, and only need one PA to model this memory. Just ran mine the other day. Always makes me grin.

Best of luck with your project.

[brokemoto]

I like that first photograph:  dirty PAs A-A-B-B with the As elephant.

The plastic frame LLs run well, are excellent pullers and the Bs are dummies.  One powered A will pull two dummy Bs and ten to twelve cars, easily.  Two powered As will pull the two dummy Bs and twenty five cars. The plastic frames are the least expensive option,  The LL metal frame PAs have both units powered.  Even when new, they were pricey for LLs.

I agree with your assessment of the BLI diesels in general:  they stall far too frequently.  I have had far better luck with the steam although I do not like the wires soldered to pivotting tender trucks.  That construction method is not necessary for factory installed DCC.

I shall be interested in how this develops.

[randgust]

Seems like I've been working on this forever, finally have something to show for it.  Low-priority project, often pushed to the back here.

Luckily, Life-Like PA's are still pretty common, I wanted an ABBA set with a powered A and powered B and two dummies.   They powered units are absurdly powerful.

I ended up with a two powered A's, one dummy A, one dummy B.   I got a B-unit shell from Kato, and discovered that only the B units have coupler boxes on both ends, so I had to get a third dummy B.... oh well.   But for what I invested, I think I got both powered units for under $60, and the dummys for $20 each or under.    Pretty much four unit set for around $200.  I splurged and got a Richmond Controls mars and headlight set for the lead unit.

Alcohol on LL paint is easy and quick as a stripper, so road names were irrelevant.   LOTS of issues with wheel gauge, performance though, later.

There was an article in MR a few years back on detailing these for ATSF, that helped, and a lot of photos.   (Feb. 2005, yeah, I saved it)

So this is the 'pristine beauty' shots of dummy #70, the trailing unit of the four.   This one has the rather unique silver MT coupler, a nice feature that I'd saved from another project.







Now, on to the long list of changes and details....

[randgust]

Wow, where to start.

All handrails and grabs removed and replaced with wire.
Rear diaphragm junked and replaced with American Limited set
The odd number board casting above the windshield is now available from Shapeways.
Atlas/BLMA brass horns
Atlas/BLMA grabs on the RH side nose.
New headlight drilled in nose for proper ATSF headlight (top light is Mars light, not headlight)
Caboose hobbies short-shank dummy coupler on rear
GMM windshield wipers
My own etched brass mirrors
Note that I added the 'missing' windshield vent vertical post - a rather objectionable omission on the LL shell to me.
MT silver coupler on this one (lead unit got a Z coupler)
Holes cut in the nose for the MU plugs on both sides
GMM etched stainless steps on every unit
My own etched brass MU cables on low pilot

Radio antenna was an issue, because if anything wanted to be knocked off, that would be it.   I did it all out of brass, fabricated, and the antenna itself is brass wire drilled into the shell roof.   It's painted red now, but they were a grime magnet in photos.

This unit has an LED mounted in the headlight, but as the trailing unit, I can't imagine why I bothered.

I probably missed something. 

Now, the paint...I masked off the nose, primed it and the stripes white, and reversed everything to do the stainless with rattle-can Testors metalizer stainless (yes, I still have a can!).   The red is testors Chevy Engine Red, which has the slight orange cast you see faded off the dark red.

The Micro-scale decals are just excellent, 60-72, still out there.   The only thing missing is the TINY black striping at the BOTTOM of the red stripe, they don't supply that and you have to get separate 1" black striping to apply.

I looked at how Con Cor, Life-Like, Kato and BLI painted theirs, and everybody missed something minor.   I probably did too, but getting it weathered here is the real challenge.

[tehachapifan]

Looks great!

You're right about those LL units being extremely powerful! I have a LL PA and also an E unit that is the same way. Real stump pullers! Nothing else seems to come close.

[thomasjmdavis]

@randgust
I hope this is not a big "ask", but for those of us with browsers that require everything to be "https", could you post the urls for your photos? I can "give permission" to allow the browser to go to the http site, but it won't go there on its own based on the enbedded "http" photo links.  At least not as of the most recent update.

I think I have that 2005 MR issue buried somewhere.  Probably an old Warbonnet issue as well.

[amato1969]

Really nice work @randgust !

  Frank

[Mark5]

So this is the 'pristine beauty' shots of dummy #70, the trailing unit of the four.   This one has the rather unique silver MT coupler, a nice feature that I'd saved from another project.

Now, on to the long list of changes and details....

Posted to bypass any browser issues:

http://www.randgust.com/PAA7001.jpg

http://www.randgust.com/PAA7002.jpg

http://www.randgust.com/PAA7003.jpg

Thumbs up!

Mark

[randgust]

@randgust
I hope this is not a big "ask", but for those of us with browsers that require everything to be "https", could you post the urls for your photos? I can "give permission" to allow the browser to go to the http site, but it won't go there on its own based on the enbedded "http" photo links.  At least not as of the most recent update.

I think I have that 2005 MR issue buried somewhere.  Probably an old Warbonnet issue as well.

Does that actually work for anybody that doesn't have the images come up?  If it does, I'd do that on all my posts.  I thought it would equally block you at the browser level even with a link.   I have so many sites that block so many images I've changed browser settings and don't even think of it anymore.

[thomasjmdavis]

I can't say whether it works for everybody, but it does for me. I am running Firefox on a Linux Ubuntu variant called Zorin. I can follow the links as Mark posted them. Prior to my own post, I put up the html for the page (right click then "view page source"), found your links to the jpg's on your site, and could follow those links directly from the html version of the page.

If I follow a link to any http site, I get a warning screen that says "Secure Site not available", but gives me two options- to "go back" or to "continue to http site".

[peteski]

I can't say whether it works for everybody, but it does for me. I am running Firefox on a Linux Ubuntu variant called Zorin. I can follow the links as Mark posted them. Prior to my own post, I put up the html for the page (right click then "view page source"), found your links to the jpg's on your site, and could follow those links directly from the html version of the page.

If I follow a link to any http site, I get a warning screen that says "Secure Site not available", but gives me two options- to "go back" or to "continue to http site".

The "new" browser rules hide any non https contents if it is embedded within a https web page (like a post displayed on this forum).  That is why the http images simply do not show up in posts.  But if the image is presented as a http link instead, when you click on it, it is no longer embedded, so the browser will warn you but then display the image.  it works as-designed (but not very convenient).