Lehigh Valley GP9/18s

[Iain]

Incentive to finish my GP18s.

[amato1969]

So here are the final pics for this build; first the 305:



Next, the shabby 302 in the '60s tuscan scheme:



Finally a family shot, on the approach to the Delaware River bridge:



My Nikon captured the red color much better than my iPhone, but I should have used a tripod for better focus 

Like most projects, this took way longer than I had expected.  One surprise was that Z scale (905) couplers resulted in the units coupling too close together;  I wound up using 1016s.  But they're done, so I can move on to some freight car projects that have been waiting on the bench.

Thanks for all the comments up thread - I appreciate them!

  Frank

[coosvalley]

 

Very nice!

[Santa Fe Guy]

Very nice work Frank. These have turned out very well.
Rod.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Works of art.

I'd love to know the story behind the black area on the tuscan one.

[unittrain]

Awesome love it thats one cool lash up.

[amato1969]

@Ed Kapuscinski no kidding; I may have overdone it a little, but the Morning Sun books and this pic show the grime:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1853717

Some sort of radiator failure/leak?  I'll ask on the Anthracite RR list...

  Frank

[Missaberoad]

Canadian Pacific had the same weathering pattern on many of its locomotives. One of my books claims the cause was lead leaching from the radiators. It seems to be a late 1960's early 70's issue.

http://www.mountainrailway.com/Roster%20Archive/CP%205500/CP%205526-4.jpg

I think you've captured it perfectly. I've seen pictures of it heavy like that.

Beautiful model!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

It could be the way that the radiators worked... air was drawn in through the sides, probably including dirt and dust. Then, add some water and it would wash down the sides.

Now, I'm not sure why that happened on those but not the front ones though, so it could be BS.