Model Railroading > New power on the Northeast Railroad

I finally finished a set of locomotives for a friend's private railroad, The Northeast Railroad. I started with a set of undecorated Atlas B40-8Ws and assembled, painted, lettered, etc. This was my first time using all LED lighting, and it came out pretty well. I used Railflyer LEDs for the ditch lights, and I had a time dealing with the magnet wire and the fragile nature of the lamps.

I also decided to update the paint scheme a little and incorporated elements of the NS white face and CSX YN2 nose into it. The decals were home made using the Supercal blank paper. I followed the directions to make the nose "compass" heralds, but still had to be very careful when wetting the decal or the ink would run (despite sealing it). I found "floating" the decal on top of the water and then applying the solvaset prior to applying it worked well. Pretty much, don't wet the ink side, or it will run. The side graphics were hand cut after spray painting the decal and printing the outline. My wife helped me a lot with the "Spirit of" decal font and sizing. They are named after the towns of Bustleton and Pittsburgh on his layout

The locos were painted with Scalecoat I BN Green and UP Armor Yellow. Yes, I used SCI on plastic, and did not have any crazing issues. I was able to "semi bake" the finish using my father's paint booth which incorporates a set of heat lamps to get the temp to ~140F. My painting technique still needs refinement, but I'm happy overall with the finish.

I added the factory details and installed Soundtraxx Tsunami AT1000 board decoders in each locomotive. Assembling proved to be difficult and where I had trouble with the ditch lights coming unsoldered or pulling out of the housings. It all went together pretty well in the end.

In the pictures, we see the new units getting their post delivery inspection and last minute adjustments before being put to work.

Happy Modeling,

Sean McCaffery

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Nice.......awesome diesel shop...

Nice work! That's a snappy and very plausible CSX-y paint scheme too.

Cheers,
Harry

Inspired by this NERR? http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1886443

Wow, I honestly have never seen nor heard of the Nashville & Eastern but that is striking. I hope I don't get a letter in the mail...

Sean

bigmc83 Wrote:
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> Wow, I honestly have never seen nor heard of the
> Nashville & Eastern but that is striking. I hope
> I don't get a letter in the mail...

LOL! That is funny. Your models look even better than the prototype.

Oh give me a break, they even named an engine???? (of course the same type I did)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brent_nashville/6793044276/

Looking at the picture in that last link, they might be getting a letter in the mail themselves. Nice job on those !

'Wonderful work on the models; it's like LIFE IMITATED ART after the fact.