Model Railroading > IAIS's West End - Alco C420 850 completed

Atlas released their HO scale C420 and RS36 in factory Iowa Interstate paint nearly six years ago.  In that time, I've often been tempted to buy them, but resisted, since the prototype units were no longer on the roster in the 2005 era I model.  My willpower finally met its match earlier this month when friend and fellow IAIS modeler Scott Thornton offered to sell me his IAIS C420 850 and RS36 900 models for next to nothing, both with Tsunami sound and working beacons already installed.  I bought them with the intent of someday using them to occasionally backdate to about 1997, but once I heard how great they sounded, there was no way I was leaving them to sit in their boxes.

Instead, I stepped outside of strict prototype modeling briefly and tweaked history a bit to allow these Alcos to continue serving the IAIS in 2005.  The prototype units were still in full IAIS paint and lettering then even though they were toiling for new owners, and IAIS still had some of their Alco/MLW sisters (M420Rs) remaining, so that was all I needed to convince myself to include the new models.  

Now that you know the back story, I thought I'd share a bit about the first of these models to be completed, C420 850, in case others here would like to model the same unit.  Atlas did a very nice job on this model to begin with, so updates and additional details are few, and will be described in the photo captions below.

Photo 1 - A pic I took of the engineer's side of the 850 in Council Bluffs, July 19, 1999.
2 & 3 - Model photos at IAIS's Bluffs Yard.

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/15 20:32 by iaisfan.

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Photo 4 - Another Bluffs Yard shot.
Photo 5 - This overhead photo illustrates a number of the changes I made.  New radio and EOT antenna were added to the cab roof, and the beacon was moved forward, modified, and reprogrammed to better represent 850's strobe.  I also modified and relocated the horn, removed the sunshades and added a modified all-weather window to the engineer's side, added a plow, ditch lights, and coupler cut bar extensions to the pilots, and a small platform on the nose behind the sand fill cap.  On the cab face, I scraped off and patched over the class lights.

Paint and decal changes included the addition of "Work Safely" sticker decals to both ends of the frame on both sides.  The equipment trust information was painted over on the engineer's side frame, and all the handrails and stanchions were painted using a mix of decanted Rustoleum red and a few drops of Floquil light blue.  I painted over the yellow vertical stepwell edges with Floquil Engine Black.  

The 850 is former Green Bay & Western #323, so to model the prototype's worn patches over its former number, I decaled the long and short hood ends and cab sides with "323", then sponge-painted over them with a lightened version of the red paint mix mentioned above.  I also painted the patch over the 850's former "GBW" lettering on the long hood with that same color.

The fuel tank stains were done with Future floor wax.  Weathering was done with Pan Pastels and was applied pretty liberally.  After all, it's an Alco, so it had it coming. ;-)

Photo 6 - A Ray Peacock photo of the 850's conductor's side from RailPictures.net at http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/2/9/9/9299.1202619600.jpg :

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd

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Photo 7 - A model view of the conductor's side.  Note that the middle three steps on this side were done with yellow edges vs. the white edges used elsewhere on the unit. 
Photo 8 - 850 doing its best to fit in with its new stable mates.

In the end, this was a very rewarding project.  While I don't intend to kick down the walls of prototype modeling and start building everything that catches my eye, it was fun to allow myself a few liberties to build special units that I fondly remember from earlier days on the IAIS.  In my opinion, they seem to fit well with the 1950s/60s/70s-era IAIS power that was in use in 2005, so they don't create any jarring believability issues.

Up next:  IAIS RS36 900

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd

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Modeling and photography at its finest.

Regards, Bobby

Great work Joe!  And thanks for including 250 again.  :)

Erik

Nice work, Joe!

Sometimes it's good to make an exception to your own rule, and this was an excellent time to do so.

Very nice work on the C420!  Can't wait to see the RS36.  Photos of your layout are always fun to see.

Dennis

Joe, your work continually amazes me.  It is simply amazing and I truly mean that.  It is so realistic that it brings back the bad memories of working there.

It is difficult to distinguish the model shots from the prototype shots. Really cool.

Model railroads can violate the time space continuum.

Posted from iPhone

About time you got to doing this one! ;-)

In an interesting little coincidence, highgreengraphics posted this great prototype shot of the same unit in a previous life yesterday:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3752717

Great work, as always!
- Jeff Carlson

Thank you all very much for the encouragement.  And for not pointing and laughing at my lack of willpower. ;-)

EmpireBuilder wrote:
> It is so realistic that it brings back the bad memories of working there.

Thank you Dave!  And I'm sorry. :-)  

I didn't realize your IAIS connection until today.  When were you there?

Jeff wrote:
> About time you got to doing this one! ;-) 

Lol...yes it was. :-)  Long overdue.  But getting them for $100/each with the Tsunamis and working beacons installed, I have to say, I'm glad I waited!  That was more of a gift than a purchase.

> In an interesting little coincidence, highgreengraphics posted this great prototype shot of the same unit in a previous life
> yesterday: 
>
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3752717 

​Funny, I just came from commenting on that thread, mentioning that very thing.  Great shot there, and the timing of his post was perfect.

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd

Santafes95 Wrote:
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> It is difficult to distinguish the model shots
> from the prototype shots. Really cool.

I know - it's so incredibly irritating.  I have to look two or three times to figure out if I'm looking at a prototype photo or Joe's layout again.  Plus he just puts my modeling skills to shame.

Great work, Joe.  I can't wait to see how 900 comes out.  While I'm getting my pitchfork and torch ready for when the prototype modelers gang up on you out for violating your era (evil smirk...), 900 was always my favorite IAIS motor and it'll be good to see it running around.

Nice work Joe I look forward to seeing it in person. Eric W.

Posted from Android

Superb work! Thanks for sharing...

Joel Brazy
Coatesville, PA

iaisfan Wrote:
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> it was fun to allow myself a
> few liberties to build special units that I fondly
> remember from earlier days on the IAIS.  

Well old age must finally be taking its toll; I never thought I'd hear the man who sold 2809 because it didn't fit in say something like that! 

It really looks nice Joe, and it's hard to believe how long she's been gone now, and how much has changed since then.

And now that you've fallen off the wagon, think of all the possibilities this opens up!

Andy

Thank you gentlemen very much!  I really appreciate the kind words.

Nathan wrote:
> ...so incredibly irritating.

I get that a lot, but this is the first time it's been related to my modeling. :-)

> I can't wait to see how 900 comes out...900 was always my favorite IAIS motor and it'll be good to see it running around.

Agreed!  I'm looking forward to getting it in service.  It's surprising how much it and the 850 spice up an all-EMD consist.

Andy wrote:
> iaisfan Wrote:
> > it was fun to allow myself a few liberties to build special units that I fondly remember from earlier days on the IAIS.  
>
> Well old age must finally be taking its toll; I never thought I'd hear the man who sold 2809 because it didn't fit in say something like that! 

I think it really does have something to do with age.  I've found that the more time that passes post-2005, the less I can remember the details of that particular timeframe.  My car routing data, and the photos I work from, still assure that my modeling and ops will remain accurate for that month, but I've been less bothered by anachronistic consists.  I just view that whole 1997-2005 timeframe as being one big happy time of railfanning, and the details of when power came and went within it are less important to me now.  Fortunately, the only units from outside my era that I'm really interested in are these two Alcos and an SD20 or two, so I won't be straying too far.

Oh, and for the record, I'm building a new 2809 also, on the drive of SD38-2 2802.  The current 2802 shell is then going to go on a de-motored drive (is that a thing?) to allow me to run it boxcar-style, modeling those moves where it came to Council Bluffs with a broken crankshaft and then went back east for painting at MAC. :-)

> It really looks nice Joe, and it's hard to believe how long she's been gone now, and how much has changed since then.

Thanks Andy!  I couldn't agree more about the changes.  I found the attached photo yesterday that reminded me of just how ratty the property looked back in the late 1990s.  And there's the 850 again!

> And now that you've fallen off the wagon, think of all the possibilities this opens up!

Negative Rampart!  I've got plenty to keep me busy without adding more horses.  You're a very bad influence. :-)

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd

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iaisfan Wrote:
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> I found the attached photo yesterday
> that reminded me of just how ratty the property
> looked back in the late 1990s. 

WAIT!  We're modeling Amtrak now?!?  Yes!

Btw, for those of you who don't live right up the hill from the prototype, here are some shots that I got of the prototype Council Bluffs facility two weeks ago:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3753824

- Jeff

Hey Joe, not trying to belittle your very prototypical modeling at all here, but have you considered attempting to silver up the gasket on that engineer's side front window pane? Not sure if a microscale decal would work best there, or just a little steady-handed silver Sharpie application technique?

Microscale link, not sure/can't tell if they include silver though...
http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=87-1343


~ Mr. MRL