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Model Railroading > CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower KitsDate: 07/27/20 07:17 CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: globalethanol Back in the early 2000`s and a few years before Atlas announced their version of the GE C40-8W, I planned ahead for the the future
and bought 12 Railpower kits to model a fleet of CSX GE`s. They were the only game in town at the time and despite their lack of detail they provided a great start for some custom modeling. Railpower would eventually stop producing their line of body shells and kits. A-LINE PPW would later grab everything that was left. The Railpower C40-8W underframe was designed to be powered with Athearn blue box C trucks and motors. I found blue box powered SDP40`s dirt cheap and used them for the powered trucks. Train Station Products came out with a GE GSC dash 8 sideframe kit to fit the Athearn C truck and after being assembled really looked great. The fuel tanks on the Railpower underframe were pitted so I laminated .010 styrene strips around the outside of the fuel tanks, filled the seams with thick CA and sanded smooth. I also powered my units with KATO motors and flywheels mounted in homemade styrene motor mounts. The cintered Athearn wheels were replaced with axles with 42 inch nickel silver wheels from Athearn rtr SD60`s. The worm gears and hex head universal drive shafts from the SD60`s were a perfect fit and length. The front windows on the Railpower bodies were the incorrect size and looked out of place so I replaced the entire cabs with blue box C44-9W cabs. American Model Builders came out with a laser cut flush mounting window kit for the Athearn cabs. I sprayed the inside of the side cab windows with acrylic gloss black paint to tint them. Front anticlimbers and better looking air tanks from the Athearn GE bodies were also used. Smokey Valley released handrail sets with brass stanchions and wire to fit the Railpower shell. I replaced the brass wire with .015 brass wire bent in jigs made out of Evergreen styrene and soldered to the stachions. Details West came out with many GE detail parts which were used along with parts from Details Associates, Cal Scale etc. A few of the air conditioning units were also modified. Grab irons and handbrake chain hangers were also bent out of brass wire. I used TCS motherboards and WOW 121 sound decoders. The Keep Alive caps were removed from the motherboards. All of my turnouts on the layout are jumpered and have feeders on them and I really have no dead spots. I have seen some funny things happen on a few decoders with Keep Alive when the track is powered down and the caps are discharging but I`ll stay away from that for now. Surface mount sunny white LED`s from Richmond Controls were used for the headlights and ditchlights .All 12 of these units were painted with Polyscale acrylic and decaled with mostly Microscale sets. CSX CW40-8`s were deliverd in 6 orders starting in 1991 7650 - 7735 (86) April thru August 1991 7736 - 7758 (23) November 1991 7759 - 7817 (59) June thru August 1992 7818 - 7845 (28) 4th quarter 1992 7846 - 7898 (53) January thru April 1993 One final order came later for 19 units 7899 - 7917 in April 1993 Then on June 1, 1999 CSX got another 97 from the Conrail split up 7300 - 7396 and they also got 12 ex LMS C40-8W`s 7918 - 7929 ex LMS 700 - 711 for a total of 377 units. CSX`s CW44-9`s 9000 - 9052 were also built on CW40-8 frames with CW40-8 carbodies. The major difference was they had later style "split" radiator grills. I never thought I`d hear myself say "I miss `em" but now in 2020 "I miss `em" Happy Modeling, Tom photo #1 and #2 ex Conrails 6063 and 6116 with "bug eyed" class lights CSXT 7305 with a "yellow nose 2" air conditioner and CSXT 7325 in "dark future" paint Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/20 15:30 by globalethanol.   Date: 07/27/20 07:20 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: globalethanol photos #3 and #4: CSXT #7372 ex CRQ #6227
CSXT #7680 from first order   Date: 07/27/20 07:23 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: globalethanol photos #5 and #6 CSXT 7720 from first order. Not many had white roofs in yellow nose 2 paint
CSXT 7743 from second order   Date: 07/27/20 07:25 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: globalethanol photos #7 and #8 CSXT #7775 from third order
CSXT #7831 from fourth order   Date: 07/27/20 07:27 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: globalethanol photos #9 and #10 CSXT #7894 from the fifth order
CSXT #7924 ex LMS #706 with split radiator grills Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/20 12:32 by globalethanol.   Date: 07/27/20 07:30 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: globalethanol photos #11 and #12 CW44-9W #9000 a yellow nose 2 repaint
CW44-9W #9051 fresh dark future repaint split radiator grills   Date: 07/27/20 07:37 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: globalethanol photo #11 chassis with C trucks , Kato motor and TCS sound
 Date: 07/27/20 08:33 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: SPJoe Very nice work!
Joe Date: 07/27/20 08:47 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: unit That is some serious modeling work you did there. Making great looking models out of the rough plastic parts shells is not a task for the weak!
Posted from iPhone Date: 07/27/20 11:00 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: tunnel88 Very nice work as noted and hard to believe the Dash 8 widecabs are pushing 30 years old now, time never stops!
Have you posted any photos of your layout out of curiosity, it looks to be done quite well. -Benjamin Date: 07/27/20 11:09 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: rnb3 Great job! I love seeing "old school" work put into building models! You have earned my respect!
Rick Bacon Windsor, CO Date: 07/27/20 11:14 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: SOU3921 Great work! Very nice job representing the phase differences. Who would have ever thought, you'd miss YN2 Dash8s, in real life?
Cooper Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/20 11:15 by SOU3921. Date: 07/27/20 12:27 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: gandydancer4 Beauitful work!! THANKS for explaining how you did all this. INCREDIBLE to say the least. ×
Date: 07/27/20 12:35 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: globalethanol Thanks for the replies. With the weight of that solid RP fuel tank and some extra added in the front
and back, these have some big-time tug. The TCS motor control is great. tom Date: 07/27/20 12:44 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: ghemr Very nice workmanship on that fleet.
Date: 07/27/20 14:19 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: bnsftall You are a literal craftsman. Amazing stuff (as usual).
Show us more of that layout as well! dt Date: 07/27/20 14:50 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: atsf121 Amazing work! Still need a Santa Fe Dash 8 for my fleet, but I think I’m going to “cheat”. Your detail work, especially the replaced AC unit with a different paint scheme, is fantastic.
Nathan Posted from iPhone Date: 07/27/20 14:54 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: globalethanol you should be able to find a warbonnet with an orange air conditioner on it
atsf121 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Amazing work! Still need a Santa Fe Dash 8 for my > fleet, but I think I’m going to “cheat”. > Your detail work, especially the replaced AC unit > with a different paint scheme, is fantastic. > > Nathan > > Posted from iPhone Date: 07/27/20 15:17 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: globalethanol Date: 07/27/20 16:40 Re: CSX CW40-8`s From Old Railpower Kits Author: perklocal You really hit it out of the park again Tom !. Quite a body of work. That video is over the top as well. I always got a chuckle out of seeing more Conrail Hi-Cubes on 396 than you could see all day on the Middle Division of CR. That Helper Set is outrageous !
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