Model Railroading > Black Widow Venom?

Science tells us that the venom from a Black Widow bite can have long lasting effects, including to the nervous system.
Do not doubt this.
About age 12 I began noticing the nearby Southern Pacific with their "Black Widow" paint scheme.  Little did I know that my brain was being affected.
When the SP began changing to Scarlet and Gray the immediate stimulus may have been diluted but it never went away.
Flash forward to 2022.  A friend just took delivery of a 1:8 scale Black Widow GP-9 and shared photos of it in full sunlight.
My brain froze.  Then I remembered boxes of Proto and Athearn BW GP-9s.
I spent the last two days dissolving gummed up lubricant, changing split axles, and cleaning up wheels and contacts.
This evening was the photo day on my SWP.
The lead loco is an Athearn Genesis to which I added a Economi sound decoder, the trailing unit is a Proto 2k with a silent Digitraxx.
Warning: there is no know anti-venom.  If you are affected you'll have to buy your own Black Widows.

---

---

---

High quality gems and wonderful scenery . Thanks for sharing images of these models .

Nice scenes and trains!

As for venom:  I remember when I was first in college at CSUS in Sacramento circa 1977/78 and a guy took me to the Sacramento model RR club which which was in an upper level of a building.  There I saw my first Black Window painted models on the layout.  My parents moved to southern CA in 67 and then up to Travis Air Force Base 1 1/2 years later; I was a 4th grader so not driving around chasing trains.  The first SP trains I remember seeing were those in bloody nose and gray passing by the ranch out side of Travis where we boarded a horse.  Bottom line, I don't think I ever saw a Black Widow engine until those models at the club.  They are pretty cool, but it was the bloody nose that I cut my teeth on and had venom of their own.  I've been a bloody nose SP fan since living in Davis where the SD45's reigned along with tunnel motors and GP9's and SD9's.  No stinking GE there, don't remember seeing any of those.

SP like a lot of roads decided to simplify their paint schemes on earlier diesels.  Some other offenders were Frisco, SSW (Bloody nose), MP and many others.  IMO, non of them looked better for it, just cheaper to paint.
MP had a classic scheme on their diesel power until the Jenks Blue took over.  Frisco's black and yellow and red race horse E units were great and then came orange and white and some horrible schemes on the E units.
I always thought the Black Widow freight and Daylight diesels were classic.
Of course I'm old and crabby but I know what I like.

The rather nasty "recession" of 1958 caused a number of railroads to simplify their paint schemes.

Looks great. Of course there are some repaints that more modern modelers can model.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

---

I get bitten nearly every week with the 5623 and 5472 available to me so I feel your pain.

---

---