Model Railroading > CSX SD80MACS

I bought my undecorated KATO 80MACS for a little over a hundred bucks apiece
around 20 years ago. I model CSX in the 6/99 to 2006 timeframe. Even though CSX
only had 13 of the 30 80`s that were built, you could see them systemwide on all types
of trains. They were very common on the Cumberland Subdivision and on the Pope`s
Creek Secondary out of Benning D.C. Usually in trio`s on coal trains to the PEPCO
power plants. Whenever I model a bunch of units I try to cover all the different paint schemes
that CSX applied. On Conrail split up day 6/1/99 CSX got 13 of the MACS and the other 17
went to NS. All were in Conrail (whiteface) Quality paint and got renumbered 800 to 812.
801 was the first repaint and the only one in YN2 (hockey stick paint). 805, 807, and 811 were
the last three left in CRQ paint. The other 9 were repainted into the dark future scheme. The 0804
was retired which left 12. They were later renumbered 4590 to 4602 and later all sold to NS.
Info on the 80MAC roster: http://www.sd80mac.com/roster.html
I disassembled them first and carefully took the trucks apart. I always get rid of all mechanical
connections and then solder. Pickup wires were soldered to the electrical tabs on the inside of the
sideframes. I also made replacement boards out of styrene and then mounted TCS motherboards
with 0-80 screws. All connections were soldered onto the motherboards and the WOW 121 decoders
were plugged in. I made modifications to the cab and ditchlights and used sunny white surface mount
LED`s. The shells were sandblasted and painted primer. I used Badger Modelflex CR blue thinned with
Windex on the CRQ units. Otherwise, all other colors were done with Polyscale CSX colors. I had to
mix to get the Darkfuture yellow to match the Microscale decal sheet. I`m still wondering what Microscale
was thinking when they did the artwork for the CR whiteface scheme. As is, the front emblem was too high
and came up over the cab door window and bugeye class lights. Using the edge of a DVD and a new XACTO
#11 blade, i cut new curves on the bottom and raised the point about 5 scale inches. Now the top of the emblem
fell right below the cab door window and was at the right height to do the sidebands. Next problem was the
sidebands were to thick to match the front emblem at the front corners of the cab. What were they thinkin`?
I used the 11 blade and a straightedge to make the bands thinner. Then had to trim the left and right sides
so the cab number rectangle was centered with cab window. Then splice in 2 pieces of band to meet the
corners of the cab.I permanently attached the cabs to the main body so the decals would not crack. Many
detail parts were used and I scrapped out the KATO grabirons. 18 inch drop and straight grabirons from Tichy
Train Group were used. Handrails are a sore subject with me and I can`t look at any that are warped. Using the
factory KATO handrails for size and shape, I made bending jigs for .020 brass railings. The KATO stanchions
were cut out and cored out with a #74 drill bit and threaded onto the new bent brass railings. I also replaced
the KATO snowplows with Detailswest #155 plows with doors.

Happy Modeling,
twl


 

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CSX 800 repainted at Huntington in 2003. Later became the "Spirit of Benning"
Cab numbers on the engineers side were applied crooked. Renumbered 4590

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CSX 801 repainted at Huntington in 1999. Only 80 to get YN2 paint

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CSX 805

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CSX 807

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CSX 810

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I also did a whiteface 70MAC while I was dealing with the Microscale decals

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CSX V779 at Magnolia, W. Va. 5/26/2001

CSX E816 at Brunswick, Md. 4/15/2006

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CSX D967 at Point of Rocks, Md. 10/5/2006

CSX 805 at Cumberland with MAC doctors 7/26/2003

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Looks really good. I would suggest slicing the decal on the sides of the nose at the isolated cab seem toward the front of the nose and use solvaset to form the decal to the seem.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Nice modeling, thanks for the photos.
TC

Excellent work.

Posted from iPhone

You definitely scored on these my friend !  Those Handrails look fantastic. Bravo ! 

Thanks for the tip on the dvd for the curve, I'm in the process of painting all 30 sd80s and found that the revised decal sheets nose decal is way to big, if you can find some of the original runs of the decals that weren't revised the nose decal seems to fit much better. Attached is one of two of the 22 I have completed. Again awesome work. 
 

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Yes, They need to make another revision. What did they revise in the first place? The 70mac set is the same thing

csx4793 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the tip on the dvd for the curve, I'm
> in the process of painting all 30 sd80s and found
> that the revised decal sheets nose decal is way to
> big, if you can find some of the original runs of
> the decals that weren't revised the nose decal
> seems to fit much better. Attached is one of two
> of the 22 I have completed. Again awesome work. 
>  

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/22 06:57 by globalethanol.

globalethanol Wrote: 
 I know they changed a couple cab numbers I think it was going to be for the original conrail order for additional 80s as one of the numbers on the sheet was 4159. They should of stuck to using the original design on the decals as I mentioned before they're a much better fit and the red radial ac writing is much thicker as per prototype. I may try masking the white bow on the next few I try and tackle. 
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, They need to make another revision. What did
> they revise in the first place? The 70mac set is
> the same thing
>
> csx4793 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Thanks for the tip on the dvd for the curve,
> I'm
> > in the process of painting all 30 sd80s and
> found
> > that the revised decal sheets nose decal is way
> to
> > big, if you can find some of the original runs
> of
> > the decals that weren't revised the nose decal
> > seems to fit much better. Attached is one of
> two
> > of the 22 I have completed. Again awesome
> work. 
> >  
>
> Posted from Android

They have the words Conrail and Quality on one of the Conrail data sheets but the color
blue they used is way darker and wouldn`t match the blue paint on the body. There is also
beefier red RADIAL AC SD80MAC printing on that sheet but they never made better 
RADIAL AC SD70 MAC printing. Good Luck, let us know how you make out. I`m scared to 
make a slice  at that I cab seem. Whatever kind of ink they used on this batch cracks very
easily. Not like the quality of decals they once made.

twl
 

Those darker lettering would be fine as on the prototype they're a 3m reflective film and appear darker then the blue paint. And the cab seams I always trim a smidge off the top off the long band to get the bottom flush with the seam for the doors under the cab. And yes the do crack where it starts to taper going towards the nose like you I try and make that a permanent joint to try and avoid the cracking issue 

Excellent modeling work! If you are looking to paint more units into CSX paint, you should check out BrightFuture Decals. www.brightfuturedecals.com

They have the most comprehensive line of CSX decals on the planet. Bar none! Right now they have 4 locomotive decal sheets and they are exact scale replicas of the real deal. The decal colors are even matched to authentic CSX Imron paint cards that the owner himself supplied to Rapido, Scaletrains, and Athearn. Their decals are printed by Cartograf and they are the best I've ever seen! It sounds like their eventual goal is to have every variation in CSX locomotive and freight car lettering completed and available to the model railroad community. 

If they are successful, which I hope they are, nobody will ever have to use a Microscale sheet again for CSX equipment.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/22 20:16 by 2904.

Very nice modeling.