Paint Shop

[Robert]

that Fowler DM is a sweet little guy. love all the equipment, thanks!

Yeah me too...all great stuff we don't get to see very often. Thanks for the lessons and photos Sarge.

Robert

[John Webster]

Thanks very much for the tour and history Sarge. Very enjoyable.

I built one of the HO DJH USRA light Mikado soft metal/etched brass and nickel silver kits and envy the British for their wide selection of quality locomotive kits.

[De Bruin]

Thoroughly enjoyed the LNER roster survey Sarge, thanks, great locomotives and detailed information.

So about ten years ago the Weaver Ultraline FA2’s were selling for $200 for a powered A and dummy B. Too good to be true, and actively modeling NYC at the time, I bought a set in NYC lightening stripes from a dealer in North Dakota.
The factory applied scheme was beautifully done but operationally they were terrible-awful, weird shorts in the A unit’s harness, derailment prone junk. I decided last fall to rework them into a more appropriate scheme for the downtown club, and Micro Scale had this “nifty” L&N cream and black “Batman” set soooo- I traded the shells (which were too well done to ruin) for a pair in a factory fictional SF war-bonnet. Dipping that off proved a horrible and lengthy ordeal, to the point where I think I destabilized the plastic or PVC, the cast-on ladders became brittle, and started breaking off. Fun.

Then, after priming in grey and drying for two weeks, the follow-on coat checked up the primer. *sigh* Back in the tank.
Finally cleaned up again, I shot the bodies with a straight Ace enamel gloss black and it took. After the decals went on I realized that the forward nose area should be cut at the number boards, and overlaid …..too late. *sigh* So the two upper stripes are about a foot too long, looks okay but…
I added an extra single can drive to the B unit, drilled and installed a lower headlight LED pair and a flasher for the top mars-light. Upon reassembly the set would not run, leading me to re-trace the new harness repeatedly until I realized that one of the domestically assembled A unit’s twin can and flywheel was not the same as the other and in fact the fly wheel was not pressed on deep enough to clear the windshield insert. A bit of Dremel tool cured the insert clearance.
At least they run well now, lots of power, I would like to do this scheme again as I think it looks great, but next time either on an undec. set, or brass or cast car body. This A unit is modified and numbered for one of five FPA2's the L&N bought for back-up passenger power and annual service on the Kentucky Derby specials.

[bob turner]

I loved that paint scheme. Weren't the F-7s kinda blue? I got to ride in one in Pensacola in the 1950s.

[De Bruin]

Yes, the L&N's FP7's wore the blue and cream, it's a classic scheme. I'd like to do an E6 in that scheme but it's way down on the list.
The L&N Diesel book by Castner, Flanary & Gordon indicates the FP7's were delivered in the blue & cream with the road name in script.
The same book indicates the FPA2's got delivered with the script road names too, but the only photos I have of one is in the block style seen here, for some reason L&N's FPA2's never wore the blue associated with the passenger scheme.

[sarge]

My uncle got me into model building, railroads, and O scale (a Westbrook kit at age 8 ) even though he was a died-in-wool HO guy himself. He grew up on the L&N and modelled it, so I have a soft spot for those schemes and that railroad.

I like it!

[2railjon]

The L&N’s are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing!

[R.K. Maroon]

Pete, those FPA2s turned out great. A few questions:

1. Was this scheme used on other locomotives? Like maybe regular freight FAs?

2. What details did you have to add or remove to make these the passenger variants? Were the changes just on the A-unit?

3. Do you plan to run these strictly in passenger service (like with your Hummingbird) or will they see freight duty as well? If so, do you have a caboose?

4. Speaking of the Hummingbird, did your post on that get lost in the last purge? I can't seem to find it. Maybe repost a few photos here?

Jim

[De Bruin]

Pete, those FPA2s turned out great. A few questions:

1. Was this scheme used on other locomotives? Like maybe regular freight FAs? Jim

Thanks all. Yes, all the FA2’s L&N purchased new from Alco were delivered in this same scheme, similarly all their factory EMD F3’a, F7’s and F9’s as well as per example in link.
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/467344/

2. What details did you have to add or remove to make these the passenger variants? Were the changes just on the A-unit?Jim

Good question; couldn’t locate good clear photos showing the rear roof area behind the fan so I punted and used a line drawing made from factory plans. Unfortunately, there’s some variation between various orders based on the specified SG make and capacity, as in GN’s appear different from L&N’s, so this was part “swag.” The specific mods included the stack and access hatch. I’ve read that they were part of at least 20 equipped with ATC, so the front truck journal shoe (which I omitted as they get torn off quickly) is not a specific “tell” and may in part be the reason the roster count on Diesel Shop is so severely incorrect by double digits. By all other accounts L&N only had five SG equipped Alco FA’s and they were all FPA2’s, with no FPB’s . The B here is a straight FB2.

3. Do you plan to run these strictly in passenger service (like with your Hummingbird) or will they see freight duty as well? If so, do you have a caboose? Jim

They’re going to the downtown club so they’ll likely see more passenger service there than the prototypes ever did in real life, L&N was good at keeping 244’s running so their fleet had a long service histories mostly as coal hopper tractors on the eastern KY branches. I do have a caboose; this factory Atlas, which is not quite right for L&N's but close, also scheme too modern. I could kit-bash a conventional wood caboose but not anytime soon and the club rarely matches power to caboose’s anyway.

4. Speaking of the Hummingbird, did your post on that get lost in the last purge? I can't seem to find it. Maybe repost a few photos here?Jim

Yeah, can’t find it either. Here’s part of the set on a local behind the E8 in the “CSA” scheme.

I almost did these FA’s in this scheme as MS also has the complete decals in two sets. One with heralds and lettering, the other with the pin stripping to mask the yellow nose area. By the time the FA’s were repainted into the solid black with pizza pan herald, and latter grey and yellow, they were dripping with all kinds of cool car body details like side-nose ladders, grabs everywhere, Hancock whistles etc. but I elected to go for the older scheme with this “cleaner” factory look. Here's a repost of the Weaver E8 wearing the intermediate blue dip "pizza" pan scheme on the The Georgian.

[healey36]

Hey guys...I realize this is near-heresy posting 3-rail in the 2-rail realm, but thought I'd share some work Sarge did for me a few weeks back. "Paint Shop" seems a good spot for posterity.

I've had this MTH RailKing L-1a laying around for nearly twenty years...maybe has an hour on the clock. We run predominantly prewar tin so it has lain in its box up on the shelf, untouched and unloved for a long time (most of you probably saying "rightfully so", lol). Having seen what can be done via "weathering", I thought I'd hand it off to Sarge, asking him to make it look like Pennsy during those last years of steam, make it look like it might have the day before they retired it. Most importantly, I wanted to learn a bit about what can be done to add some realism to these things via paint only.

Here's a few pics of the product...wish I had taken one before-hand:







Seeing this and many of the other photos posted here, I've come to an appreciation of this as an art. I've always enjoyed building models, but I've always despised finishing them, which, to my mind, is ninety percent of the result. Subtlety, perhaps the most important aspect of this process, is highly underrated and misunderstood. You guys should never sell yourselves short...you do great work.

Healey

[ScaleCraft]

I like yours as a 1:48 style. This one I did over 30 years ago as a proof of concept in 1:53-ish with predominantly Lionel parts, to show what they could have done with parts on hand.

[robert.]

Sarge did a nice job. Help me out with one thing. Christmas in July or slow to put away decorations ?

[rogruth]

Dave,
Beautiful!!! And perfect for those of us that like post war style with just enough detail that is hard to mess up.

[ScaleCraft]

675 boiler, smokebox front, trailing truck, main rods, valve gear, cylinders, probably lead truck...turbine chassis...

[rogruth]

How about that front end?