12-20-2008, 03:04 AM
You might try sending a letter to the M&ET explaining briefly what you want to do and then ask if they have any dimensions that they could give you. I doubt that you could get the correct doors from Canon, but in ho scale shortening a full length door might not be noticeable. You might study the sides of various diesel engines to see if anything from EMD has 2/3 to 3/4 height doors. I don't know if they do if you could get a package of those doors only from Canon. You might be able to use the short nose off an old tyco Gp20 if you can find one. They are pretty cheap. Basically, shorten the nose to what looks to be the correct length. You are probably going to have to estimate length and height. I think the Blomberg "M"trucks are the same whether on a Gp38, Gp40, Gp50 or even a Gp60. In fact the Gp7, Gp9, Gp20 & Gp30 and some Gp35's used the old Blomberg and I think the wheel base for the truck didn't change. If you have the Locomotive Cyclopedia Vol 2 from Kalmbach on diesels, look up a few EMD Gps and see what the truck wheelbase measurement is. If it is consistent, use the direct side picture and measure the the wheelbase of a truck. That give you a basic measurement. Lock a set of calipers at that length and measure the rest of the locomotive that you can see. That will give you a rough idea of the height and length of both the long and short hood. Now back to the Gp20 short hood. Cut it down to the correct length if it is too long by removing material from the back of the short hood. Then cut the corners of the short hood off, and fill with styrene to get the correct 1/2 hexagon shape of the front end. If you can't find a cab like the one they are running, you can always scratch build one. The biggest challenge that I see is that you can't see what the roof looks like on the gensets in the picture. You could probably take a long hood off any Gp that has one close to the correct length, and modify it by reducing the height and shortening the necessary Canon doors. I think the back of the long hood is flat like a DD40x or Sd40-2t, so one of those bodies might make a good donor for the back of the long hood. Once you have figured out what you need, go to a Model Train Expo (one coming up in Anaheim Jan 3 & 4, another one at the Orange County Fairgrounds in March). They will probably have a number of dealers selling old used plastic toy locomotives and bodies from everything from old blue box Athearn to Tyco, Model Power, Lifelike, and Bachmann toys. Most of these old bodies will sell for less than $3.00. Most will have things like steps broken off, and most that aren't Athearn will have a lot of bogus details, but you look for what works for what you want to model.