UP SD40-2's NEW Layout

[UP SD40-2]

Thanks so much Tom, David, Ed & tetters! , you guys are to kind  . 

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Well, I have off this week so I have a mid week update    .

I was looking over the layout pondering what to do next, and seen my poor SD40-2's in need of several repairs. As you guys know, SD40-2's are my all time favorite engines, I have 5 of them that are UP(including a patched CNW) , 3 WSOR, and lets not forget the 4 SD40T-2's, but those are another story  . Two of them need very little work, #3401 just needs a sunshade put on it, this engine is a Kato DCC with sound, runs Fantastic and has a nice real life story to it. UP #3401 was a CNW repainted in UP's North Little Rocks shop on Oct. 25 1996, it was one of 266 units that had the "We will deliver" slogan on it. 
The other engine, #3288, is an Athearn and just needs the horn and rear railing straightened out, fairly easy fix. 
Those engines are weathered and are DONE after the easy fixes.


The next two engines are not weathered, and were in worse shape, many broken and missing parts on them, both are Athearns.
Engine #3503 was in the worst shape of all of them, the cab was sucked in a bit making a bad fit to the rest of the body, so thats the one I started on first. I took it apart and decided to put a thick sturdy piece of styrene in the cab putting it back to the width it once was at, WOW, that totally did the trick, the parts fit back up great. I took all the railings off the engine before the fix, as I admired the fit up I had the idea to make that engine a little more modern since the railings were off. Around 2005 the UP started putting yellow reflective tape on the bottoms of all their rebuilt/repainted engines, the yellow tape I used for the center lines of my roads is the exact perfect size to use for the reflective tape. Here is an example of a rebuilt and repainted engine I took a pic of in South Beloit around 2005...


My layout is loosely based on the years 1982-2015(I say till today usually though   ) , yes, its a long time span, but thats what it is so the modern reflective tape will work, THUS, my engines #3503 & 3344 will now be NEW...REBUILT UP engines! I have several new railings to make the repairs needed, really I have ALL the detail parts needed to fix them up. HONESTLY, #3503 is probably a lie, I have no proof that UP rebuilt any snoot nose engines, but they are my favorite of all the SD40-2's so I am going to do it anyways. Note, 3 of 5 of those SD40-2's are snoot nose, long front hood.

Heres a pic with the new reflective tape on #3503 and #3344 before I put the tape on it.... 
  

#3134 needs new couplers, one sunshade and some railings repaired....


Thats where I am at at this time tonight with the SD40-2's, I am very excited to get them back into shape.

As a side note, NOT related to the SD40-2's, but going back to the "We will deliver" slogan, I do have another engine that really exsited with that slogan, its an SD50, and it too was a CNW engine repainted on 11 Nov. 1996 in North Little Rock. This engine is a Proto 2000 DCC with sound, runs great!


Till next time...