Speaking of Early Conrail

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Well, I now have additional early conrail units. My Reading GP30 is now Renumbered #2168 and patched.



I also renumbered almost all my GG1s. as it turned out, #4841 (my MTH unit) and #4853 (my newer BLI unit) were both retired at the same time, and were right next to each other on the dead-line for months. #4844, the other BLI number was retired two months prior to these examples, putting them out of action for the year 1979.

While I could just overlook those details, I decided to renumber these into units that appear to have survived to the November 1979 stop date of Conrail's GG1s. This also has the added benefit of avoiding "duplicate" numbers at my Heavy Electric Modular club, as the BLI Conrail models were popular despite having little in the way of paint.

I was drawn to 4859, not only because this one survives today in Harrisburg, but because when I visited 4859 at Harrisburg, my other Conrail GG1, #4840, was shown in a photograph with 4859, pulling a train not long before retirement. This was all I needed, and so 4853 became 4859.

At the same time, I needed a GG1 to match my MTH unit. I decided to renumber this one to 4867. This unit also appears to have survived into late 1979, and the only odd detail seems to be a raised area near the cabs that I think I can duplicate with styrene.

Both 4859 and 4867 also had their "as built" physical appearance, and used standard Penn Central/Conrail number font, which was important for an accurate model.

Many GG1s were rebuilt with altered air intakes (to avoid fine snow that tended to accumulate at the height of the original intakes), and others had "slots" cut into them to make it easier to climb onto the units. Since both the BLI and the MTH units are made of die-cast metal, and both are particularly expensive, these kitbashes seem out of the question for now.

The font is also important, since some Conrail GG1s had white numbers, but in the font of the older PRR Single stripe units. I did not know where I could get "white" PRR numbers in the correct size, shape and font for the GG1. Indeed, getting the "dulux" numbers for my single-striped NJ DOT GG1 #4883 was a pain the butt.


It was somewhat of a struggle to renumber 4853, the BLI unit. unlike the Penn Central logo that was on #4840, these numbers DID NOT want to come off with the same treatment (soak in walthers solvaset, erase with hi-polymer eraser). I did manage to erase them, but the paint is "shiny" in those locations. It will need some dullcoat.

On the other hand, the MTH lettering came off almost frighteningly quickly. the Walthers solvaset literally melted the lettering off the model. it could be wiped away with the pad of your finger! If only the MTH units weren't so problematic, i'd probably buy more just so that I could easily renumber and expand my fleet.

ultimately though, it was worth it, since I now have a trio of Conrail GG1s, and at least two of them are BLI and I know they will play nice with each other. I found programming instructions for the MTH unit, and hopefully I can trick it into playing nice with the other GG1s. If I can do that, I will have an impressive freighter lashup for next show season!