GP 15

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I'm sure I can get the Cannon nose and end/roof parts. And I've never shied away from a difficult project ... that was never an option in the design office!! 8-)

Yeah, that's not a hard thing to change. The only pain is that the roof section is attached to the radiator on the end, and though its not hard to cut off, it was a little tricky to get the end to line up. I think i ended up cutting the cannon roof segment to approximately what it should be, and then sanded it down to be flush with the end of the Cannon rear hood piece, and then attached it to the back of the Smokey Valley shell.

If I can devise no other way, I'm certain that I could perform a little surgery on the Smokey Valley piece.

I've seen people add spacers to inside of the fuel tank casting, and then "smudge" the location of the air reservoir tanks to help meld it in, but i honestly think it might be easier to get the actual spare parts from athearn. In fact, Atlas may have it for as little as pocket change, and i may even have a tank that matches, now that i think of it.

I'm pretty sure I have that Jim Six article, in Mainline Modeler, if I'm not mistaken. I've always admired his work.

Thanks for your input, G.E.C.! I'm sure it will be helpful down the line ... I'm being drawn to that Conrail GP15-1 ... with a can motor and a Tsunami decoder ... it should be an interesting, but fun build!

That is absolutely right, he had two articles on the GP15-1 (building the Conrail version), and a third later on looking back on that project and going over ways to dramatically improve the model.

as far as sound decoders go, let me know how it works. My Athearn Genesis unit came with sound, and it is SO quiet. the speaker fires into a weight that is wedged up in the radiator just above the tunnel motor grills on the side. I know that some people don't like noses to be loud, that they like "scale volume", but there are volume controls for that. This thing is on MAX and i can whisper over it across the room to you.