Current HO loco projects

[Catt]

Here is a sneek peak at another HO project I am playing with.This was the very first Athearn loco (bluebox SD-9)I bought in 1979 shortly after we bought our house.This loco actually spent most of its early life running on a LHS layout.During that time it wore out 3 motors ,and 5 trucks.The loco averaged 70 hours a week of constant running and sold more than a few model railroaders on Athearn products. :mrgreen:

I have decided it was time to upgrade the old girl so along with DCC and nickel silver wheel sets she's getting some cosmetic surgery. After stripping the paint the first thing I did was to carve out the radiator grilles and install a set of Plano grilles made for the Proto 2000 SD-9. Irv Athearn must have really had his act together on the SD-9 because the grilles are a purrfect fit.Anyway here is the first pic of this project.



I have two 6 packs of Athearn RTR nickel silver wheel sets coming.I am going to replace the outer wheel sets on this unit and two SD40-2s leaving the sintered wheels in the center position to help with the tracktive effort.