Atlas CN GP40-2W

[sailormatlac]

It has been a while I posted here, but under the positive (and welcomed) pressure of Doctorwayne, I thought it would be nice to post about some of my recent projects.



Many years ago, I acquired an Atlas GP40-2W. Like many people, I was a little bit disappointed by the crude cab thought I loved the smooth running drive. It stayed in my drawers and I almost bought an Athearn GP40-2W later until I found out their drive was not as good as Atlas and the fine details were far too much fragile. At that point I had no use for CN GP40s since my layout era was changeg to the early 2000s. Then I discovered GP40-2W did in fact visit my area in 2002 and that it could fit my layout perfectly. Back then, CN 9423 ventured in Clermont for a while as a backup locomotive.


Thus, I added a Loksound decoder in the locomotive and new speakers. I renumbered the locomotive using Sean Steele excellent CN diesel locomotive decals. These decals are hard to find are cost much more than your regular decals, but it is well worth the price. Sean took the time to replicate CN fonts instead of using generic Helvetica fonts. And yes, it matters because CN had quite a peculiar number "2" design that other sets generally fail to replicate. Given there is a "2" in 9423, it was important to me to get this right. In my mind, people won't notice a 2" lower frame, but will easily find out lettering isn't prototypical.

Atlas numberboards are factory painted white and a black layer is painted over it. This ensure they can be backlighted. Since I wanted to preserve that function, some Solvaset was used to remove the black layer. Once done, a new black decal with transparent numbers was printed then applied on the model. This way nothing is lost! I also went an extra step and created the numberboard artwork using a real picture of CN 9423. Can't be closer to the prototype! And makes aligning decals far much easier.

Interestingly enough, the prototype was heavily weathered and I though it would be a nice project to try replicate this. I used online pictures of CN 9423 to guide me. I was astounded by the amazing weathering pattern that developed on this particular locomotive. Both sides of the locomotive are heavily weathered, but not in the same way, which I find particularly challenging in a positive way.

So here are the results: