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Been busy over the past month or so with a couple other projects. I've taken my fiances dad's engine which is a older Bachmann engine and been slowly upgrading it to what 3091 would have looked like. When i was doing research on the engine, I was shocked to find out that this GP40 was the first engine to be painted in Conrail Blue. I was going to change the number but since this engine means so much to my fiance, I decided to keep the number on the engine the same. Over the past month, I have been changing a lot on the engine, took out the short nose headlight, rebuilt the rear steps ( as you can see previously in this thread ), added numbers on the number boards, painted the handrails, the last step has the white stripe painted on it. The next step is the paint the rest of the handrails Conrail blue but I need to get the correct color of blue order and I have found it, just need to order it.
The next project that is also on the workbench is a locomotive frame that is now a donor frame for a future MT-4 Slug. I have been doing a lot of research on the MT-4 slugs and even gotten the book Conrail 1986-1991. I ordered that book after watching Dave Abeles and he mentioned the book. This book has been really useful with all the research I've been doing. This project will be my biggest scratch building project and is going to test my ability from start to finish.
GP40 #3091 nearing completion
The start of MT-4 Slug
The first step in the process. Making sure these are the right size and length. Next is to work on the box underneath that replaced the fuel tank.
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Cool! Bruce's slugs always make my mouth water, so it'll be good to see more of them on Big Blue!
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(10-12-2025, 06:09 PM)TMo Wrote: Cool! Bruce's slugs always make my mouth water, so it'll be good to see more of them on Big Blue!
I am going to give it my best. I really don't want to spend the money on a RS-11 shell or go and get a engine from the hobby shop. I want to try to do this one myself.
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Good luck with the top number board/headlight area. Some complex geometry there!
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(10-14-2025, 07:17 PM)TMo Wrote: Good luck with the top number board/headlight area. Some complex geometry there!
Thank you. That part will probably be the death of me but I'm up for the challenge. I've started on the under carriage of the MT-4. I'm getting the easy parts out of the way now.
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Matt,
I have an Atlas RS11 shell you can have for the cost of the postage.
Bruce
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(10-14-2025, 08:40 PM)bdw9535 Wrote: Matt,
I have an Atlas RS11 shell you can have for the cost of the postage.
Bruce
Sent you a PM Bruce
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Last night after watching some football I started to add decals to CR 3091. It is another step closer to being done. I have also ordered Conrail blue paint to patch the front of the engine up and also to paint the handrails. I'm really hoping that the paint matches so before I do anything with the engine, I'm going to paint a sample. Once that dries, I will compare the colors.
Today I started the task of cutting down the RS-11 Shell that Bruce had sent me. Below is what I have done so far. There is still some cleaning up to do of the front end but it is a big start. I am going to take my time with this as I don't want to mess any part of the shell up and then have to figure another route out for it.
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Lookin' good! I agree that taking it slow and thinking before hacking is going to be the way to go. Having the RS11 shell is a great start. Bruce is (once again!) the Man.
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(10-20-2025, 04:05 PM)TMo Wrote: Lookin' good! I agree that taking it slow and thinking before hacking is going to be the way to go. Having the RS11 shell is a great start. Bruce is (once again!) the Man.
Thank You. Yes Bruce certainly is. I'm already having fun doing this and now I am rethinking about doing more with Conrail than the C&I. Might have the C&I as a branch line that connects directly to the Conrail Main line. I don't know yet as I am still trying to figure it all out. Right now I'm having more fun with getting all the rolling stock and engines I need before I can even attempt to start building the benchwork.
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More than one way to skin a cat, Matt - and in our hobby, there's no right or wrong. Plenty of branch lines got there starts because of the desire for Conrail to shrink the vast trackage they inherited on Day 1 - I think you've got a good "train" of thought. I really like Bruce's pictures of the Winchester and Western and Southern RR of NJ shortlines and their tie to NS/CSX over former CR trackage with former logos and paint schemes of fallen flags - that's a concept that would be really fun to model. With my modeling, it was the space available that dictated what I could envision, and once I had a rough track plan, I had to find something (timeframe, locale, railroad) that fit. Just so happened that I found the perfect confluence of stuff that interested me (Conrail's rainbow years and hard turning mountain railroading). I've found that the more I dig into the history, the more fascinating stuff I learn.
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One of the fellows in our club has a layout in 2 rooms. One has a model of Winderemere (UK) station while the other has a double track loop, a double track branch that rise to the station, and a junction to a couple of loops that run under Windermere. The second room represents the rest of Britain.
The second room was originally the crawl space and he dug a trench into it. Trains run a few feet above the floor and the operators stand a few feet below it.
Plan and more here: http://www.theplatelayers.org/coupling/L...ionnew.pdf
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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A trench in a crawl space! Now that's a novel use of unused space, but it had to a difficult build under there.... Like I said - more than one way to skin a cat!
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On operating days, we still refer to that part of the crew as "the guys in the pit".
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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I’ve been busy cutting away at the shell getting all the useful pieces cut out that I need. The discarded pieces will be saved and possibly used for other projects. I didn’t grab any pictures tonight of what I have done but it did hurt some cutting the shell apart to get the pieces needed. I will have to cut some polystyrene for the sections that were cut out. I know it’s all part of model railroading and scratch building. I will get pictures tomorrow of the progress made. Im hoping by the middle of next month to have a slug unit. I know it won’t be perfect as this is my first scratch building project of this scale but it will be unique.
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