Genset RP20BD Switching Locos in HO scale?

[Trucklover]

Hi guys, i am hoping i can get some help here. I am modeling the Modesto and Empire Traction Company as many of you might now. After the weekly visit to the M&ET, i noticed that in December 2008, the M&ET has acquired 2 new locos to there roster, RP20BD #2000 and RP20BD #2001 pushing there roster to 13 switching locos (9 70-Toners, 2 SW1500's, and 2 RP20BD's)

I am wondering, what would be required to make such locos? I personally have never heard of the RP20BD switching locos until i read about them on M&ET's web site and then looked them up on google. Here is a link to the page about M&ET's RP20BD #2001: http://www.trainweb.org/gensets/railpower/met/2001.html

Apparently, the 2 RP20BD's for the M&ET were made from a pair of GP10's. Would these be a hard loco to kitbash? What locos could i start with to do make a pair of RP20BD's?

Any help and info is and will be appreciated

[Russ Bellinis]

Josh, it is available in brass. I saw an ad in Model Railroader either this month or last month. I think Overland is making it. I think for plastic currently, it will be a scratchbuild rather than a kitbash. The long hood looks to be as low as a typical sw rather than the height of the conventional long hood on road switcher. It does look like the updated locomotive has a bit taller long hood than the original version show in the thumbnails at the bottom of your link. The short hood looks like it is shorter and has more angles to the front than any other locomotive I've ever seen. The short hood slopes to the front like a Gp20, but it also appears to be a 1/2 of a hexagon when viewed from the top straight down. I saw the prototype in operation on the Pacific Harbor Lines when I was still working before retirement. I think the wheel base is close to that of a Gp7 or 9 with Blomberg type "M" side frames like on the Athearn Gp38-2, 40-2, or 50. You might be able to find suitable doors for the long hood from Cannon, but they may need to be shortened a bit since Cannon makes their doors for the taller long hoods on typical gp and sd type locomotives. I think the cab will be a total scratch build. I don't think I've ever seen a cab like that on any other locomotive. If you do a scratch build of one starting with a suitable Athearn gp chassis, take lots of construction pictures, and contact the Model Railroad mags to see if they are interested in running an article on building one. If you don't want to go to all of the trouble of scratch building one of those locomotives, I would not be surprised to see one produced by one of the model manufacturers within the next year or two.

You can find more pics at the So Cal Railfan Forums <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.socalrailfan.com/forums/index.php">http://www.socalrailfan.com/forums/index.php</a><!-- m -->? You will need to register if you have never been to the site before, but they have a lot of pics of prototype railroad equipment from Southern California. The pics of the "Green Goat" and other Gensets will be in the shortline forum.

[Russ Bellinis]

Oops, I made a typo, the previous post should say gp38-2, not gp48-2. I'll sure be glad to be able to edit my posts. I still don't know why the pages I get are so completely different from anything anybody else posts pic of.

[Trucklover]

Russ,

Thank-you very much for the information, ill have a look on that site that you posted for some more pics.

Scratchbuilding both of them for the M&ET sounds pretty complicated and i dont know if i would be up to the task. Ill have a look at the MR issues from the past couple months to find it, and then ill see if i can find it on the net, im sure there going to be very expensive, so ill have to start saving lol

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions for going the scratchbuilding route, they have been very useful to me and i will definitely come back to your post if i do infact decide to scratchbuild them lol

[Trucklover]

Found them, Overland is making them for a few different road numbers: http://www.overlandmodels.com/showroom.php?scale=4

There $930 and due in 2009 I think those are definitely out of the question, and there are no M&ET paint schemes, Hmmmm i wonder if i could suggest a model to Atlas or Athearn if they would consider doing one?

[Russ Bellinis]

It wouldn't hurt to send a request to one or the other. I suspect Athearn is more likely to put one out in the M&ET colors, but Atlas did do the sdp35 in the SWPC colors (Southwest Portland Cement). One of the neat things about the Gensets or Gevo's, as I've heard them referred to, is that there are a lot of railroads, not only class ones but small shortlines like M&ET or PHL that are running them, at least here in Cali where the shipping, trucking, and railroad industries are all under pressure to run non-polluting equipment.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I'm not sure how to help you. These locomotives are probably not quite RP20BDs, or they are trying a new body shell.

The brass models you linked were NRE gensets, a different manufacturer. You want Railpower (no, not the old HO kit company!).

I'm thinking you could get lucky in the future, Amtrak has a bunch of MK "GP15Ds" and many other new locomotives all have the snub noses and wide open cabs like the M&ET's units, so that will make it easier when they come out. Apparently, Railpower and Motive Power Industries (which i think ate up Morrison Knudsen) use the sam body components, so eventually a matching nose and cab will be out.

the long hood will be the only tough one, since it looks like the extra-height hood is new with these units, and if its not continued (and they stick to their lower hood height), It is unlikely you'll find the components you need easily. You can try to work some Cannon & Co parts into it, but i think that might be problematic.

THe main reason you won't see a model of any of these things soon is because everytime an railroad orders them, they build them differently, and if they are built to differently, it doesn't justify making the molds for them. Your M&ET switchers will probably get left out, only because they aren't like anything on the Class ones (which have a more standard model throughout the country, and have a higher chance of being built).


If you can find some plans, get them, because you'll need them to build your model.

[Russ Bellinis]

You might try sending a letter to the M&ET explaining briefly what you want to do and then ask if they have any dimensions that they could give you. I doubt that you could get the correct doors from Canon, but in ho scale shortening a full length door might not be noticeable. You might study the sides of various diesel engines to see if anything from EMD has 2/3 to 3/4 height doors. I don't know if they do if you could get a package of those doors only from Canon. You might be able to use the short nose off an old tyco Gp20 if you can find one. They are pretty cheap. Basically, shorten the nose to what looks to be the correct length. You are probably going to have to estimate length and height. I think the Blomberg "M"trucks are the same whether on a Gp38, Gp40, Gp50 or even a Gp60. In fact the Gp7, Gp9, Gp20 & Gp30 and some Gp35's used the old Blomberg and I think the wheel base for the truck didn't change. If you have the Locomotive Cyclopedia Vol 2 from Kalmbach on diesels, look up a few EMD Gps and see what the truck wheelbase measurement is. If it is consistent, use the direct side picture and measure the the wheelbase of a truck. That give you a basic measurement. Lock a set of calipers at that length and measure the rest of the locomotive that you can see. That will give you a rough idea of the height and length of both the long and short hood. Now back to the Gp20 short hood. Cut it down to the correct length if it is too long by removing material from the back of the short hood. Then cut the corners of the short hood off, and fill with styrene to get the correct 1/2 hexagon shape of the front end. If you can't find a cab like the one they are running, you can always scratch build one. The biggest challenge that I see is that you can't see what the roof looks like on the gensets in the picture. You could probably take a long hood off any Gp that has one close to the correct length, and modify it by reducing the height and shortening the necessary Canon doors. I think the back of the long hood is flat like a DD40x or Sd40-2t, so one of those bodies might make a good donor for the back of the long hood. Once you have figured out what you need, go to a Model Train Expo (one coming up in Anaheim Jan 3 & 4, another one at the Orange County Fairgrounds in March). They will probably have a number of dealers selling old used plastic toy locomotives and bodies from everything from old blue box Athearn to Tyco, Model Power, Lifelike, and Bachmann toys. Most of these old bodies will sell for less than $3.00. Most will have things like steps broken off, and most that aren't Athearn will have a lot of bogus details, but you look for what works for what you want to model.

[jbaakko]

The MET units ARE RP20's however they're prototype kitbashes and there's only two of that body style, that I've seen, the two MET units. The OMI models are NRE built 3GS21B's, and they're no where close.

The only chance you have is kitbashing yourself, of having a custom builder do so. *wink wink*

[Trucklover]

Thank-you so much Chris, Russ, and Josh, i will have to reply more in detail when i have some time, about to run out the door right now.

Josh, i sent you a PM as well

[Russ Bellinis]

Josh, another thought that occurs to me is that we might have a member living in the Modesto area. If so perhaps someone could get you a few shots of those units including roof shots to help you model it.

[Trucklover]

Im thinking about having Josh (JB) kitbash and do me up 2 of these for me

Russ and Chris, i appreciate all the things and suggestions on ideas that i could do to go about building these, im sure that it will also help Josh out when building them as well

Russ, thats a GREAT idea to see if anyone lives in or around Modesto, now why didnt i think of that lol

Ill have to do some posting here and on a couple other forums to see if i get anyone lol

Thanks again guys

[Tom]

Im thinking about having Josh (JB) kitbash and do me up 2 of these for me

Russ and Chris, i appreciate all the things and suggestions on ideas that i could do to go about building these, im sure that it will also help Josh out when building them as well

Russ, thats a GREAT idea to see if anyone lives in or around Modesto, now why didnt i think of that lol

Ill have to do some posting here and on a couple other forums to see if i get anyone lol

Thanks again guys

I live in Stockton (near Modesto) and would love to go over and get pics for you, but right now, due to these 2 new Gensets, M&ET is very upset with railfans right now and has warned them all to stay away from the property after years of having an open door policy. Apparently, they are upset over the tarp being removed from the 2001 during transit back east and having their introduction party ruined. I may have some business coming up around there after the first of the year and if so, I'll ask management if I can get some photos of them inside and out including detail photos, but can't guarantee anything right now. I'll do what I can, just remind me.

[jbaakko]

With this project undertaking, I hope to develop some decent cabs & noses so other people can later kit bash the units as well. We'll see how well it works.

[Trucklover]

I live in Stockton (near Modesto) and would love to go over and get pics for you, but right now, due to these 2 new Gensets, M&ET is very upset with railfans right now and has warned them all to stay away from the property after years of having an open door policy. Apparently, they are upset over the tarp being removed from the 2001 during transit back east and having their introduction party ruined. I may have some business coming up around there after the first of the year and if so, I'll ask management if I can get some photos of them inside and out including detail photos, but can't guarantee anything right now. I'll do what I can, just remind me.

hey Tom, that would be GREAT if you could manage to get some pics, but by all means, dont get yourself in any trouble trying to do so lol

Thats really a bummer to hear that, does this mean that they dont want people up there taking any pics of any of the locos and the areas in the Beard Industrial District? Ive heard the M&ET are very nice people, its a shame to hear that some guys had to go and do that and rip the tarp off