My Dash 8-40CW...

[shaygetz]

...came with no fuel tank casting. These have a unique inset on one side with air tanks for the brakes in them. Since Bachmann wants $5 s/h for a $4 part, I set about bashing my own from a couple Athearn air tanks and sheet styrene...

[tomustang]

Looks like a solid plan I've had to do that before too



Oh that's a C, the CW have the wide cab

[Greg Elems]

Looking good. When did Bachmann offer those? Hard to believe but the UP is actually retiring some of those old girls. When they first came on the property someone says "Mongo like Alco" over the radio. One was coming in the yard and it was smoking up the area pretty good.

GE

[jwb]

They were c 1990. I had several, which ran pretty well with tuning for a while. Their wheels have since oxidized -- don't know if they ever did them with n/s wheels.

[Greg Elems]

Wow, 1990. The model still looks pretty good considering how long ago Bachmann cut the molds.

Thanks,
Greg

[shaygetz]

Thanks guys...I bought it as "not running", imagine my surprise when I found it was gutted right to the gear towers...sigh... Not a rip off, just a chance I was willing to take for the price and lost. I love the look and the cab so I had to do something with it, its directional lighting even works...one of the quietest runners I have in a consist. I'll find one to cannibalize eventually.

[Tyson Rayles]

Good looking air tanks.

[jwb]

This thread inspired me to pull out some of my old Bachmann 8-40Cs. I added details to most of mine, including Smokey Valley/Detail Associates truck frames, Details West plows, and various relettering decals, along with paint improvements. These locos were real stalwarts on the layout I had in our old place before we moved here. I checked them, they'll still run, but the wheels are dirty and need a lot of cleaning. They're noisy by Atlas standards, but they're pretty smooth runners. Hmm.
   
   
   
   
As you can see, I improved the numberboards on the NS unit, but not the UP. On the other hand, I added coupler lift levers and MU hoses to the UP and not the NS. With a little work, I guess I could spruce these up some. Hmm.

The UP units are now in storage out here, but stashed away and hard to spot.

[jwb]

In fact, here's 9314 with a roof air conditioner but still with red sill stripe, hiding in storage at Dolores maybe 6 months ago: