Simple Details That Make Your Locomotives Unique

I just purchased a brand new locomotive for my layout but before I run it I need to do a couple of things to get it mechanically ready to run. And I also wanna do some things that'll it more prototypical and completely unique to my layout. I'm Ron Marsh and today I want to show you how adding just a couple of details can not only add to the realism and the prototypical look of a locomotive or a piece of rolling stock but can also make it look completely unique. And take a nice but otherwise ordinary locomotive or piece of rolling stock and make it completely special to your layout. Something that no one else has. The model I'm working with today is a brand new Atlas N Scale GP-40 decorated for Helm Leasing Corporation. The road number H L C X 42 25. This locomotive is from Atlases Master Line Silver Series. So what is a nicely detailed locomotive right out of the box with fairly detailed radiator fans and grills, warning decals, safety striping and much more. The model is a decoder ready and sound ready DC model. so it needs a decoder installed. The sound ready model has a speaker pre mounted in the fuel tank. So I can easily put a sound decoder in this model if I chose. But in this instance, I'm just going to be using a motor decoder. Removing the shell, reveals the chassis and the factory installed light board. I'll be replacing the light board with a board replacement drop in decoder. In this case the digit tracks, D N 1 66 I 3. To replace the light board, simply slip the installed light board forward out of the mounting clips on the chassis and lift it away. Then set the new decoder on the chassis and slip it back into those same mounting clips. And that's all there is to this installation. Before going any further I took the naked model out to the layout to make sure everything was working properly. I tested the directional lighting, which worked perfectly. And then I did just a basic test of the motor to make sure that everything was running properly. I'll need to do some adjusting to get the speed tables where I want them and to add rule 17 lighting but I'll do those things later. The basic functions of the decoder were working just fine. With the locomotive working well mechanically, it was time to turn to the detailing. I did a little research online and learned that this particular locomotive was built in 1971 for the B&O railroad and was later owned by Chessie and CSX before being purchased and rebuilt by Helm. In its Chessie days the locomotive received the Chessie rock plow on the front pilot and a high hood bell on the dynamic brake blister on the conductor side. Neither of these details are part of the model as I purchased it. I thought these would be great ways to add to the realism of this particular layout with some fairly easy additions that would make this engine completely unique. A quick search on the internet yielded exactly what I was looking for. I found a company called CMR on eBay that sells 3D printed detail parts and they offered exactly the parts that I was looking for N Scale. The parts are nicely detailed resin printed parts. Next I needed to paint them. Again, I did some research online, which led me to someone who claimed that a perfect match for the color of this Helm red paint scheme was True Color B&M Maroon. This is a solvent-based paint that I have used before so I ordered a bottle but as soon as I received it I could tell that it was going to be too dark. I thought I would give it a try and see how it looked anyway. And then when it dried, I would make a decision. For the rock plow I used Model Masters Acrylic, Flat Black. I painted the parts with my airbrush, mounting them to some paint handles with painters tape. When the paint had dried sure enough the bell was way too dark but I would fix this issue in a few minutes. First I removed both parts from their sprues and sanded them smooth. It was quickly apparent that the rock plow was far too tall to fit the pilot and clear the railheads. It took quite a bit of sanding with a sanding stick to get it to the right height but some patience paid off here. Finally, I was ready to mount the rock plow. I sanded away a bit of the paint from the front pilot where the plow would glue in place to allow the glue to adhere to the plastic, not to the paint. I then added a small amount of gel type CA glue and glued the part in place. When the glue had set, I sanded the plow a little more until the height was perfect. Next I install the bell. This was a bit tedious as the mounting services on both the bell and the dynamic brake blister are small and not particularly square. I again use the same CA to mount the bell. I let the glue cure completely and then I address the color issue on the bell. I tried it mixing a bit of bright caboose red paint that I had on hand with a couple of drops grimy black to darken it. It took a couple of attempts but I managed to mix a color that seemed to very close to the locomotive color. So I brushed painted the bell again. I also touched up the paint on the rock plow at the same time. When the paint had dried, I was happy with the color of the bell. So I re-installed the cab light shield and replaced the shell on the chassis. Now it was time for a real test run. I think this locomotive looks great and the leased unit adds some extra variety and visual interest on my layout. It runs smoothly and though they still need some speed matching adjustments it looks like it's going to run very well in contest with this former Santa Fe unit in local service on my layout. It is amazing how just a couple of simple added details makes a common model look very unique and quite prototypical as it runs on one's layout.