timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on Mar 28, 2014 8:37:49 GMT -5
Back in 2011, Athearn surprised some of us by including VIA in the list of paint schemes for their retooled RTR SW1000 switchers. VIA has owned a total of 4 SW1000s, which they bought from Inland Steel in the late 1980s. The 4 switchers were numbered 201, 202, 203 and 204. Two units (201 and 203) were assigned to the Toronto Maintenance Centre, while the other two (202 and 204) were assigned to the Montreal Maintenance Centre (MMC). One unit, #201, got an adaptation of the early F40PH scheme, with yellow ends, a blue hood stripe, and a large VIA logo at the end of the hood. The other three units got the same scheme but without the stripe, making them effectively the only units to permanently wear a version of the "grey ghost" scheme that was originally proposed for the LRCs and tested on an FP9A and a few coaches. 201 and 203 were retired many years ago, while 202 and 204 soldier on to this day switching cars at the MMC. With the Vancouver switcher (an FP9Au) now retired, these are the only switchers on VIA's roster. For some bizarre reason, Athearn decided to only produce 3 of the 4 road numbers. They also decided to do 201, 202 and 203, meaning that only one of these is actually usable for anyone modelling past the late 80s and early 90s! Anyway, I decided to buy two units. I got 202 because it is one of the existing MMC units, and 201 because it has the scheme with the blue stripe (which I've always liked). In my universe, 201 escaped the scrappers torch and was transferred to Montreal to work with 202. The Athearn model is gorgeous. The retooled RTR SW1000, much like the SW1500, is almost a Genesis model under the RTR brand. I think the only things it would need to hit Genesis standards is slightly more prototype specificity, and walkway safety tread! It is a very good match for the units as delivered, and as they worked in their early years. It even accurately has both styles of handrails - the VIA units have hood mounted *and* deck mounted handrails down the sides. However, I wanted the units to look like they have in the last few years, which means they needed some modifications. Basically, this involved adding new horns, antennas, rear headlight, beacons, additional handrails, fire extinguisher decals, and making some modifications to the windows. This is the sort of project that makes a very nice couple of afternoons, and is overall a pretty straightforward job. Here are some photos of the finished 202, as well as a shot of 201 and 202 together. I also put together this handy graphic to show all of the detail modifications I made. Enjoy!       |
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Post by backshophoss on Mar 28, 2014 17:01:06 GMT -5
Nicely done!
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Post by acelaphillies on Mar 29, 2014 10:04:06 GMT -5
Wow, Tim that looks awesome! That graphic is so neat, it looks like something straight out of MR or MRH! Many of those details are very small, but they really make the model pop! Great work.
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on Mar 31, 2014 7:16:48 GMT -5
Thanks guys! I've always found it amazing what even just a few tiny little details can do to make a model look so much more convincing. In this case, Athearn did a very nice job with the switcher, and it looked quite good....if you wanted it "as delivered". But it just really didn't look right to be switching cars in a 2012-ish era timeframe, so I figured I needed to do something to it.
It started with "well, at *least* I need to add beacons". Then moved to "well, might as well add the fire extinguisher labels. Oh, and a proper horn and rear lights. And maybe those extra handrails. And definitely need to paint black around the cab windows. Hmmm, that wouldn't look quite right if I didn't modify the engineer's window...."
So you can see how these things snowball :-P But that's the important thing to remember. Each of the details are, in and of themselves, really simple small steps. But the combined effect of them is quite something.
The little "how to" graphic was something I just decided to try whipping together the other day. Figured it would be an easy way to show all this stuff without having to do as exhaustive of a description. Sure does look like it could fit in a magazine.
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on May 7, 2014 10:16:28 GMT -5
Here are a couple photos of #202 in action at the Dartmouth Model Railway Club. I installed a TCS T3X decoder in it the other day so I could run it at the club. Very pleased with how it runs. And for anyone wondering, no, the beacons are not functional. It would be really cool if they were (maybe someday!), but I think they look good enough as is. So here are a few photos of 202 switching cars in the yard. LRCs are Rapido with added Canada graphics, the Park hiding in the background is Rapido (also modernized, but you can't really see that), Glen Fraser is Rapido, and the Panorama is my own build....using a Rapido coach as a base! Can you guess who my favourite manufacturer is? ;-)    |
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Post by acelaphillies on May 9, 2014 5:58:21 GMT -5
timberley, Great photos! It is always nice to see pictures of model train builds and stuff, but once you get them on a finshed section of a layout they really come alive with the scene! Nice! Let me guess...Is your favorite manufacturer Walthers?  |
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on May 9, 2014 11:19:11 GMT -5
Thanks! It's not very often that I have a chance to set up for proper "action" shots, so this was nice for a change. You're absolutely right, they do come to life in a whole other way when actually in a scene. The only thing that's really missing now is a bit of weathering (and painted track on the layout!), and it would look pretty darned convincing.
It's funny, if you had asked me about my favourite manufacturer 10 years ago, it would have been a toss-up between Walthers and Athearn (Walthers for their passenger cars and VIA-painted F40s, Athearn for their P42s and other locos). Amazing how Rapido's emergence on the scene completely transformed the Canadian model railroad scene!
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Post by backshophoss on May 9, 2014 17:15:14 GMT -5
I feel sorry for the guy that gets to paint the rails :-(, but the scene conveys that the yard finally
got some fresh ballest and ties after sinking into mud for a few decades.
I don't know if TCS decoders are Fuction remappable,but yard switchers leave both front and rear
headlights on when in the yard,while the beacons are a Canadian OHSA requirement,most crews would
kill the power to the beacons(pop the breaker)because the flashing would drive'em nuts! ;-)
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on May 12, 2014 9:05:39 GMT -5
I feel sorry for the guy that gets to paint the rails :-(, but the scene conveys that the yard finally got some fresh ballest and ties after sinking into mud for a few decades. I don't know if TCS decoders are Fuction remappable,but yard switchers leave both front and rear headlights on when in the yard,while the beacons are a Canadian OHSA requirement,most crews would kill the power to the beacons(pop the breaker)because the flashing would drive'em nuts! ;-) I don't think the rails are likely to get painted. I would recommend it, but the other guys at the club are less concerned about it. But yeah, still gives a pretty reasonable look. I'll have to look into that, because yes, both front and rear lights should be on. I haven't played around with the programming at all, and the club also uses an ancient MRC DCC system, so it doesn't give me a lot of flexibility while running there. Will eventually get on to that though. The beacons are non-functioning, as I just decided it would be too much work at this stage to get all 4 hooked up and operating! Maybe someday, but for now I'll just use that excuse about the crews disabling them (but I'll make sure not to tell their supervisors!) |
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Post by backshophoss on May 12, 2014 18:54:23 GMT -5
Believe TCS has a website,you should be able to download their Mamuals as pdf files.
If you plan to light up the beacons in the future,the decoder will have to have at least 4-6 fuction outputs.
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on May 13, 2014 7:33:03 GMT -5
TCS actually provided a pretty exhaustive manual with the decoder (in terms of explaining the myriad of CV settings and such), so hopefully that will explain. The decoder I used is actually a T3X (that's now the T6X in their line-up), so it actually has 6 function outputs there and ready to be used if I ever decide to light it up.
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on May 20, 2014 11:29:36 GMT -5
Here's one more shot from that photo-shoot:  |
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Post by acelaphillies on May 23, 2014 17:22:34 GMT -5
Here's one more shot from that photo-shoot: Nice picture!  |
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on May 27, 2014 10:56:31 GMT -5
Thanks!
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