VIA Rail P42 Super-detailing project

For the most part that hasn't been a big issue, because I was careful to make most of the modifications without unduly affecting the surrounding paint. For the grills, I was painting them in a more appropriate dark charcoal grey, so no need to match them to the body colour. For some smaller spots (where the HEP plug was removed and filled, the rear sandfiller hatches after filling, the uncoupling levers) I found fairly close matches - the blue on this run was not too far off from True Line VIA Blue, and the grey I matched with Modelflex reefer grey darkened up a touch. I finished the loco off with some fairly light weathering, which really helped blend the look and hide any slight mismatch in the colours.

Apart from a few little touch-ups, this loco is now pretty well finished. I'll hopefully get some photos up here within the next day or so.

Okay, without further ado, here's the finished (well, barring any further little tweaks) product! I'll walk through the various steps of this project along with each photo.

First off, here's the front end:





For detailing, let's first look at the basic stuff. The Athearn pilots are pretty bare, so I added MU hoses (Detail Associates) and the trainline air hose (CalScale). I also added an uncoupling lever. I'm not sure that anyone makes a proper one for a P42, so I took a fairly standard CalScale one (with loops at either end) and modified it. Since the Athearn coupler pocket is somewhat oversized, and the uncoupling levers for the P42 are basically "sideways" relative to normal ones, I cut the lever in sections, removing the middle curved part altogether. So that left me with two ends, which I attached on either side. I then made a new "loop" from wire for the middle section, and added a pin to the centre (which was one of the mounting pins for the lever). I also added grab irons on the plow.

Moving up, you'll notice that I made one of the unique VIA modifications. At some point in their lives, the HEP plug under the engineer's side was removed, and I believe it was moved behind the plow somewhere (where the other HEP plugs are). I didn't model any of these, because realistically they're entirely hidden by the plow, particularly as VIA doesn't normally leave the plow doors open. I filled the plug opening in with putty and painted over it with TLT VIA blue, which blended in nicely with weathering. 

A little farther up, you'll notice that I added lenses (Detail Associates 7" lenses) to the headlight openings, since Athearn just has the light bulbs jutting out and looking ridiculous. 

The other big VIA modification on the front is the extra HID headlight under the numberboard. To do this, I carefully drilled out an opening in the centre of the appropriate spot, then expanded it carefully and slowly with a knife until I was happy with the opening. Then I ran a thin strip of styrene around the edge to build up a gasket, which I then painted black. Inside the opening I mounted a generic single light casting to an L-shaped piece of styrene. I painted the rim of that light red as per the proto, and added a lens. I then cut and fitted a piece of clear styrene and filled the opening. I also mounted a SMD LED to the back of the casting, which you'll see lit up shortly. 

Moving to the windshield, you'll notice that I removed the silly looking oversized printed black gasket. This run came just after Athearn retooled the front to include a 2-piece windshield, which looks great; unfortunately it also came during that brief while where they started printing gaskets, but printing them around the outside of the properly scale windshield, which made it all look oversized. The newer Amtrak runs have the gasket printed on the glass, which looks much better. For this one, I removed it using Microsol and an eraser, and found it came off astonishingly easily. Of course I popped the windshield glass out first, so I wouldn't mess it up. While I was at it, I painted the wipers black. 

On the roof, I added a second sinclair antenna, and also added the emergency horns. VIA has recently moved to adding a second set of horns to all of their locomotives, to comply with recent Transport Canada rules that require a louder, forward-mounted horn on any locomotives operating above a certain speed. The normal K5LA horn is still mounted farther back on the roof, and is the one normally used at grade crossings, etc. The forward mounted horn is a slightly different K5 arrangement that is louder and also more shrill. It is controlled by a separate button in the cab, and is meant to be used as a warning for people and animals on the tracks ahead. To make this horn, I used a CalScale K5LA with snow shields (since the VIA emergency horns all have "snow cones"), and rearranged 2 of the bells to better match the VIA arrangement. 

Now moving farther back from the front, the first thing to note is that I painted the handrails grey. Athearn has always done these white on the models, and I'm not sure why, since I'm fairly sure they've always been grey. The other big colour snafu is the underbody and trucks. The VIA units have always had a dark charcoal grey colour on the trucks and underframe. That's not just weathering, the base colour is fairly dark. For some reason, Athearn's runs have always done this in a very light grey. So I painted the trucks and underbody a darker grey (ModelFlex NYC dark grey with a touch of engine black added). I also added the lighter grey contrast on the various struts, as per proto, and also painted the wheels rail brown. 

I also added the underbody detail that the Athearn model is sorely lacking. On the engineer's side, I added the air filters, toilet drain, and fuel cutoff, plus piping to the air tanks (all from the Details West set). On the conductor's side, I made the VIA-style air filter dryer from a Details West modern GE air filter dryer, around which I built a box from styrene. I also added the emergency fuel cutoff and air piping, plus the brackets around the battery boxes.

Now on to the rear...



Of course the rear pilot also required plenty of details, including HEP cables from the Details West P42 detail set. You can also see that I filled in the sandfiller hatches (not completely, as VIA didn't do a flush job of filling them), as these were removed several years ago since VIA doesn't use sanders. I also added lenses in the rear headlight, and for operational purposes, replaced the McHenry coupler with a Kadee medium underset shank coupler to bring up the height.  

The big change at the rear, of course, is the addition of S&S hobby products etched metal grills in the radiator air intakes. This is a tedious job, but an absolute must for a really good looking model. I assure you, it is worth the extra effort. 

To add them, you need to cut out the moulded grills. I did this by drilling a series of holes around the area to cut out, then going in with a knife. After removing the bulk of the opening, I carefully filed it out until the grills would fit. Be very careful to check the size of the grills first, because you're not cutting out the entire area. You need to leave the edges/flanges in place. The grills themselves are a two piece assembly, with the rear bracing as a separate piece to go behind the main grill. Glue these together first, then insert them. They can be glued carefully from behind. 

After attaching them, I masked around them and sprayed the same dark grey I used for the underbody and trucks. 

The last main bit of detailing I did was weathering. I went for a light weathered look, concentrated mostly on the pilots, the rear end, and the roof, as that's how the prototypes tend to end up. You can see much of that above, and here are a few more photos to show that off, plus overall views of the loco.






Now to give you a better idea of how much of a difference these changes make, here are a pair of "before and after" shots, showing my superdetailed and weathered unit next to the fresh out of the box version of 908. The second 908 will also be getting the same treatment of this one, with a new number of course. Since Athearn only did 2 numbers in this custom run (908 and 920) and I picked up 3 locos, I had to have a duplicate. Nothing a few decals can't fix






In addition to the exterior detailing, I did some interior work to make 908 run and sound like a proper P42. I installed a Loksound Select decoder. I had toyed around with the idea of doctoring the Athearn light board, but ultimately I opted to just scrap it entirely and hardwire the decoder. I used the Select Aux 6, which has an 8-pin wiring harness, and was a pretty easy installation. I also ditched the lousy Athearn bulbs and installed LEDs instead. The ditch lights and HID headlight are wired together on one function (physically wired to AUX 3 and 4, which are set up for ditch lights), so they are controlled together and turn off when the headlight is dimmed. I had to disable flashing ditch lights, as VIA only used them for a few months when the P42s were first delivered, then disabled the function. The rear headlight is also LED equipped of course, and for the marker lights, I decided to only light the front ones, because how often do you really ever see the rear markers being used? Even if I ever ran the loco light, current Transport Canada regs don't require marker lights on the rear of passenger trains any more (just need to display some sort of red aspect, so VIA now uses a reflective red "paddle" stuck into the coupler of the last car/loco).

The markers are set up on the Loksound decoder to come on automatically in reverse. Here are the lights all lit up:





The cab lighting is accidental, and the result of my not doing a good enough job isolating the light from the LEDs. I may have to fix that at some point. A cab interior could help, but I didn't bother with that right now on this build. 

A comment on the Loksound decoder: sounds absolutely brilliant. Their P42 soundfile is of course the only correct one out there (apart from some custom file someone might have), and it does sound the part. Love the low idle and HEP modes, as well as the awesome "whoop" compressor. The motor control is also excellent, as usual for Loksound.

So there you have it. I put a fair amount of work into this, but overall it's a good reminder that the Athearn model is a pretty nice base to start from, especially with the most recent upgrades to it. All it really needs are a handful of extra details (more so for the VIA locos than the Amtrak ones!), a bit of electrical work, and a touch of grime. Now at some point I'll have to get to doing the same to the "other" 908, as well as 920. I may do similar to 905 from the previous George's run, though I'm less sure. I don't think I'll bother with the older Hobbycraft ones, apart from maybe an underbody/truck repaint. Those are all likely to end up being background models, while this 908 and her two future sisters will be the proper power for my speedy Corridor trains! 

Timberley that is a huge difference! Nice job. Personally I like the Kato units strong puller I haven't owned an Athearn unit yet so I can't comment on them but your upgrades make an amazing change to this model

Thanks

I'm not a big fan of the Kato units (at all, really), but they're also not an option for VIA, as they've only done the Amtrak "bolt-o-nose" version. To make that correct for VIA, you'd need to fill in the seams and bolts to replicate the original nose, plus make the as-built headlight opening. More work than I wanted to do, given how much else there is to do (and the Kato would require even more details even than the Athearn...). Pulling power isn't really much of an issue as a VIA modeller, given that the average trains these pull are in the range of 3 to 5 cars. Maybe if trying to pull the first run or resin-kit Rapido LRC "sleds", but with the newer runs and better rolling trucks, no problem.

Timberley! I must say, your modeling has always been good, but you have really impressed with your last few projects! I think your work is definitely among the top tier. Great job!

I really like your attention to prototypical details, and I think it is really neat that you have a focus and are building up a VIA fleet.

The third headlight came out looking great. I am wondering though, why does Canada require this extra light? Is it based off of a study for grade crossing safety or something? Whenever the Atlas AEM-7's arrive, I am hoping that the Phase V units have ditch lights. However, I am thinking I am going to have to use your drilling/carving method to install them myself without ruining the rest of the paint job.

Also, what is your current layout status? I think you mentioned a few years ago that you were in an apartment. Have you transitioned to a position where you can have a more permanent setup? Either way, I think it is really cool that you are building up your fleet. Beautiful work!

Timberley,Untill you create the cab interior,you could use a a piece of flat stock to cover
the lighting in the nose area(a "false" floor)
Not sure how much heat the LED's create while on.