Rocky Mountaineer

[David Bell]

I was lucky enough to make a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer this summer and got to thinking I should have a model as a reminder of the trip. The RM folks do market a HO model on the train but none were immediately available so I thought I would do my own. Here is a photo of the locomotive that headed our train and which will be the subject of the model.

[David Bell]

This is the starting point. A 3 rail O scale GP40. Fortunately ìt readily breaks down into a fair number of parts which hopefully will make the repaint a little easier. The body and running plate are separate items. All the roof fans and bodyside grills come out as do the numberboards.all the handrails unclip too.

[David Bell]

I thought I would start with a small self contained job, the headboard that sits on the front rail. I cut a piece of brass to the required shape and soldered a couple of wire hooks on the back to fit over the rail

[David Bell]

This is where we have got to with the main body. I am reasonably happy with it so far. A bit of tidying up to do and still some more white and gold to apply to the lower bodyside

[David Bell]

The running board section

[David Bell]

A little more progress on the main body

[David Bell]

Here is the main body sitting loose on the footplate, just to check the stripes all line up.

I won't put the two back together just yet.

[David Bell]

The two bits of the body are back together and nearly all the stripes line up!

 

[David Bell]

This side is pretty much done

[David Bell]

I painted the radiator fans red but you can't see them!

[David Bell]

Here is the other side

[David Bell]

We are on the last lap now!

Still have to do the number boards, glazing and a couple of other details, but otherwise largely complete

[David Bell]

All done!