Detailling a Proto2000 BL2 for C&O

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I recently found an old battered P2K BL2 in Chesapeake and Ohio colours at the back of the ‘to do’ cupboard, while looking for stuff to get rid of, so instead of selling it I decided to detail it up for the layout, seeing as it is the only BL2 I have. Using MR’s Diesel Cyclopaedia as reference, I gathered some bits and pieces together and got stuck in.

First up, I changed the trucks with a Phase 2 GP9, which had the correct bearings and fitted a Soundtraxx LC decoder and speaker - There isn’t as much space under the hood as you might think - if you want to keep the decoder, speaker and wiring out of sight of the large cab. I achieved this by fitting a false floor beneath the cab windows.

Next, I moved the rear horn, removed the awful sunshades, and carved off the nose-side number boards and replaced them with nose-top boards. Lastly I fabricated MU stands from wire and bits from the MU tower supplied with the loco and fitted a nose bell (which will no doubt break or fall off as soon as I take the layout to a show.

Here’s the result-complete with cat hair!!

Total time taken - 3 evenings

Jon

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VERY nice, Jon!

You certainly caught the major details I look for on a (later) C&O BL2.

One other thing you could do to it would be to take the cooling coil off the roof at the back of the unit. None of the C&O’s BL2s ever had that. I’m fairly certain that feature was unique to the Western Maryland’s BL2s.

-Fritz Milhaupt
Modeling Editor, Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.
http://www.pmhistsoc.org

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Thanks for that Fritz - the photographs I used were all taken from a low angle and didn’t show that detail - or lack of it. Pity, I quite liked it.

One cooling coil coming off…

Jon