I am finally done with my Southern Pacific SD38-2. I have 2 under construction right now. the second one is almost ready for paint. what i did was add a new cannon cab with the rebuilt L window front from Hi-Tech details. then I added a new sub base with the SP split equipment doors. you also have to add a nose light. i seriously doubt that Kato will have all of the proper SP details if they decide to release a SP unit.
if you dont want to go as far as i did, all you really need to do to the Kato unit is add a nose light and a rooftop bell.
here are some shots of my SP SD38-2 that i just finished![:D][:D]
That’s really cool. It looks WAY better than any kato I’ve ever seen- modified or unmodified. Hopefully kato will release the SD38-2 in SP due to me being too lazy to paint[:p]
Wow, that is stunning… I have a SP in a BB Athern that I want to pratcie on to model it after one close to my house that UP abuses for local industry switching. Guess now I know how good it get… Also, I enjoyed your website. Those detial shots are great.
Myself and Kenlarsen also have a few of these, I left mine in the EJ&E and USS schemes, they will be secondhand power on my industrial shortline. Ken took the EJ&E and added black side stripes, he posted a few shots of it, and it looked good.
Your painting and weathering are great, you captured the look of well used Espee units (were there any other kind?) to a tee.
Fantastic job.
looking good…I usually get the detail kits from Details West…their pyle and mars lights are about the SP standard, and with a bit of cutting, filing, grinding,and filling the lights can be installed into the nose relatively quickly. here’s a GE U33C i just got finished with last week…chuck
Nightcrawler…thanks for using my prototype photo off of Richard Percy’s espee homepage. I have also made two models of the SD38-2, not “rivet” correct but they look good to me. I also regeared them for extremely slow operation. Photo taken at Colton Yard.
Ken Perry
thanks for posting all those more recent photos of SP locomotives on that site, they come in really handy. I have a few photos of mine of SP and SSW SW1500’s up on there. I am using your photo of 2971 to detail my other SD38-2.
thanks for all the compliments guys[:D] now if i could just motivate myself to finihose SD39’s… but I have 2 TEBU’s, a SD7R and 10 SD45T-2’s on the bench too. i think i have too many projects going at once and not enough time to finihem.
I dont think they ever made it to Tehachapi. they were set up to be used only as switchers at West Colton Yard. but I have heard that they made the rare run into the Los Angeles area.
