Hi all. Friends over at Model Railroader.com have suggested I post here in the hope a UP expert can help.
I want to start a new model railroad and have an SSW Dash 8 - 40B, road number 8087. I believe the prototype was delivered in May 1989 in standard SP/SSW grey and red.
I want to move my modelling era forward but to do so as cheaply as possible and re-use the engines I have. I know that on August 30 1999, SSW 8087 was re-numbered UP 5693 and then on December 31 2003, re-numbered again UP 1884.
The question I have is when 8087 was first re-numbered did it wear a UP patch or was it fully repainted? (I am assuming here it hadn’t been repainted yellow prior to that event and the “old” SSW number reapplied).
I have seen a photo dated August 9 2000 showing it in Armour Yellow and that may suggest it was fully re-painted at the time of the initial re-numbering unless it was patched for less than a year.
I can manage a patch update using Microscale decals, but a full repaint is beyond my skills at the moment so knowing if or when it was patched will help determine the layout date.
Thanks for any thoughts. Ian