Shortline Locos

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

This may bea stupid ? but since i dont know the answer im gonna ask. Ive decided to model the Birmingham Southern RR. Where can one find locos for shortlines. Or do i need to buy a plain colored loco and paint it myself. Are there sites out there that will custom paint locos and sell them? Im lost in this department

John

2

The joy of modeling a short line or obscure railroad is having to do more on your own. You’ll need to do research to find photos and other information as to what locomotives the line used. Then survey available models to see what comes close, and what modifications are needed to make it more accurate. You decide how accurate you want to be. You can either paint and letter it yourself, or have somebody do it for you. Obviously, an unlettered locomotive is easier to paint and letter, if it matches your prototype in details fairly well. A custom painter will likely need your prototype research to do an accurate job (or you will have to pay him to do the research).

Hope this helps.
Fred W

3

You didn’t mention scale but doing some quick searches did not turn up any models of locomotives in Birmingham Southern schemes. I did find HO decals at MicroScale.

http://www.microscale.com/catalog_results.mv

Also I found a website with rollingstock info including photos of locos. As far as I can tell - the locos are common and you should be able to get undecorated versions of any of them. The paint scheme is not to elaborate and depending on if the stripe is available as part of the decal set might not be difficult.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoList.aspx?id=BS

Also Athearn has some Birmingham Southern gondolas in HO

http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=Birmingham+Southern

–
Brad

4

Ok ill look into that. The scale that i am doing is N. So HO probably wouldnt work! But i have been looking into it. I am having problems with finding the locomotives that Birmingham Southern used, i want to say they had some GP-9s but not for sure what else. There is very limited sites. If anyone knows of any more sites that i may search id be much appreciative.

5

You can also go to fallen flags at this address look under the "b"s
http://gelwood.railfan.net/

6

I HATE to say this but do a Google search.

I would suggest that you go steady on just one fairly obscure shortline… unless you are the sort of modeller who can really get into doing a very specific subject (in which case GREAT and good luck) you could find that your subject/interest gets very limited very fast.
Just as a suggestion… it could be worth looking at the hand-off point with the nearest neighbouring road… even if the BS took stuff to them at a big location that’s too much to model you could bend the scene and bring them to you… this will give you at least the other road’s locos.

Have you done any loco painting? I don’t want to put you off but it’s a pretty big place to start… and N is more difficult than H0 because you have to be so much more accurate.
You could probably get good advice on this forum … both how to and custom painters… if you’re rich.
have fun!

7

Heres know units and pictures from: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/
SW-1000 10 -
SW-1000 11 -
NW-2 21 - Jul 68 {Dave Goss in front}
NW-2 24 - Jul 68
SW-900 91
SW-900 92
SW-900 94
SW-900 94 -
SW-900 95 -
RS-2 150 -
RS-2 150 -
RS-3 151 -
RS-3 152 -
RS-3 153 -
RS-3 154 -
RSD-5 160
SW-1200 200
SW-1200 201
SW1001 219
SD-9 644
SD-18 658
GP-38 701
site also shows some freight equipment, stations and interchange sites and roads it interchanged with.
[8D]

8

Well we did all his research for him. How nice of us.

9

I suppose were either gluttons for punishment, or just really helpful people, or just crazy train nuts.[(-D][(-D][(-D]

10

All three [(-D][(-D][(-D]

11

All right, now i just have to make up my mind. Decisions. Ive dont a lot of research now on the custom ones, and i guess i just need to find a custom painter. How hard are those to find?

12

I say do it yourself. Taking a look at the GP38 photos for that particular short line, the green-and-yellow paint job appears fairly easy to do.

All one has to do is:

  • get an undecorated shell, spray on a light grey primer coat (which is a neutral color that both the green and yellow can cover easily).

  • spray on the yellow, let dry, then mask off areas you want to stay yellow with masking tape. The masking is the moderately hard part, with the curves at the ends. Should be doable though with a good Xacto knife to precut the masking tape on a sheet of glass into the desired curves.

  • spray on the green, let dry, then peel off the masking tape. Voila.

The decaling is the biggest challenge. You will have to print your own decals for the herald and lettering.

13

well i do that that sounds like a good deal. I have dony many model aircraft in the past… why not a loco? The paint job isnt that hard, i guess its just the whole issue about finding the right colors. But ill see whati can do. Thanks