I can't say I have any experience with MRC decoders but I have heard nothing but bad things about them.  Research that choice very carefully, IMO.

Looking forward to picks or video of your latest project!

Athearn is installing Soundtraxx sound decoders in all of their locomotives that formerly had MRC decoders in them.

'nuff said.

....I can only comment on 1 of the 3 questions you asked about,

and only if you model in N scale, but

http://www.nscalesupply.com

They've been around a while, and their website is a great source

for pics of most of the manufacturers' product. Great bunch of guys, too.

I have to go with Jeff and say if your going to want reliable sound and DCC then buy Sound Traxx. Especially if your building a custom engine don't skimp on quality and performance. Dan

 3. What color black? Weathered Black, Grimy Black,, etc? The CV kept it's equipment pretty clean overall, and the pictures I have of it show it's a pretty clean and bright black.

 

Just paint it black.  After it's black you can weather it if you want it to look dirty.  I never paint anything weathered or grimy black, because nothing is ever painted that way in real life.  All you're doing is eliminating any contrast which you might be able to achieve through careful weathering, since it starts off grey.  I've weathered many locos and I have no problem making them look realistic starting from jet black.

Per the soundtraxx, I need to find out if the engine sound is appropiate. I know, I know, but it seems silly to go through the work to make this and than stick in the wrong motive power (although I personally don't know what one sounds like over the other).

Per the scale, yes, sorry I should have explained that this is HO.

Per the black, you're right. Just paint it black and weather it, that makes the most sense.  Of course, than I have to learn to weather as well.....sigh.

Scarpia,

You sound about as chicken regarding weathering as I am.  It's really intimidating to do something, anything, to a perfectly good model.

A good friend once showed me chalk weathering, and now it's all I use.  (I bought an airbrush, but I'm chicken!) You can buy various assortments of powdered chalk, for weathering.  I just use an exacto knife blade edge to scape chalk powder off of sticks.  Then I use a small brush to apply the powder.  You can do it dry (E.G. soot on loco tops, or dust on trucks) or wet the brush, then apply powder (E.G. steam sediment condensation on boiler sides, rust below hinges).

If you don't like it, wipe it off.  If it's good, spray dull coat on to fix it in place.  Experiment.  You can hardly do wrong.

of this engine - and now I remember why I painted my S-2 as 7918!

I assume you're talking about the large sloped box in front of the cab on the engineer's side of 7917? I was unable to find an as-delivered picture of the engineer's side of 7917 - although I can tell you that box was certainly not on 7918 or 7919. I can't confirm if it came from Alco that way or if it's something the railroad added - although I seriously doubt it was the latter. 

Since 7917 was built for the Grand Trunk Western and delivered to the CV, perhaps it's some unique GTW detail. I've asked questions of the CV diesel experts - we'll see what they say!

Even more interesting, by the time the engine was renumbered 8093 in October 1956 the big sloped box was gone and it was replaced by a much smaller square box. 

I CANNOT state this with any certainty, but in two photos I can find of 7917 (numbered as 7917) in her post-1951 paint scheme (which I suppose is the one you want to model - square herald on the cab side, long yellow oval with the road name spelled out) I don't see the triangular number board. Although the pictures of her as 8093 show the number board and very different radiator hatch cover on the roof than the earlier pictures. 

A company called Miniatures by Eric made a CN/CV triangle steam number board which should work, or you could use a Details Associates part for the number board section and you'll have to add a top and bottom to make it a triangle. 

Toughest part for the scheme you want to model is the cab herald - no one makes CV S-2 decals with the herald sized perfectly - I think I used either an N scale Microscale tender herald (a little too big) or the elephant ear herald from an HO Microscale decal set. 

Don't forget the steam marker lamps - those are available from Cal-Scale. 

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

Marty

People say 'just paint it black' and yet I've seen it read that painting black is sometimes the hardest color to paint [right next to white and light yellows].

There's different scools of thought in how to make model black paint appear right; in come cases its a drop of this or that to make the overall shene shift slightly in one direction to help the paint appear right.  And if you don't think this was practiced, consider that Penny added green to their black paint and BanO added blue to theirs.  In either case, I end up with locomotives I have to repaint because I like a more BLACK black or Gray black! 

I don't know of any roads that added a bucket of red to ten drums of black, but I bet this was done too.

Those who paint black units, whats your tips?

Great input, Marty, thanks.

For the record, here's the (modified as this is still under copyright to the best of my knowlege) picture that I'm working from. You can see both the locker and the triangle number board in this picture.

You can see I've highligted some items that I'd really like to duplicate

1. the lighted, triangle shaped number boards
2. the sloped equipment locker
3. the raised herald
4. correct horn
5. marker lamps

(picture is from Central Vermont & Grand Trunk Diesel Locomotives (1940-1975), Liljestrand, Robert A. & Sweetland, David R. Page 6. No Publisher or Publication date or ISBN available).

I saw Eric's triangle, I may order one and take a look at lighting it. He also has an S2 Kit that may be worth picking up, as it has sand hatches, etc.

For the locker, I am planning on guestimating the length and height, and than fabricating one from plasticard. I don't think it will be that hard to make, detailing hinges, etc will be more of a problem.

Thanks for the advice on the herald. One thing I do want to do is raise it, as you can see in this photo. Again a small piece of plasticard should give that impression.

Do you know if the stock horn is accurate?

Marker lights from cal scale, thanks!

Benny, I think I understand what you're saying, but  there is a color photo of the 7917 on the back of the  volume I mention, and it's black. Not blue or green black, just black, so I think in this case, "just paint it black" makes sense. I had brought it up originally as I was reading Marty's article in the Steam locomotive book on painting a CV 2-8-0 in which he used black plus box car red for a warmer black; I realize now that paint on a diesel will weather a lot differerent than on steam.

Thanks for all the great input!