IAIS's West End - The search for the perfect GP38-2

First up, a Proto2000 model I detailed and custom-painted.  The appearance of these never bothered me, though I've heard there are issues with the DB blister, and the trucks probably aren't the most accurate.  Also, they seem to sit a little high.  For me, though, the performance was the most noticeable problem.  Every time it sat idle, it would develop a squeal that I couldn't seem to correct.  I eventually gave up.

My next attempt was to modify the P2K shells to fit on Atlas GP38 or Atlas Trainman GP38-2 drives, eventually converting four models.  These ran great, and the installation of a Tsunami and Railmaster speaker wasn't terribly difficult.  Here's one of the four, using the same shell seen above.

Next up was my attempt to upgrade Athearn blue box RTR models, factory-painted for IAIS, by adding Kato motors, detailing, and lowering the frame on the trucks, among other things.  The idea with these was that they'd save me the work of custom-painting the P2K shells.  They ran well, but the amount of work put into the repowering and detailing was about the same as I previously spent custom-painting the P2K units.  Both were sold after a very generous offer from a friend.

When I became aware of the Athearn Genesis models being offered in IAIS paint, and learned that I'd be receiving a set of four as a gift, I sold all remaining examples of my earlier efforts except for one: My second model of IAIS 709, which is one of the P2K shell/Atlas GP38 drive combos.  Below are some pics comparing that model (which took me about 6-8 weeks total to detail, custom paint, decal, and convert to the Atlas drive) to one of the Genesis offerings, IAIS 718.

I used Scalecoat 2 CNW Yellow for the hood ends on the 709, and it looks close enough to the color Athearn used that I'll likely try it when I remove the class lights.

Looks like the 709's rear handrails got bumped when I was setting up these shots...

What a great hobby

What a great hobby.  You have great friends, who donate to your pet project.  

I enjoy reading your blog about the IAIS.

I have just had to tear down my old 2' x 12' layout, and

hope to re-commence on a new one shortly.

Greg form down-under 

(Modeling the B.N.S.F./ U.P. current time,with

a connecting preservation line [so I can run steam].)

Gift

Thank you Greg.  The very generous gift I mentioned was actually from Athearn itself, a thank you for the work I was allowed to contribute to for these models.

Even without that gift, though, I would recommend these models without hesitation.   No model is perfect, but these had very, VERY few faults.  The only issues I found were the presence of class lights on the hood ends (not a mistake, but simply a limitation of Athearn's tooling), the Sinclair radio antennas being silver instead of black, and IAIS 715's EOT antenna being above the right number board on the cab roof rather than the left.  All are extremely easy to correct.

After all these years of trying about every path I could think of toward accurate IAIS GP38-2s, I'm extremely grateful that Athearn has finally made it easy for IAIS modelers.

They need a  bit more armor

They need a  bit more armor yellow colour. Maybe one day...........

Those are beautiful models

Those are beautiful models Joe, all of them. I find it interesting that you had a hand in the creation of the newest and due to the evolutionary nature of the hobby the best models shown. I suspect there just might be some guys heading to the store to buy some of those right now!

Thank you

@Phil - Lol.  Watch it, mister.

I'm actually a big UP fan too, and was modeling them when I got interested in the IAIS in 2000, in fact.  One of the reasons I liked the IAIS so much was that it'd allow me to continue modeling the UP, since they had trackage rights over this portion of the railroad at the time for occasional detours.  They also share IAIS's Council Bluffs intermodal facility, so every day during my era, the UP would send power across town to the IAIS, who would then use it to build UP's nightly westbound "van train".

@Rob, thank you.  Athearn was outstanding to work with, and it was encouraging how insistent they were about making these as accurate as they could within the very few confines of their tooling.  One example was that one of the four IAIS units had rebuild-style/bolt-on batter box doors, which they didn't offer at the time I worked with them on this project.  Athearn actually tooled a new door!  Same thing happened with the older-style coupler cut lever that was on three of the IAIS units.  Athearn didn't have one before this production run that would fit on units that had ditch lights, so they tooled a new part.  The class light issue mentioned above was the only thing that they couldn't address due to the cost of tooling new short and long hoods, but as mentioned, it's an easy fix.

All of the models

are fabulous.  The author always sees "the warts" more than the observer.  I am particularly impressed with the later model.  I've heard a lot of gripes about recent QC issues.  I have several new Genesis models and they were excellent to my eyes.  The one in the picture appears near flawless as well.

Proto Squeal

Have you replaced the worm shaft bearings?  Many Proto mechanisms with the Athearn-clone drives have a poor quality bronze used in the bearings.  You can't successfully lubricate them to fully eradicate the noise.  Replace with Athearn bearings and the noise will probably disappear for good.  

More recent Athearn worm shafts (with the plastic worm) seem to have slightly smaller diameter, as the bearings won't fit readily on Proto shafts.  You could probably just drop the whole assembly in place of the Proto parts.  Otherwise Athearn axle bearings should still work.

GP38-2s

Thank you very much Larry.

Rob, I appreciate the suggestion, but I no longer have the P2K drives,