I model the Willamette & Pacific Railroad (the prototype currently uses the name Portland & Western) in the central Willamette Valley of Oregon. As such, my prototype uses a version of the orange & black paint scheme used by it's parent company, Genesee & Wyoming (GWI).
Now, there aren't many factory painted locomotives in the GWI paint scheme, and none in the WPRR/PNWR variation - which is understandable, since until the past couple years there were no locomotives painted in it that also matched a mass produced plastic model. Mostly the WPRR/PNWR runs GP39-2s, acquired from the Santa Fe. They also now have SD45s, SD7/9's, GP38-2s, an SW1200 and at least a few GP9s, in a variety of paint schemes - including one in a lightly modified SP Black Widow. Other locomotives have come and gone as well. An interesting modeling challenge.
Since my layout isn't particularly friendly to six-axle units, that simplified my roster - the Geeps were going to be in control. And at just about the time I got back into the hobby and decided upon a prototype, Atlas released it's popular GP38 locomotive in a Buffalo & Pittsburgh paint scheme - nearly dead on enough for the WPRR that I wasn't going to fuss. I may even fix the differences (which consist of a little more black paint on the ends) at some future date. Anyway, I asked my parents for one of them as a birthday present - and later found out my mom went online and bought it that same evening. One down.
I also discovered that MicroScale had produced the exact decal set I needed to produce WPRR logoed locomotives. I collected... a lot of them.
Later, Atlas introduced it's MP15DC model, and one of the paint jobs on the first run was the Genesee & Wyoming RR - in both numbers. Now, these units have never been seen in Oregon, but I considered it a clear gift horse moment. I own both of them now. We're up to three.
A few weeks ago a local modeler admitted that he needed to thin out his collection, and he had three of the BPRR GP38s - he also had some of the Rochester & Southern GP40s, but they're a bit more work to match to the WPRR paint scheme. Blessed with a timely refund from some dental work that was unexpectedly covered by insurance, I snapped up the three GP38s. That's 4 GP38s and 2 MP15DCs in the right paint job now...
This past week I spent several evenings stripping logos (MicroSol and soak) & numbers, decaling, and replacing the decoders (I like the TCS A4X boards) in my three latest acquisitions, as well as stripping the logos and decaling one of the MP15DCs.The original GP38 and MP15DC were converted some time ago. My entire fleet of orange & black locomotives are now in WPRR livery. It may not be the largest fleet of GWI/WPRR locomotives out there - but I haven't seen one larger yet.
So they aren't GP39-2s... it's my layout, and I'd already decided to protolance other elements as well. They look pretty good from my point of view.
Here are a few photos (the rest, including the in-process photos, can be found starting here):
The GP38 herd
WPRR #46 & #45. #45 is an Atlas "Gold" model, which means it's equipped with QSI sound (not anymore).
GP38 (standing in for GP39-2) 2301, the City of Sheridan. The silver trucks are done with a product called "Rub N Buff" available at your local craft store (I got my tube at Michaels). Credit goes to an article in Model Railroader about 2-3 years back.
As a final note... no, I didn't attend OSU, nor am I a particular Beavers fan. The colors just worked out that way....
Jeff Shultz - MRH Technical Assistant
DCC Features Matrix/My blog index
Modeling a fictional GWI shortline combining three separate areas into one freelance-ish railroad.
