Love the detail, right down

Love the detail, right down to the cocked horn. Guess I'm going to have to do a road trip to Council Bluffs some time to look around at the West End. Don't see much here in CR except the Interstate / Crandic interchange track. However, I should take a trip to Homestead as the shop was just being built the last time I was through there.

Greg

IAIS 250

I built the 250 in 2009 from a Walthers P2K SW1200 shell on an early SW900 drive with sound, but the decoder has since been upgraded to a Loksound with PowerPack keep-alive.  The motor has been removed since it was a bit more noisy than I'd like and the prototype was always MU'd with GP8 481 in the month I model anyway.

As with all the older IAIS power from my era, the 250 had its share of battle scars, but that just made it that much more fun to model. 

The torn radiator tarp was modeled with tissue wrap that I painted Floquil Concrete, then soaked in diluted white glue and rolled around two pieces of scale lumber (as was the prototype) I cut from stock.  The radiator fan is a Cannon #1853 dynamic brake fan, while the shutters are styrene.  The front and top radiator grills are from Detail Associates #2709 and #2727.

I really liked how the T&P/MP blue was showing through on the fuel tank and just inboard from the step wells.

The cab is a Cannon #1504 kit, and the fuel tank details are from their #2156 set.  Extended-range fuel tank sides are from Custom Finishing #290, and the roller-bearing sideframes are from Train Station Products.

Interior detailing in the Cannon cab included a fire extinguisher, control stand bracing, a Cannon electrical box, brakestand and wheel, and horn cord. However, due to the glare on the windows, the latter two items are about the only ones still visible after final assembly. The horn cord is just in front of the engineer's face in this view. Unfortunately, the rear headlight wires are the most visible items in the cab.

Amazing

Amazing work!

Great job

Hi Joe, Great job capturing the look of the prototype. I especially like how you faded the lettering and stripe on the left side of the hood, what techniques did you use? All of the extra details really bring the model to life and match perfectly to the prototype. The SW 1200 is such a classic switching locomotive, it is nice to see you giving it some love even with all it's scars and "seen better days" look. 

Thomas Klimoski

Modeling the Georgia Northeastern Railroad

Joe...

Superb work.

Andre

Thank you

Thank you very much Greg, Bob, Tom, and Andre.  You're all very encouraging.

Greg, that crooked horn was one of those details that really gave the prototype its personality, so it makes me feel like I accomplished something that you noticed it on the model.

Tom, the faded stripe and lettering on the left side started as a custom gray decal with red lettering courtesy of Chris Lastovich.  I applied that, then overlaid some yellow Microscale decals over the appropriate letters.  Finally, I dry-brushed on red to represent the last remaining traces of the original stripe color.

Love that switcher!

What a little beauty! The tarp is the cherry on top......gonna have to find somewhere to put a tarp on my layout. So cool!

Rick

Thank you Rick!  Very kind of you sir.

Bringing a moment in time alive again

As always, your ability to duplicate the prototype is spectacular, Joe. I like the crooked horn and the tarp - little details that make a model unique. I will have to use more photos (than I am now) for modeling.  Looking forward to seeing your next project.

Fran Giacoma

1299

As I remember seeing it:

Great work on the old power

Great work on the old power unit...love the details.

As usual Joe,

Great job....I remember when you had finished her and pics of her and 481 switching your yard/transfer pics.

Great job, Joe. I love that

Great job, Joe. I love that tarp too.

Mike

Thank you

Dave, thanks very much for sharing that pic of the 250 in her former life.  Any idea of the date and/or location?  That's the first shot I've seen of her pre-dating the IAIS.

Fran, MB, Loren, and Mike, thank you all very much for your kind words.  You're all very encouraging, and it means a lot to me.

Loren, you're right about the 250 getting some exposure recently.  I actually finished the model back in January 2009, but just reached 250 followers on Instagram, so I thought it'd be fun to shoot pics for a post there featuring the unit of the same number...which also gave me something new to share here.  Since there are quite a few other IAIS units above this one numerically (303 and then the 400s, 600s, 700s, etc.), I may continue this going forward, since most of my models of those units were completed before I started blogging on MRH.

250 love

I love the 250, too. Great work, Joe!

1299

Ft Worth late 1970's.

I thought I had a picture of that engine but it was the 1296, missed it by a smidge.

Thank you

Thanks Scott.  I'm envious that you managed to leave a motor in yours!  I've thought about dropping this shell on the Rapido SW1200 drive at some point, but so far, haven't seen the need.  The one powered unit in my yard consist seems to be up to the challenge so far.

And Dave, thanks for the additional info.  Any idea whose photo that was?  I saved it and wanted to be sure I associated the photographer's name with it.