Gp9m


I recently looked into having a couple of locomotives custom painted to represent two local shortlines. I was really getting excited as they would have made nice additions to my collection representing Western Pennsylvania and would have been for the Pittsburgh & Ohio Central and the New Castle Industrial Railroad. Then I discovered nobody makes a nice model of a GP9M. There is Walther's Trainline, but it looks like a toy compared to the products made today by Atlas, BLI, P2K or even Athearn.

My question is why? It seems there a lot of shortlines still using this locomotive, or am I wrong? They appear from time to time in the various weekend photo fun threads so they must still be some out there. Anyone know of other shortlines still using them.

Tom
 
There are a fair amount of rebuilt 1st Generation Geeps out there. But, a lot of them are ones and twos, and most manufacturers shy away from those kinds of production runs. Also, the rebuilding could be changed by another rebuilding by the leasing company; Larry's Truck and Electric may just slap their reporting marks on it, but NRE may do some external changes. And, if they'r sending only one or two to a shortline, there's no profit in making these locos. Not to mention all the shortlines out there.

The best bet here is to convert say a P2K GP9 to a GP9M which corresponds to the shortline you want to model.

Having said all of that, it would be nice if somebody produced an undec GP9M shell only, to fit the P2K chassis. Or, failing that, perhaps a conversion kit; something like Cannon would do.

Kennedy
 
There is, sort of. I have a GP9 shell that I'm converting into a GP9B at the moment that was produced by/for Trains Unlimited. I've seen roughly 10 more on eBay since I bought it. Just buy the GP9 and convert it (or, well I can do it for you *wink*wink*...).
 
Kaslo Shops is making resin bodies for CN GP9RM's and CP GP9u's for Central Hobbies.

Chopping the nose on an Atlas or Proto GeeP is relatively easy. Makes a good introduction to kitbashing if you've never done it before.
 
The 'major' manufacturers aren't interested in producing a plastic model that represents a relatively 'rare' engine. Tooling for the shell alone would run $50,000+ (at least in the USA...China would be much cheaper, but still a significant investment).

If they can't sell 10,000 units in the first year, they most likely won't make it...
 
I doubt you'd sell 10K worth of GP9M Undec shells over the life of the run. But, you never know. One way would be to make it modular enough to put together whatever version you want. Sorta like the Highliners F shells.

I wanted a GP-7/9 B unit, ended up buying the Hi Tech Details conversion kit....

Kennedy
 



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