Zephyr
Rocket Red
The Alco PA is perhaps my favorite passenger locomotive. As a modeler of the modern Rock Island, I had always thought, what would a PA look like in the Rocket paint scheme? So I thought I would try it out! Microscale offers a nice decal sheet for this and the painting of curves and stripes was not too entirely difficult...
Here's what I came up with:
To give you a little background, my concept is based on a number gap I found - the Rock Island didn't originally use numbers 607-612 (these were later filled in by Booster unit renumbers in Sept. 1965). I then theorized that the Rock Island could have bought three sets of PA/PB units for operating a better Corn Belt Rocket service between Chicago-Des Moines-Omaha-Lincoln, starting in 1946. You could schedule two daily trips in each direction using three sets, with layovers for cleaning and maintenance in Chicago.
My units are then based on the survival of a PA and a PB from this original service. These locomotives would have been kept alive for business service, going through the many paint schemes (including blue/white!) up until their full restoration as Rockets, probably in the late 90s.
For painting these units, I started out with Proto 2000 PA/PBs in the Santa Fe warbonnet. I then soaked them in 90% isopropyl alcohol to remove the factory paint. Next I painted the units BNSF Silver (the store was out of Santa Fe silver, which I like), then I used RI Maroon and SP Scarlet Red (my freight scheme color). Engine Black was used for the trucks and underframe. I used patterns for taping the locomotive by copying the decal sheet. The decals were very challenging, but are very thorough in representing the Rocket Scheme.
And presto, now I have some motors for my executive fleet and excursion trains. More photos - enjoy!
And of course a video:
http://www.youtube.com/v/fbRcyCdsRms
Here's what I came up with:
To give you a little background, my concept is based on a number gap I found - the Rock Island didn't originally use numbers 607-612 (these were later filled in by Booster unit renumbers in Sept. 1965). I then theorized that the Rock Island could have bought three sets of PA/PB units for operating a better Corn Belt Rocket service between Chicago-Des Moines-Omaha-Lincoln, starting in 1946. You could schedule two daily trips in each direction using three sets, with layovers for cleaning and maintenance in Chicago.
My units are then based on the survival of a PA and a PB from this original service. These locomotives would have been kept alive for business service, going through the many paint schemes (including blue/white!) up until their full restoration as Rockets, probably in the late 90s.
For painting these units, I started out with Proto 2000 PA/PBs in the Santa Fe warbonnet. I then soaked them in 90% isopropyl alcohol to remove the factory paint. Next I painted the units BNSF Silver (the store was out of Santa Fe silver, which I like), then I used RI Maroon and SP Scarlet Red (my freight scheme color). Engine Black was used for the trucks and underframe. I used patterns for taping the locomotive by copying the decal sheet. The decals were very challenging, but are very thorough in representing the Rocket Scheme.
And presto, now I have some motors for my executive fleet and excursion trains. More photos - enjoy!
And of course a video:
http://www.youtube.com/v/fbRcyCdsRms
