What's your Best custom locomotive?

[iomalley]

I wonder why they used a heavy locomotive as a shell for radio equipment and nothing else? You would think a old MOW caboose/transfer or box car would have filled the bill just as nice!

Cuz cabooses/boxcars aren't already wired for MU.

Some rr's have used old non-loco equipment, like WC used an old CP van, CP used old boxcars and Bunits for radio robots and the NS use old flat cars...just some examples, there are many more.

 

[RCH]

These two aren't finished yet, but when they are they will be the best I've done yet:

They will be Missouri Pacific nos. 2020 and 2126.

 

[kbkchooch]

I must confess, occasionally I get a little abNormal, and here is the result!

 

[level42]

Theres a gentlemen in OakVille Ontario Canada who has some FANTASTIC work

See Here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14503095@N04/sets/72157603913931681/

 

[SecretWeapon]

No, I don't paint. IIt was done by Scott Lupia.

 

[tomustang]

Custom as in paint job, this atlas blank shell gained color:

Not exact, but my first attempt in multicolored paint job

 

[UP2CSX]

Looks like a nice job for a first attempt, Tom. Getting those big CSX decals straight and level isn't easy.

 

[CharlesH.]

Here's one of my works in progress. I took an old Life-Like 0-4-0 from my younger days and added a bevvy of homebrew bits and pieces to turn it into a gritty, but relatively well maintained switcher. There are quite a few rough spots here and there, but it looks pretty good. I intend to re-motor it sometime, both to improve its running qualities and to get that big can out of sight.

(The pic's in black and white, but you're not missing anything)

 

[wheeler1963]

I'd have to say this is my best effort to date.

 

[UP2CSX]

Jerome, that's the best looking piece of junk I've ever seen. Did that engine finally get scrapped or what?

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

That'd be a great addition for a scrap line.

 

[CharlesH.]

I'd have to say this is my best effort to date.

Wow! There's something you don't see very often. How did you do the crumpled steel bits?

 

[CSXPAID]

I'd have to say this is my best effort to date.

That is a awesome model!!!! Very well done. Im sure in real life it has been rebuilt and held together with great stuff expanding foam!! They like that product alot

 

[wheeler1963]

Wow! There's something you don't see very often. How did you do the crumpled steel bits?

Charles, after I cut out the plastic, I glue in bits of thin copper sheeting. That can be wrinkled and shredded up like ripped metal.

 

[ChevelleSSguy]

This Kato SD38-2 started out as a C&NW unit, which I stripped and painted in CSX yn2 scheme. I also had to transplant the headlight from its between-the-numberboards location to the nose, and add a few other CSX-specific details.

View attachment 73461

Is this the loco that was featured in the current edition of Model Railroad Hobbyist on how you painted it?

 

[zgardner18]

This is my MRL number 680 that I created by using a P2K SD45 and applying a Cannon & Co. High short hood then custom painting and weathering.

My next custom projects will be two SD60MACs and a SDP40

 

[VA3TOM]

Here is some paint work I did for a freind a while ago. Not custom, but one of my favorite engine / paint schemes.

The Michigan Central Railroad ran through Southern Ontario Canada and had a branch to Niagara On The Lake

http://www.niagararails.com/cgi-bin/mileages.cgi?/mileages/MCRR05.TXT I am sure they also ran to Port Dalhousie where the original Welland Canal system entered Lake Ontario, and to this day the east side of the harbour entrance is known as the 'Michigan Side'

The fellow I did some work for modelled a ficticious modernization of the Michigan Central, as though it had survied and was still operating. Here is a GP35 with a paint scheme I came up with for the current railroad.

This was actually about 10 years ago, and the owner has since passed on, the model railroad dismantled. This and some rolling stock is all that is left.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Here's a couple of my favorites;

This is an old MDC Harriman 4-6-0. I replaced all the detail with brass parts, replaced the cylinder block with one from Bowser and scratched the valve gear and piping of course. Turns out I unknowingly built a model of a T-28 4-6-0 used in Texas by the SP subsidiary there. I came across an old Prototype Modeler magazine that had this very conversion in it! I have another loco, that is currently awaiting a repaint that is it's sister.

This one I painted for a friend in town who is a CB&Q modeler. The only things missing in the photo that are now on the model are the couplers, window glass, crew, bell rope, and the MV lenses for the headlights. They were all put in place, as well as a decoder, shortly after this pic was taken. Hardest part was getting the stripes and the correct slant of the stripe on the hood. It was a real PITA!

and lastly

This was my Dad's loco that he fired during the 1930's for the Southern.

 

[Lab Rat]

that is absolutely amazing i have never seen a locomotive modeled to that great of detail

I'd have to say this is my best effort to date.

 

[Lab Rat]

i have a question did the real one still function at all after the accident adn does this trashed model opwerate just like any other loco or has it been stripped of all these parts to repair other locos