Slugs & Bugs (B-units)

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Good find, Alco. James, I can see why the B units would need a horn for hostling around the yard. A lot of F B units also had horns but they were small single chimes like you said were on the some of Geep B units. I guess I was just surprised to see a full road set of horns but it's obviously prototypical. :)
 
Southern Railway has a road slug with a mate comig soon!!
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Nice looking kitbash for the GP-30 slug, Smoke. I'm not a great fan of the GP-30 in terms of looks but that high hood and the lack of fans makes it look pretty sleek.
 


can you guys recommend a way to keep to sections of bodies joined together? Im going to work on a kitbash B unit and will need to join a small section from another body and im worried that beeing close the screw mount it might pull it apart if just glued.
 
What I would do is first glue the sections together and then, using styrene strips as thick as you have room for, glue them over the joint on the inside of the shell. Same concept as a mending plate for wood. The shell should be plenty stong enough if you follow this procedure.
 
Alco, I see these show up all the time on e-bay. Not always in UP paint but the model itself is pretty common. Most of the B units are dummies but the B unit frame adn the switcher unit fram are the same so you can swap a B unit shell on a powered chassis if you want both units powered. The major issue with the UP TR-5's is that the louver arrangement on the hood was different than the standard SW-7 so that takes some body work. Most also had that double set of horns on the roof and the distinctive white stripes on the side sills and pilot. Plus, you've got to paint those trucks silver. :)
 
Making 5 of BNSF's SW1000B #3635. The first 2 will be in the BN green and black paint scheme, the other 3 will be in the BNSF's Heritage I paint Scheme.

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Jerome, that's first I've seen of those "B" units. I wonder why BN went to the trouble and expense of removing the entire cab instead of just plating over the windows?
 
Jim, according to the postings with the pictures. It was involved in an accident in the 70's. They just removed the cab and made it a B unit instead of repairing it.
 
This is my first time seeing this thread so I'm sorry if someone has already asked this but, why do they remove the doors from the locomotive? It seems like a waste of money to seal the long hood.
 
Well the prime mover is gone and in it's place are bins/tubs/tubs filled with scrap metal or concrete for ballast that employees don't need access to and maybe for liability issues.
 
Jerome, the wreck thing makes sense. I thought that BN was rebuilding several of thses as calves.

Stephen has it right for slugs. The long hood is generally filled with concrete and the concrete is right up to the edge of the hood so removing the doors and making a solid car body provides the strength needed for the lateral forces of the concrete.
 
I recently finished another BN slug, Twinkie, pickle or whatever you call it.
GE called it a B30-7A.
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