THE ROCK Alco C415 and GE U33B Projects

[Zephyr]

I have been working on these projects in the last month or so. These involved repainting, decals, weathering, and standardizing. I only added a decoder to the U33B thus far; I have yet to figure out the internal workings of the Alco. Enjoy!

Alco C415
This started life as an IHC Rio Grande (they never had C415s in real life). The Rock Island actually had 10, a few of which survived shutdown as switchers for shortlines. There is still at least one C415 still kicking around for the Burlington Junction railway. This concept is based on a repowering in the late 1980s. I added pilots, MU hoses, handgrabs, all-weather window, antenna, air horn, bell, air tanks, and shortened the cab to medium height. The unit also had truck-mounted couplers, so I installed some new coupler boxed on the frame.

As I bought it (before):

After:

GE U33B
This is actually a B30-9R (30 for the new horsepower rating, the 9 for the generation of electronics, and R for rebuild), repowered in the early 90s, similar to the C415, for yard work. Rock Island had about 30 of these and a few were repainted into the blue and used as slug mothers. I bought this Athearn kit off eBay and it already had lots of details added like MU hoses, handgrabs, antenna, and air horn. I just added the plow, sun shades, and windows.

This photo was taken by the eBay seller (before):

And after:

And a shot of my entire fleet of older "heritage" locomotives:

C415, GP7, GP38-2, U33B, and U30C.

 

[brad_in_omaha]

Great Looking Locomotives Eric!

We do we get the action shots?

 

[jbaakko]

Wow, impressive work. How do the IHC units run? I have an old AHM one and its sitting chassis-less because the AHM one did not work at all.

 

[UP2CSX]

Nice paint and weathering on both unit. Goes to show that some added details and expert painting and decaling can make even those old units look good.

 

[HOBO$$]

WOW !!! Nice job

 

[f1_indy2000]

Love Them! they look great Zephyr.

 

[suprduc]

I bow to your greatness . Fantastic job on the weathering.

 

[Zephyr]

Thanks, guys! The weathering is done mostly with pastels. I also do a little grimy black wash and rust wash at the beginning to fill in some spots.

Hopefully some action shots will be forthcoming later this week.

Josh, I haven't run it yet, but I have heard good things about the motor. The drive and the wheels do look very smooth. When I was considering a C415, I made sure to stay away from AHM because I heard that the IHC was a big difference, not so much in terms of detail of the body, but because of the improved motor. It also packs a lot of weight, which will come in handy when I unleash it into switching chores.

 

[jbaakko]

Sounds good. I'd appreciate it if you can let me know how well it runs.

 

[OldGettysk]

Nice work Zephyr !

 

[Railroad Joe]

Eric,

I too, bow to your amazing skills as a modeler. I always wondered what a C-415 would look like in blue & white. Now I know. I can only hope that as you were cutting down the cab, you took photos of what you did to reduce the size from the Southern Pacific Hi Cab. Maybe if you did, would you be willing to share? Also, a list of what detail parts you used would be handy(yes, yes, I'm lazy) Thanks again!! In one word, all of your work is simply AMAZING!!

Regards,

 

[Zephyr]

Thanks, Paul. Josh, I will let you know how it runs sometime soon.

Thank you so much Joe - I thought you would enjoy this project. Sorry, I did not take photos as I chopped down the cab. This part was surprisingly easy. The top of the cab comes off, so I just chiseled down the sides until I was satisfied. If I was doing an extremely precise job of this, I would have gotten better windows to fit in here; however, since the cab roof covers them while looking down on it, I didn't bother. You also have to file down the weight here as well, but not too much.

List of parts
Details West:
Alco switcher Bell
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/235-151
Air Tanks
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/235-204
More air tanks
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/235-146
MU Hoses
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/235-266
Detail Associates:
All-weather windows
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/229-2301
Pilot footboards
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/229-2208
The air horn I stole from an Athearn unit that I upgraded and the antenna I stole from an Atlas unit that I upgraded to GPS. I also used standard handgrabs and I forget who makes those.

By the way, I also filled in one window on each side to better follow the prototype. I did this by using a piece of styrene and filled in the cracks with Testors putty.

 

[macjet]

Nice work! Now for some action shots.

Too bad we didn't make it to Denver. They kept us on the right coast all week. Maybe next time.

 

[Railroad Joe]

Well Eric,

You are correct in your assumption that I would like your additions to today's Rock Island(your railroad) I love it!! Your qualities as a modeler are outstanding. Thanks again for taking the time to keep the railroad alive, for all of us who enjoyed the Rock Island. YOU ROCK!!

Regards,

 

[Zephyr]

Thanks macjet and thanks again Joe!

Josh, I *tried* to run the C415 last night and it did not perform very well. Lots of sudden stops and overall very finicky. I am going to try putting a new motor drive in it, or I may replace the powered trucks with ones from an Atlas or Athearn RS-3, which has similar, almost identical trucks. So if I were you, I would forget about IHC and go with an RS-3 motor.