[Accrs] RI Project

Sun Aug 6 12:42:09 PDT 2017

Here’s a project that I started a long time ago,  before DCC as we know it existed,  before SmartPhones were even an idea,  my first son was still in diapers.   Work, travel, life got into the way and the shells I started on, were painted, decaled, and handrails installed.  Then they went into a storage box.

Then Proto 2000 released a newly designed U28B that is very accurate and had see-thought screens at the rear radiator section. These are nice models.   They even produced a Rock Island set.  I didn’t think I’d ever work on these again.

The real Rock Island U28B’s were manufactured around the time 3M was perfecting the usage of Scotchlite reflector materials and the RI used this material for the lettering and side sill strip.  In a cloudy day, the lettering appears slightly non white – perhaps yellowish.  In sunlight, at the correct angle it looks bright white.  At night with a beam of light it has a glowing white effect – spectacular.

So someone at Life-Like knowing this tried to color match this Scotchlite in the off-white color.  I think it turned out horribly and was never really satisfied with them – especially in a model railroad setting where lighting is generally a lot darker than normal mid-day sun.

When the passage of time came better details,  improved ways of mounting couplers in boxes that resembled draft gear equipment.  After thinking about this in the back of my mind for the past year on how to change the direction of where I was originally going and incorporate new coupler designs I finally got back to the project and today they are pretty much done.

For the couplers I used Atlas U23B coupler boxes and then modified the Athearn fame.  A piece of brass angle stock and flat bar cut to size and soldered together was attached using 1.4mm screws.  The new mounting pad was then drill and tapped for 2.0mm coupler box screw.  Simple, easy, but time consuming.

The handrails are Utah Pacific and hand bent wire, soldered.  Small chain was added at the ends.

The athearn frame is basically the stock version with some added Details West air filters and piping.  The trucks were modified for dual electrical pickup on each side frame.  This is the modern way of how trucks are designed and make it easy to wire for DCC boards.  New Athearn replacement 40” wheel sets were used.  Motors are Athearn 5 pole skewed armature – not as good as the new can type motors, but they work fine for club running.

Paint is Testor’s 1105 Dark Red and the lettering is Microscale decals.

An interesting story about the Testor’s Dark Red – back in the early 1960’s the Rock Island marketing group that was in Chicago decided that they would come up with a new color for it’s locomotives.  Someone in the group when down to the local hobby store and purchased some Testor’s paint.  The dark red is a regal looking color verse the bright red and it’s more durable looking with diesel exhaust soot.   The Testor’s brand was  one of the only brands generally carried in hobby stores.   So Dark Red 1104 was the source of the paint match.

You might have seen the original “Wings” scheme used on GP7’s in the 1950’s – this was a complex paint masking effort and by the time the GP9’s came out which was around 1958/59 – this was abandoned for the newly invented ScotchLite stripes.   However, some people at the corporate RI offices wanted to bring back the “Wings” scheme so they came out with these simplified chevrons on the front – GP35’s, U25B’s, U28B’s and the first batch of GP40’s received these from the factory.   One GP7 and a wreck rebuild GP9 received a version of this design.

The “Wings” scheme was not long lived as it appears that new marketing or operations people came into the corporation had argued that on the front view of the engine had no corporate identity visible.   Compared to others – NYC, SP, UP, etc..  Another trip to the hobby store happened around this time.  The person came back with the Dark Red and Yellow colors and they painted an Athearn GP35 shell and gave that to EMD to use as the color guide.

So the wings were clipped and all the front and rear of those locomotives got the yellow paint to cover them up and a red/white RI emblem that has been recognized since 1870’s were applied.  I believe these were made from Scotchlite material too.

For some more history on Rock Island colorings – Henry Crown,  a Chicago based material builders provider – a “gravel man”, made a fortune in this business.  He purchased a controlling interest in CRI&P stock.  By the 1970’s he demanded that the colors be changed to match his gravel barges which were painted bright red and yellow trim.   The new GP40’s of 1970 and SD40-2’s of 1972,  and U30C’s came from the factory in this bright red and yellow colors.  Even depots got repainted – which in my view,  an 1880’s structure just doesn’t look right in those colors.

Henry Crown  continued to manage the RI for his personal interests – earnings that should have gone into capital equipment, roads, signals and computer modernization were instead directed to dividend payments and bonuses.   This lead the business into bankruptcy in 1975.  At the point, Henry Crown just wanted the whole thing sold off – no longer had an interest in owning a railroad.

The new management team that came in wanted a new corporate identity and wanted to get new colors are as far away from red and yellow as possible – that’s why the new THE ROCK scheme had blue, white and black colors was created.

Anyway, that how these models fit into the history story of the Rock Island.

If I had to redo this project,  I would start with making a cab interior details and engine crews.  Using the lazer cut windows on most of the models allows you to easily see inside.  There is a huge void in cab and you can see paint red paint overspray on the primer.

Some pictures attached . . . [cid:image025.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image026.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image027.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image028.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image029.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image030.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image031.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image032.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image033.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image034.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image035.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0] [cid:image036.jpg at 01D30EB1.56F344A0]

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