Recent Acquisitions, Part 1

With No. 2 son finishing up high school and choosing a college and churn at work, it's been interesting times.  Work on Dunes Junction has slowed but not stopped.

This Atlas #8355 GP-7 5746 in C&O colors will soon be a South Shore 1500-series GP-7, appropriate for late 70s/
early 80s operations on the Dunes Junction.

One recent bit of Dunes Junction activity was finally(!) finding an Atlas GP-7 in Chesapeake and Ohio livery that will become a South Shore 1500-series GP-7, courtesy of eBay. The South Shore acquired eight C&O GP-7s in the late 60s when the road had fallen on hard times, so these second-hand locos mostly stayed in their old C&O paint scheme, save for South Shore heralds and road numbers.

CSS&SB GP-7 #1503 at Burnham in
1979.  Photo by Tom Golden
Courtesy rrpicturearchives,net

My goal is to use the Atlas C&O GP-7 as the starting point for a CSS&SB model. I know, I know, it's an evil old diesel, a symbol of the South Shore in decline, the end of electric freight, blah, blah, blah.  But it's part of my memories of my beloved old South Shore, and I'm excited to have this project underway.

Looks like it will need a nose mounted bell, spark arrestors, sunshades, and a five-chime horn.  Plus the heralds and lettering need to come off--I'm reading on the interwebs that Solvaset and pencil eraser will do the trick. I have the Atlantic seaboards largest collection South Shore decals (both Walthers and Champ made 'em), so that's where the heralds will come from. The road numbers look like they should come right off a C&O diesel sheet, and the bugboards are standard fare as well.