(Yet another) EMD SD-40

[Rotundus]

It seems like everybody and their cousin has been posting an SD-40 lately...  So, I thought I'd throw mine in too.  Why not, right?  I present to you my version of Southern Pacific #7355...

The Sufferr'n Pacific

Sufferr n - AM Builders by Ronald Clark, on Flickr

   At first look this locomotive appears to be just another 6-axel beast.  Like so many of it's stable-mates, #7355 served the shareholders of SP quite well.  But this locomotive was a rebel in disguise!  In 1981 some one in the paint shop decided that a little bit of custom paint was needed when it came time to spruce it up.

 

Sufferr n - AM Repaint by Ronald Clark, on Flickr

    The motive for this new paint scheme is unknown.  Pure speculation (mine) would have it that this might of been a "last great act of defiance" by a painter who had just received his "pink slip". Or maybe it was a political statement by the paint shop as to the condition of the company at that time... Who knows?  (If any one has the back story on this, I'd love to hear it.)

      Now it has occurred to me that many of you might be thinking that I am trying to pull a hoax on you.  I assure you that I am not.  In my defense I offer the following linked photo as proof of my sincerity...  The site that this was taken from (The Diesel Shop,) is known for the quality of it's content and I have no reason to believe that the photo is anything other than what it says it is.

http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/sd40r_photos/7355a_sp-suffern-sd40r-clyde_king.jpg

 

    The model itself is 48 studs long and 16 studs tall. It features a 5-wide hood built on an 8-wide deck. And once again Zephyr1934 did a wonderful job producing the stickers for me.  Thanks Benn!  Like my model of SP GP-30 #5010, it has been designed for static display only (at this time).   (Ed. note: I don't know why the link doesn't send you to the beginning of the topic.)

     I'll leave you with one last photo... This time a nighttime railfan shot.

Sufferr n - PM Railfan by Ronald Clark, on Flickr

Bye for now, and thanks for viewing!

There are more photos on Flickr; just click on any of the photos.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Rotundus

[Man with a hat]

And yet another beauty. Well done. Great colour scheme!

[zephyr1934]

Excellent work, looking good!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Lovely design ...great MOC and beautiful decals!

[dr_spock]

Well done.  Stickers looks great.

 

[Mesabi]

Very nice train.

What did you use for the railings? are those custom parts?

[Rotundus]

On 2/28/2017 at 4:06 AM, Man with a hat said:

And yet another beauty. Well done. Great colour scheme!

On 2/28/2017 at 6:05 PM, zephyr1934 said:

Excellent work, looking good!

Thanks guys.  I'm glad that you like them.

10 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Lovely design ...great MOC and beautiful decals!

3 hours ago, dr_spock said:

Well done.  Stickers looks great.

 

Thank you, but permit me to humbly redirect your praises for the stickers towards Zephyr1934.  His artwork is truly outstanding!   

3 hours ago, Mesabi said:

Very nice train.

What did you use for the railings? are those custom parts?

Thank you.  The handrails were formed using a heat gun to soften LEGO 3mm rigid hose then bent to shape. The uprights are simply 3mm hose cut to length.  The only non-LEGO parts used on the model were several lengths of wire coat hanger concealed in the tubing where I joined the pieces of the handrail together.  If you prefer an all LEGO solution, on my last project I used pieces of a broken whip antennae to do the same thing. (Although neither method is "purist", they worked for me.)

 

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

12 hours ago, Rotundus said:

  If you prefer an all LEGO solution, on my last project I used pieces of a broken whip antennae to do the same thing. (Although neither method is "purist", they worked for me.)

I prefer your non lego solution ...a broken antenna mean to be less purist! 

[xboxtravis7992]

The decals are spot on. I think it needs though the dynamic brake blister to be modified a bit to match the curves on the ends of a real SD40-2 unit.

As for the "Sufferin' Pacific" thing I want to speculate it was a not so subtle comment on the unstable state of the SP at the time. The SP knew that the Union Pacific was courting the Western and Missouri Pacific for mergers. If the UP gained the WP-MP routes, it would extend their system into central California and down into the deep south such as Arkansas. These were areas that the SP had previously not had much competition, but the arrival of the UP would signal and end to their dominance. I recently heard anecdotal accounts that in Ogden, Utah; SP freight managers were routing their own traffic to the Western Pacific, in a desperate attempt to make the WP more profitable and convince the shareholders that the WP could continue as a solo road without having to merge into the growing UP family. Of course all the anti-merger things the SP did failed by 1982-83 when the WP and MP joined into the Union Pacific's fold. By the end of 1983 the SP, in a rough situation; was courting its own merger with its long time rival the Santa Fe, but the merger was denied by the federal government and the ATSF used the opportunity to strip the SP of its profitable non-rail assets. The SP was left in limbo only to be rescued by the Denver and Rio Grande in 1989, which briefly bolstered the SP. Yet the DRGW executives were still striping away the non-rail assets of the SP into their own interests, and by 1996 both the DRGW and SP systems were handed over into Union Pacific control. So yeah, "Sufferin' Pacific" indeed. 

[Rotundus]

     Thanks Jacob for the history review.   I had forgotten about many of the other roadnames that had been gobbled up during those turbulent times. At the time I remember being a bit puzzled that the "Powers That Be" chose to nix a merger that would create a dominate carrier in the southwest part of the country (SP-SF), yet allow one that created a super-carrier that dominated the entire western half of a continent (UP et. al.).  Go figure!   At least all the merger/no merger maneuvering left us with some colorful paint schemes to model. 

     Your right about the dynamic brakes, too.  That will be on my list of "things to correct" when I do the inevitable rebuild.  This build was meant more as a sop to my sense of humor, and not so much as a serious scale model. I promise to build a more detailed SD-40 in 1s:1' as I work my way through the SP paint roster.

     And now for something completely different...  I was cruising around on Googlemaps and spotted a green and black GP-30 (BN #2832) that appeared to be doing yard duties (at least it wasn't sitting all by itself on a side track) in northwest Portland, Oregon.  Its good to see it still pulling tonnage around.

Edited March 5, 2017 by Rotundus