AT&SF diesel A & B units (Warbonnet & Bluebonnet) MOD of a

[Murdoch17]

(Thanks to raven1280 for the inspiration to create this model.)

These Electro-Motive Division F7 diesel units are painted in the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe (AT&SF) Warbonnet & Bluebonnet color schemes. They are based off of set number 10200 (Santa Fe Super Chief) and fellow Eurobricks user raven1280's Bluebonnet MOD with a couple of my own twists inserted in some places. For example, instead of using custom stickers for the windscreen and porthole windows, I'm using regular Lego parts. Also, the undercarriage is black (not gray) on the bluebonnet engine because of this photo:

https://farm3.static...951e1b39f_z.jpg

The rear of the locos feature the booster units, or B units, as they are sometimes called. The B units feature through crew walkways to the cab unit. Neither the A or B units contain interiors.

LDD file: http://www.mocpages....1405274343m.lxf

Please see the inspiration for this MOC / MOD at this topic here: http://www.eurobrick...81#entry1936703

What do you think of my MOD of a MOD?

EDIT:

Reworked some things and gave it a back-story.

Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe 302 is one of a very rare breed. Built in August 1949 as a “A” (cab) and “B” (booster) F7 diesel unit for the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF), This Electro-Motive Division (EMD) product was painted in a variant of the famous Warbonnet (red,yellow and silver) color scheme called Bluebonnet (blue yellow and silver). The engine was intended for freight service and did so faithfully for 28 years. In late 1977 the two unit set was on the short list for conversion to an CF7 hood unit when the Wabash Frisco & Pacific (or WF&P for short) went looking for a engine to pull it's recently refurbished Merrimack River Runner. The Santa Fe gave them a two-for-one special on the tired F7 units, with the WF&P buying the A unit and getting the B for free. The new owner realized the historic meaning of this deal more than the old owner did: this was one of the last bluebonnet engines left, and one of a handful of AT&SF F7's not converted to the horrid looking CF7 hood unit. Needless to say, the WF&P snapped up the offer, and even set the loco to the EMD La Grange, Illinois assembly plant for the motor to be replaced with a newer, more powerful and easier-to-maintain power plant. The units came back to the WF&P in 1979, and have since been teamed up with the recently restored Southern Pacific Daylight 4460 (owned by the St. Louis-based National Transportation Museum) for trips up and around WF&P system.

Builders notes:

Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe 302 really existed, but I have no idea what it was painted. It was probably either scrapped or converted to a CF7 hood unit along with most of the other F7 locos.

The number I used came from the LEGO set number 10020, which uses number 301 for it's Warbonnet painted loco. I wanted this to a be a brother loco, so I used the next one up: 302.

The Wabash Frisco & Pacific is a real 12 inch gauge steam railway based in Glencoe, MO. For my purposes they have been turned into a "real" railway.

The Merrimack River Runner is a copy of the Missouri River Runner, a real Amtrak train starting from St. Louis and ending in Kansas City before reversing course and going back to St. Louis with some stops in between both cities. The train cars are based on a real WF&P passenger car paint scheme.

The Southern Pacific 4460 really exists, but has not steamed since 1959. It is located in St. Louis MO at the real-life Transportation Museum.

Edited July 21, 2014 by Murdoch17

[jimmynick]

Yeah, these are pretty nice update of the 10020 using modern parts. Could you do something about the paint job, where it gets really pointy as on the original set? From what I can see on the internet, that's really supposed to be semicircular. See:

Also, the same picture above doesn't indicate any overhang of the roof over the windscreen. Is there another solution you could try to make the model more like the prototype?

[Murdoch17]

Yeah, these are pretty nice update of the 10020 using modern parts. Could you do something about the paint job, where it gets really pointy as on the original set? From what I can see on the internet, that's really supposed to be semicircular. See:

--SNIP--

Also, the same picture above doesn't indicate any overhang of the roof over the windscreen. Is there another solution you could try to make the model more like the prototype?

The actual model only has 1/2 stud overhang in the corners of the windscreen... it is a curved screen below a rectangular roof plate after all. Also, I'm tinkering with adding a new-ish part to the model: the yellow stripe on the cowl under the headlight using this part in yellow:

(pic from BrickLink)

It was not created in yellow until 2012, and would look very nice instead of a sticker (like the original set had). By the way, those semicircles on the sides were (in my opinion) recreated very nicely on the original set. That's why I left them alone.

Any other thoughts / complaints / compliments?

Edited July 14, 2014 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

(sorry for the double post!)

Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe 302 is one of a very rare breed. Built in August 1949 as a “A” (cab) and “B” (booster) F7 diesel unit for the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF), This Electro-Motive Division (EMD) product was painted in a variant of the famous Warbonnet (red,yellow and silver) color scheme called Bluebonnet (blue yellow and silver). The engine was intended for freight service and did so faithfully for 28 years. In late 1977 the two unit set was on the short list for conversion to an CF7 hood unit when the Wabash Frisco & Pacific (or WF&P for short) went looking for a engine to pull it's recently refurbished Merrimack River Runner. The Santa Fe gave them a two-for-one special on the tired F7 units, with the WF&P buying the A unit and getting the B for free. The new owner realized the historic meaning of this deal more than the old owner did: this was one of the last bluebonnet engines left, and one of a handful of AT&SF F7's not converted to the horrid looking CF7 hood unit. Needless to say, the WF&P snapped up the offer, and even set the loco to the EMD La Grange, Illinois assembly plant for the motor to be replaced with a newer, more powerful and easier-to-maintain power plant. The units came back to the WF&P in 1979, and have since been teamed up with the recently restored Southern Pacific Daylight 4460 (owned by the St. Louis-based National Transportation Museum) for trips up and around WF&P system.

Builders notes:

Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe 302 really existed, but I have no idea what it was painted. It was probably either scrapped or converted to a CF7 hood unit along with most of the other F7 locos.

The number I used came from the LEGO set number 10020, which uses number 301 for it's Warbonnet painted loco. I wanted this to a be a brother loco, so I used the next one up: 302.

The Wabash Frisco & Pacific is a real 12 inch gauge steam railway based in Glencoe, MO. For my purposes they have been turned into a "real" railway.

The Merrimack River Runner is a copy of the Missouri River Runner, a real Amtrak train starting from St. Louis and ending in Kansas City before reversing course and going back to St. Louis with some stops in between both cities. The train cars are based on a real WF&P passenger car paint scheme.

The Southern Pacific 4460 really exists, but has not steamed since 1959. It is located in St. Louis MO at the real-life Transportation Museum.

Edited July 21, 2014 by Murdoch17

[raven1280]

Very nice!

[Bamos]

There was also a set of A-B-B-A Yellow Bonnets built in 1953 for the "Texas Chief".

Bill

[Murdoch17]

@Raven1280: Thank you, it was your model that inspired this.

@Bamos: Thanks! Then I guess I'll have to build some cars like these:

The original Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe (known as the Santa Fe) Super Chief trains cars from the early 2000's were looking a little dated, so I redid them. I added Emerald Night style doors, removed the expensive roof slopes, and added a rear platform instead of the (extremely costly) curved window glass.

Here we see the 2014 Super Chief hooked up to my Bluebonnet EMD F7 diesel units.

Here we see the baggage car with it's double set of Emerald Night doors.

This is the first time I used this corner tile part ( http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=14719 ) and i think it works great for observation car platforms.

Oh, and I updated the picture of the F7 from a couple posts up.

[Murdoch17]

UPDATE:

The LDD file for the Super Chief with updated Bluebonnet F7 is available at this link here: http://www.mocpages.com/user_images/80135/1406311065m.lxf

[UrbanErwin]

I like the bluebonnet very much, I am only wondering why you didn't change the roof on the wagons, it looks out of style with the engine.

[Akeyzerr]

...I added Emerald Night style doors, removed the expensive roof slopes, and added a rear platform instead of the (extremely costly) curved window glass...

I like the bluebonnet very much, I am only wondering why you didn't change the roof on the wagons, it looks out of style with the engine.

@UrbanErwin - Even the cheaper version of these slopes will rise the overall cost significantly.

@Murdoch17 - Thank you very much for these great mods! I've actually build the earlier incarnation and it looks great out of LDD.

[Murdoch17]

@UrbanErwin: It's cheaper this way, plus in real life the engine and cars came from different manufacturers, so they wouldn't be exactly the same. If you wanted to, you could change it, that's the beauty of Lego.

@Akeyzerr: You are welcome, and please post some pics!

Edited July 27, 2014 by Murdoch17