[MOC] Revising My Old Alco Diesels

[Celeste]

Hello!

Back in 2020, I made a model of an Alco DL535e (With many liberties taken and entire parts of the design changed to look more like a GP-38 or something similar). Recently, I decided to update it and make it closer to the Alco prototype, specifically with the nose and cab. I was relatively happy with the rest of the body save for a few minor tweaks. I also had made a dummy unit for double headers, but with this update, I decided to power it as well. To save you from having to search/read through my old posts, here's a photo of the old 2020 design.

And here is my new design. I changed the base and handrails to match the livery for a new look, but also so I could get a second train base plate (Needed to make the second unit powered) for $1.50 instead of $25. Hey, it was a thrifty change, but I like how it looks more now.

Also, here is a photo of the prototype for reference. It's a decently obscure loco and I did not model it perfectly, but I'll talk about the issues later on.

I feel like I can already predict some reactions regarding the nose design, so I should explain. This is not the original design. I wanted to do warning stripes on the front of the loco and went through many designs and I finally settled on one. Then, I come to find that the 2x2 triangle tile in blue had no listings on BL that would ship to me. So, I slightly changed the design and accomplished the look with a custom sticker. Not the biggest fan of this solution, but I kept the funky design of the nose in case I decide to go back to the old stripe.

This is the current design with the sticker.

And here was the original nose design in Stud.io. It kind of looks like the engine has a moustache, I had to admit, but I found that aspect rather charming.

Unlike the old model, I put a little detail in the cab. Nothing to write home about, but I do like seeing a minifig behind the controls through the glass. 

And since I have two of them, here's a photo of them in the double header formation. This is likely how I'll run them most of the time.

Now, to mention the issues. For starters, keen eyed readers or anyone with knowledge of these locos will note that the bogies are completely wrong. My models are 4 axle, standard gauge locos, while the prototype is narrow gauge and has 6 axles. I wanted to run these with my regular trains, hence making them standard gauge. In terms of the axles, I would love to make these 6 axle, but I can't think up of a compact, powered 3 axle bogie design. I don't want to go to using regular, non-train motors, but I may have to experiment with them in the future.

Besides that, there are many other inaccuracies compared to the prototype, such as a missing side door, vent locations, and handrails (though I kind of like the chunky, old school look of these ones), among many others. However, I'm okay with those for the moment since the locos aren't even the right gauge or wheel configuration. Because of this, they're "DL535e adjacent" in my mind and I've started calling them DL540s. In reality, there's no such thing, but a little imagination and making stuff up never hurt any toy trains, right?

Overall, I think these are an improvement over my old design and I think it shows how much I've grown as a builder since the start of the pandemic. As per usual, feedback is welcome and I have uploaded the Stud.io file to my bricksafe page. If you would like to take a look at the model, tinker with it, or even build it yourself, please feel free. If you do tinker or build, please post it here, as I'd love to see it. Thanks for looking!

Link to my Stud.io Models folder. Make sure to click on the new "2024 DL540" file as the "2020 DL535e" file is still on there.

 

[JopieK]

Very nice @Legownz! Thanks for sharing. 

[Darkkostas25]

They got quite unique appearance, love yours's color palate!  

[Murdoch17]

It's not often we see White Pass and Yukon MOCs around Train Tech! I really like the color scheme (it actually looks better than the prototype's colors!) and I love the original mustache look - it's a shame the blue parts aren't available to you to make it real!

[Feuer Zug]

Good work on these ALCo units. The nose looks pretty good either way.

[Celeste]

19 hours ago, JopieK said:

Very nice @Legownz! Thanks for sharing. 

Thank you!

13 hours ago, Darkkostas25 said:

They got quite unique appearance, love yours's color palate!  

I agree, they are certainly one of a kind. I'm personally a big fan of the vent boxes sticking up past the roof. And the color palette is to match the rest of the locos from my fictitious railroad company fleet. Originally chose the colors for part availability and price, but I've grown quite fond of it as time has gone on!

8 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

It's not often we see White Pass and Yukon MOCs around Train Tech! I really like the color scheme (it actually looks better than the prototype's colors!) and I love the original mustache look - it's a shame the blue parts aren't available to you to make it real!

Yeah! I was surprised to find not many people have modeled this locomotive. It seems like they barely even get called by their name even by people who own the LGB G scale versions of it. Thank you for the compliment on the colors! I admit, sometimes I worry about constantly using the same livery for all my trains, but I do really think it looks nice. Also, I believe a few of the prototypes wore blue and white liveries, though it's hard to find photos of them. I found this PDF with decent photos of the two liveries on pages 16 and 18. I couldn't get the photos out of the document, so apologizes for linking the whole thing. Maybe one day, I'll try and replicate these liveries more closely just for the fun of it.
 

And I'm glad you also like the moustache look! I'm going to order the parts as soon as I can and make it so I can switch out the designs with ease. 

8 hours ago, Feuer Zug said:

Good work on these ALCo units. The nose looks pretty good either way.

Thank you! I agree they both look good. I think when I get super focused on one detail, I have to make it absolutely perfect and ignore the fact that many solutions can look good.