Post by CP_8530 on Jul 5, 2012 0:51:00 GMT -5
A friend was browsing an LHS last week and came upon an old Quebec, North Shore & Labrador GP7 done by Life-Like/Hobbycraft about a decade ago. I was planning to do a PNC (Precision National Corp) leaser to run with some 70's CP power for a while now, and this offered the perfect opportunity.
Background
An outfit called Bellequip (some say a bunch of CPR managers testing the waters for their own leasing) purchased a bunch of ex-QNSL GP7 & 9's in the early 1970's as they were being replaced with SD40's. Those Geeps (in 3 distinct paint scheme variations) were relettered with Bellequip lettering and numbers in the CP Helvettica font, and leased to power-short CP. BQ sold the units off to PNC about a year or two later, and most had the Bellequip lettering painted out and patched with PNC in the CP block or Helvettica font (probably depended on the shop that did them). Most went off-lease in 1976 as new SD40-2's came online and many were resold to C&NW who rebuilt them for further service (groups of the C&NW 4300's and 4500's).
I have a few photos of the PNC units saved on my PC, but they are somewhat hard to come by online to link. The scheme I'm doing the PNC unit in is:
www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/shortlines/BQ.htmwww.ebay.ca/itm/310394095898
Model
This is what I call doing a "quickie", i.e. not 100% correct but a good representation, basically taking a factory-painted model and modifying it. I didn't want to hack up the carbody and paint-match to install the correct 2x2 GP9-style louvres that QNSL seemed to refit to all their GP7's when rebuilt, nor mess with that #1 engineroom door they also modified, cut down or replaced on certain units.
Here's the starting point: stock P2K unit, QNSL 115, from an early 2000's run of LL GP7's. Whatever cracked axle gears it had were replaced at the LHS. Holes were drilled and the stock winterization hatch was installed. As you can see, already some of the lettering has been removed, and the numberboards taken out for stripping.
The first step turning it into a PNC lease unit was removing the old numbers and lettering by hand. This was done using the "Gojo method" of applying some of that Gojo orange cleaner to the number/lettering, waiting for a bit, and lightly scrubbing the number area with a toothpick. If you let that stuff sit on long enough (replenish if it dries up) and scrub every so often, the numbers will eventually come off.
Once done, the area on the hood was masked off for patching, a custom white-yellow paint was mixed (using TLT paints) to get that lighter shade, then airbrushed on along with a quick shot of gloss for decal application (ironically enough, the CP diesel yellow I initially used was almost identical to the QNSL stripe, spraying that on resulted in an almost identical yet incorrect patch!).
I decided on doing PNC 122, as I had a few shots of it and it was one of the few still in that as-delivered scheme that got the block relettering.
Relettering the model involved cutting out and applying a total of 24 decals by hand. Sourced from Microscale CP sets, the later style Helvettica black numbers were used for the cab and the "PNC" was done with early roman block letters (I compromised by using maroon lettering I had on hand instead of black lettering).
Each was gone over with decal-setting solution to remove any bubbles, then the areas were masked off again and flat clear was airbrushed on to seal them.
The patching went something like:
Each end numberboard (4 total) was stripped in alcohol, painted gloss black, renumbered with the tiny 1 and 2's and clear coated with Microscale flat.
A tricky test was rebuilding the stock P2K Leslie S3-style horn into the proper Airchime M3H with all bells forward (none at the LHS, and I've been wanted to try this for a bit now). The middle of each of the bells was drilled through with a #77 bit (for reassembly), cut off, cut down/modified/reshaped, and assembled back together on the mount with CA glue and steel wire.
(Yes, these were both identical at one point):
![]()
www.hostovsky.com/~mrdan/models/PNC_GP7/PNC122_horn.jpg [/img]
To finish it off:
-The handrail stanchions were repainted with a custom mix of grey, with black on parts on the frames.
-The rear brake stand was also painted grey (previously black plastic).
-Some Kadee #5's that were lying around were added (#58's at a later date).
-The exhaust stacks were cut out, holes drilled and Miniatures by Eric CN-style spark arrestors installed on the roof.
-The tall P2K MU plug stands were modified and added at the ends (cutting them shorter, and turning the top plug into a square recepticle).
There's still a bit of (mostly electrical) work to do under the hood (lighting when I get some 12/16v bulbs) but PNC 122 is basically finished. It's already got some time doing laps with some other CP 70's Geeps to break it in.
Background
An outfit called Bellequip (some say a bunch of CPR managers testing the waters for their own leasing) purchased a bunch of ex-QNSL GP7 & 9's in the early 1970's as they were being replaced with SD40's. Those Geeps (in 3 distinct paint scheme variations) were relettered with Bellequip lettering and numbers in the CP Helvettica font, and leased to power-short CP. BQ sold the units off to PNC about a year or two later, and most had the Bellequip lettering painted out and patched with PNC in the CP block or Helvettica font (probably depended on the shop that did them). Most went off-lease in 1976 as new SD40-2's came online and many were resold to C&NW who rebuilt them for further service (groups of the C&NW 4300's and 4500's).
I have a few photos of the PNC units saved on my PC, but they are somewhat hard to come by online to link. The scheme I'm doing the PNC unit in is:
www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/shortlines/BQ.htmwww.ebay.ca/itm/310394095898
Model
This is what I call doing a "quickie", i.e. not 100% correct but a good representation, basically taking a factory-painted model and modifying it. I didn't want to hack up the carbody and paint-match to install the correct 2x2 GP9-style louvres that QNSL seemed to refit to all their GP7's when rebuilt, nor mess with that #1 engineroom door they also modified, cut down or replaced on certain units.
Here's the starting point: stock P2K unit, QNSL 115, from an early 2000's run of LL GP7's. Whatever cracked axle gears it had were replaced at the LHS. Holes were drilled and the stock winterization hatch was installed. As you can see, already some of the lettering has been removed, and the numberboards taken out for stripping.
The first step turning it into a PNC lease unit was removing the old numbers and lettering by hand. This was done using the "Gojo method" of applying some of that Gojo orange cleaner to the number/lettering, waiting for a bit, and lightly scrubbing the number area with a toothpick. If you let that stuff sit on long enough (replenish if it dries up) and scrub every so often, the numbers will eventually come off.
Once done, the area on the hood was masked off for patching, a custom white-yellow paint was mixed (using TLT paints) to get that lighter shade, then airbrushed on along with a quick shot of gloss for decal application (ironically enough, the CP diesel yellow I initially used was almost identical to the QNSL stripe, spraying that on resulted in an almost identical yet incorrect patch!).
I decided on doing PNC 122, as I had a few shots of it and it was one of the few still in that as-delivered scheme that got the block relettering.
Relettering the model involved cutting out and applying a total of 24 decals by hand. Sourced from Microscale CP sets, the later style Helvettica black numbers were used for the cab and the "PNC" was done with early roman block letters (I compromised by using maroon lettering I had on hand instead of black lettering).
Each was gone over with decal-setting solution to remove any bubbles, then the areas were masked off again and flat clear was airbrushed on to seal them.
The patching went something like:
Each end numberboard (4 total) was stripped in alcohol, painted gloss black, renumbered with the tiny 1 and 2's and clear coated with Microscale flat.
A tricky test was rebuilding the stock P2K Leslie S3-style horn into the proper Airchime M3H with all bells forward (none at the LHS, and I've been wanted to try this for a bit now). The middle of each of the bells was drilled through with a #77 bit (for reassembly), cut off, cut down/modified/reshaped, and assembled back together on the mount with CA glue and steel wire.
(Yes, these were both identical at one point):
To finish it off:
-The handrail stanchions were repainted with a custom mix of grey, with black on parts on the frames.
-The rear brake stand was also painted grey (previously black plastic).
-Some Kadee #5's that were lying around were added (#58's at a later date).
-The exhaust stacks were cut out, holes drilled and Miniatures by Eric CN-style spark arrestors installed on the roof.
-The tall P2K MU plug stands were modified and added at the ends (cutting them shorter, and turning the top plug into a square recepticle).
There's still a bit of (mostly electrical) work to do under the hood (lighting when I get some 12/16v bulbs) but PNC 122 is basically finished. It's already got some time doing laps with some other CP 70's Geeps to break it in.
