identify this Athearn SD90MAC frame

[mkl194]

I bought what I thought was a badly damaged SD70ACE in a group of damaged locomotives, but when I went to restore the frame this is what I found:



The shell is so badly damaged and missing parts that I can't really identify it.  It was decorated as a Norfolk Southern unit, but the shell is so filled with different kinds of glue from rubber to Testors that I don't know now what I have.

The mechanism has white driver bars and the fuel tank was white.  It had also been modified poorly and extensively with gobs of goop and cut in many places.  The Cab, brake grid, front and rear pilots all fell off when I put it in Pine Sol.

I'm rebuilding it, but I can't seem to find out anything about the origin of this locomotive.  I know it's Athearn, but don't know when it was produced and can't find the schematics anywhere.  All the metal parts are just fearsomely corroded.

Who can tell me what the story of this frame is?

[NS91]

It looks like it is an old Rail Power frame. Athearn never made an SD90Mac.

[iomalley]

Its probably a Railpower products shell and frame, not Athearn.

www.ppw-aline.com/bdrppsd90.htm

[sgoti]

Feb 26, 2015 15:55:45 GMT -5 iomalley said:

Its probably a Railpower products shell and frame, not Athearn.

It IS a Railpower frame.

[mkl194]

so if it's Railpower Products frame, is there any know way to identify the shell as an SD90MAC? It had some unusual modifications like a shard of a mirror inside the cab and several sections are cut and joined. Based on the different types of glue used, I must conclude that it was a home made kit bash...

[sgoti]

Well, you could go to the link that iomalley provided and see how the shell pictured compares to yours.

If they don't match, without seeing yours, it's anybody's guess as to what it is.

[stevef45]

Post a pic of the shell to see if anyone can help you.

[mkl194]

Here's the shell, too bad it's full of glue and rubber crap everywhere inside and out....

[sgoti]

Here's the link to the RPP SD90MAC shell (from the link given above):

www.ppw-aline.com/images/bodies/546%20rpp%207.jpg

Pretty much a no-brainer. One and the same.

[iomalley]

You may have gone as far as you can go with the stripping, so give it a shot of primer to see what you're left with, whether it can be saved.

Good news is Aline sells just the shells, so you can start with a clean slate!

[mkl194]

The paint is pretty much taken care of, but its the glue that is giving me trouble. I hate waste, and never say die, so like a beat up classic car I'm going to bondo the crap out of this thing and restore it. I'll post the next set of pix when I get to the primer stage...