Chop-nose GP7

[Rudy Garbely]

This is a pair of old Atlas GP7's lettered for my freelanced Hudson & Maine.

The #16 is a fairly straightforward superdetailed Atlas model. The #12 is an Atlas model that I chop nosed, removed the dynamics, and added an Athearn dash 2 cab to.

i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd334/therudycometh/Model Pictures/4b55483c.jpg[/IMG]

i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd334/therudycometh/Model Pictures/80b9241b.jpg[/IMG]
i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd334/therudycometh/Model Pictures/27bd1913.jpg[/IMG]
i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd334/therudycometh/Model Pictures/8702064a.jpg[/IMG]

The idea was that the H&M started a rebuild program in the early- to mid-1970's, much like the Santa Fe or Western Maryland. The 16 has yet to be rebuilt.

[Randy Earle]

They make an interesting contrast to each other. I plan on building a low nose N&W SD40-2 to go along with my high nose version some day.

[Smoke]

For some reason, chopped nose GP/SD7/9's look cool, and these are no exception. Out of curiosity, how do you go about chopping a nose like that and making it look acceptable?

[Rudy Garbely]

I removed the doors from the side of the short hood. I then just made two very straight cuts to remove a section of the short hood and glued the top back on. As I recall, this one didn't take much body putty. As long as the cuts are straight, the top of the hood should just drop back on to the bottom section. I then sanded off the bolted-on plate on the top of the short hood to make it look as though it was newly fabricated from sheet metal rather than the original hood.

The cab was easy enough because I replaced the Atlas cab with an Athearn dash 2 cab. I just sawed the battery boxes off the Atlas cab and grafted the Athearn cab to them. It was a tad longer than the Atlas cab front to back, so I had to file the back of the short hood a smidge to make it fit.

[johnnetzlof]

Sweet deal, I chopped the nose on an Atlas unit that exact way. It's waiting for paint now.

[RunningExtra]

Somehow I missed this when you originally posted it, great job

[mrlfan]

You did a great job on these. Love the paint scheme. Glenn

[icghogger]

Excellent Work, Rudy!

[RunningExtra]

Should get Superfleet (Perry) to do an article on the Santa Fe chops!!