TE56-4a. (Detroit Mackinac rs 3 rebuild)

[dmfoamer]

Am working on the 974 & 975 and can't figure out what's on the hood between the exhaust stack and the cab. Any help would be awesome

Frank Lovejoy

[jmlaboda]

It appears to simply be a cover for the roof top vents that run along the top...

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Many units had the top vents plated over as they got older, the D&M may have thought that having them open but covered was a better way of doing things but by the time they did 977 that thinking apparently changed, as it did not have this. Modeling should be relatively simple, a piece of styrene cut just a little larger than the vents themselves and wire to create the legs. Definitely a unique detail common only to these two locomotives and one I had not noticed until now.

Its also worth noting that the same was done on DM 1007, an unrebuilt RS3...

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[dmfoamer]

Thanks for the info. The more I look at different pictures, I think you are correct its a solid cover