Wisconsin Central SD45s

[lyled1117]

I've got a pair of SD45s that I have brought out in to the light and done some 'modernization' to. They're still in progress but I thought I'd show one of them in progress. Many years ago I saw a pair of patched Wisconsin Central units that inspired me to get a couple of the Kato models and imitate what I had seen. Two of the units were former ATSF SD45s, I used an un-numbered unit to imitate one of them.

I did the painting/patching close to twenty years ago , but recently got inspired to do sound conversion in the two WC units, and that led to modifying them. They're not 100% matches of the real units, but they're close. I had masked off the "Santa Fe" text following the perimeter of the text, very much like I found in a photo of the same unit. Kind of wish I had used a slightly more contrasting color to make it more apparent, but it works as is. The light hits it right and it does contrast. In the intervening years my confidence in doing some of these mods has risen. I removed the footboards, notched the stair well corners, and added ditch lights both ends. Added a speed recorder as well. I will be adding lift rings and with that I'm going to call them complete.

The patch unit as it as presently:




Lyle D

[countryroads]

Looking great Lyle.

I remember all the patch unit's running around here on the BN/BNSF.

[slowfreight]

I remember when WC picked up a stack of those 20-cylinder units from ATSF, including the F45s. ATSF units were always high-mileage but beautifully maintained, and were a great match for the shop forces of Fond du Lac, whose craftsmanship was unmatched anywhere.

What would really bring that unit to life would be to first paint the fuel tank flat black (Rustoleum camouflage from a spray can works well) then mask the grills off and spray dirty brown/black. Next hit it with a flat finish and weather it lightly with thinned oils and powder. It won't be trashed, but the light weathering will pick out all the details.