VIA F 40PH-2

[beentherecnthat]

I put these here as VIA's F 40's are late builds (1987, 1989) with all the features of GP 50's and 60's (Q fans, late Blomberg M sideframes). They are built from Walthers units with P2K trucks. I used the Walthers because 1) at the time I bought these, Kato hadn't done an F 40 yet (how embarrassing is it that I have had them that long!) and 2) the separate fuel tank casting made for easier mods to match VIA which has the fuel tank in the middle, whereas Amtrak has either front or rear. The battery box and sander access doors were modded using styrene and Sunrise Enterprises latches, side access door relocated and the units were detailed to match VIA (fans, exhaust, winter hatch headlights, ditch lights, class lights, HEP connections antennae etc.)





If you look close, you will notice 'corrugated' brass tubing in the underframe. I don't know what it does, but it appearred on photos of the units so here is a modellers tip: Find a friend with a guitar and ask for his/her old strings when he/she replaces them! They work great for simulating wrapped or corrugated pipes, they're free and they come in various sizes.

Painting will wait for the spring as my spray booth is in an unheated garage.

Mike

[sd50f]

Beautiful. I'm doing one of those once I get done with a few of my other projects.

Can't wait to see it painted.

timothy dineen

[DRGW 5398]

Very nice, those look awesome! Looking forward to seeing them painted!

[railfanalex]

Great project! I wanted to do one of these, but was unsure how to do the fuel tank modifications. This is great inspiration!

[Randy Earle]

Wow! Look at that! I never really cared for units like this, but you really make them look interesting. I think Jerry Jacboson the former owner of the Ohio Central has one of these in on his roster.

[DRLOCO]

About that F40m shown above--it's a tad different than the GMDD built Via F40PH's. You'll note that it has a fabricated front "freight" pilot. Amtrak's Beech Grove (Indianapolis, Indiana) shops modified several F's during the mid 1990's when they were first getting Genesis power, and the F's were just sitting around. It was decided to lease them to freight railroads. This was back during the heady days of the UP-SP meltdowns, then the BN-ATSF merger, and finally the Conrail takeover debacle
I think this modification was a concession to the freight railroads, who were a bit leery of a freight crew attempting to board a locomotive or "hop on" while switching using only the side-stirrup steps (which are easy to put your foot through and end up hitting the truck--I speak from experience on that one).
They modified them by moving the nose back, and making a front walk pilot out of the frame. they also added a door to enter the cab..although you hadto go through the toilet to get to the cab this way...It was very much like the modifications that Santa Fe made to their ex-Amtrak F45's.
This engine still has it's Canadian-American Railroad paint. I think they ended up having 8 of these at one time.
Several are still around--I think Iowa Northern (The raiload that Dan Savin owns) has these former OHCR ones.
Somewhere, I have print photos (wasn't taking slides back then, dumb I know) of these AMTK engines on both the UP as freight power, and outshopped by Amtrak and being delivered to the CDAC.

nice work on those VIA F40's BTW...i'll take 1! any thought about doing the ones that are being rebuilt? they have enclosed the rear platform another headlight, and 2 separate airhorns!
www.canadianrailwayobservations.com/2009/9/6457.htm

[Randy Earle]

I see that freight pilot now, thanks for the info Kris, the F40M would be an interesting unit to model also, especially the nose job.

[beentherecnthat]

Kris,

The recent VIA rebuild are too new for my era (late 90's), as are the Genesis units. Thi also means I can avoid all the one -off mods that VIA started doing on the F40's: weird horns, third headlight etc.)

Randy,
As for the F40m, they were built for Amtrak originally, so the fuel tank relocation that I did wouldn't be necessary, although they seem to have a different, larger fuel tank, I guess to make them more suitable to freight service.

[garyrsatx]

Those look very nice!

[KCSRailfan]

Nice units.

[spud7378]

very nice! what did you use for the HEP connections? are they scratch built or a detail part you can get?