GP16 from Front Range GP7

[carlmarsico]

Recently started a GP16 from an old Front Range GP7. My camera stopped cooperating with me after I took the pics of the CGW box I'm working on, but the first step was to cut back the battery boxes in front of the cab on both sides of the unit, also behind the cab on the conductor's side of the unit.

Engineer side of prototype:


Conductor side of prototype:


Next steps (in addition to taking pictures) will finishing the walkway/sill portion of the unit, which will involve:
-modifying the skirts over the fuel tank
-filling in the gaps in the sill/walkway
-modifying the battery box sides, which are a removable part on the Front Range GP7. Aside from the portions that were removed, the portions of the battery box ahead of the cab were modernized by SCL during rebuilding, and I'll probably borrow some from a scrap Athearn shell that I already have to keep this a cheap build.

After that, I haven't decided whether I'll tackle the long hood, short hood, or cab next....

CJM

[icghogger]

This looks to be a great project, Carl, keep us posted!

[carlmarsico]

Jul 6, 2011 6:33:58 GMT -5 icghogger said:

This looks to be a great project, Carl, keep us posted!

One thing I found interesting about the GP16 is that pretty much every separable component of the shell will require a bit of surgery, in comparison to a more generic GP rebuild where chopping the nose and modifying/replacing the cab will pretty much wrap up the construction of the unit.

Aside from the obvious need to address the chopped nose and cab, plus the above-referenced modifications to the sill/walkway, the long hood also has some subtle differences that will also require a second long hood to donate a pair of doors.

On the conductor's side of the unit, GP16's have a pair of full height doors (e.g. top of walkway to bottom of radiator) under the front set of radiators where the battery box was formerly located on the model, and as a result, the long hood would have 1 full height door plus one short door that extends from the top of the battery box to the bottom of the radiator.

At this point, it's important to have photos of both sides of the unit to be modeled, as the number of louvers on the pair of doors under the front set of radiators varied between units, and possibly between each side of the unit. I admittedly picked the photos of the 1714 and 1719 at random for the purpose of showing where the battery boxes would be need to be removed, but I have no idea how many louvers would be these doors on the opposite side of each of these units without a picture to back me up.

This is also important before figuring out which model to use as a starting point, or which prototype to select based on the model/shells already on hand - a pair of doors with two louvers per door can be taken from the Front Range GP7, while a pair of doors with one louver per door can be taken from a Front Range GP9. I'll try to take some pics of the Front Range shells I have on hand to better describe this when I get around to taking pictures of the sill/walkway modifications I've done thus far.

CJM

[rf*geep]

I am working on a GP8 from a old Front Range GP7 it looks nice. Can't wait to see your progress!

Sam.