Rock Island (former MILW) U30B

[rock]

At the end of the Milwaukee Road, the Rock Island bought up most of the MILW u-boats (according to my alternate history) to help with the locomotive shortage in the mid-80s. In my 1995 era, most of these have been scrapped, but there are still some U23Bs, U30Bs, U30Cs, and U36Cs left - basically the later built locomotives.

The fleet of 10 U30Bs from Milwaukee Road are half the original phase (like the later U28Bs) and half the phase right after that. The Rock kept the newer half. This style is different from the one that Atlas makes and is similar to their "Phase II" U30C. As I wanted a mostly accurate representation of this locomotive, I decided to buy an extra U30C Phase II hood, cut it down to fit on the U30B and use the rest of the U30B parts. The other difference is the extra box on the engineer's side, behind the cab, that sits on top of the battery boxes. I grabbed this part off one of my spare Proto 2000 U28B shells.

Here is the locomotive after kitbashing and its first paint job:


Next it will get the Rock Island blue/white paint job, but not too heavy as the paint will be gradually fading off at this point.

[mosteam3985]

I love seeing crispy paint lines Eric. Nicely done for sure. The crispy paint is one of my pet peeves. This is pretty cool! Keep Posting!

[rock]

Thanks - I didn't think those lines would come out so well. Maybe because I wasn't trying too hard, they worked out well. But the blue painters tape definitely helps with the lines.

A friend of mine convinced me to go with a Hiawatha scheme on this one, even though that was limited to the MILW SD40-2s. So this will have the Rock Island paint scheme with the Hiawatha logo showing through on the nose.

[m a y o r 79]

Ugh, such a shame to patch out Milwaukee stuff. . Cant wait to see your progress though, its looking good so far.

[rock]

Here's the Hiawatha scheme decals. I left off the Milwaukee logo on the cab sides because it looks like it was a plaque and it would have been removed prior to the Rock Island paint job.

[m a y o r 79]

You are correct Eric, the herald on the cab sides were actually plaque's that would have been removed. If you're not painting over the cab sides, you should mask off the square though before you weather it, since the spot behind the plaque would be noticeably cleaner than the rest of the loco.

They probably would have taken the running Indian off the nose as well, but since it's your "alternate history" you can do whatever you want.

Still think its a shame to patch out a Milwaukee

[rock]

Finally had time to apply the Rock Island blue/white paint on this model. Next up are the decals.

[rock]

Finished!

[icghogger]

Damn, Eric, THAT is Sweet!!

[danielsokyrail]

Awesome job man, great job on capturing the look of the Rock.

[dekon]

Awesome looking!