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Bottineau Farmers Elevator, Bottineau, North Dakota

BN #2175

Burlington Northern #2175 is an ex-Conrail GP38X, and is merely a stand-in for an unidentified BN GP38 that brought the train shown on these pages into town. When I first heard a train pulling into town that July morning, I ran to the tracks with my camera, loaded it, and began firing. Being the great experienced photographer I am, I didn't realize that the film extending out from the canister once loaded in the camera is exposed. So, my first two shots of this BN locomotive and its EMDX counterpart were of course totally overexposed and worthless.

However, lack of prototype information won't keep me down! I purchased a factory painted Atlas GP38 and added the details necessary to date it to 1991 and weathered it according to photos of contemporary units photographed in the same region. Here's the model thus far, though let's face it, none of my models are ever complete -- they're just waiting for more attention:

EMDX #765

EMDX #765 was actually not a very difficult model to do. I made my first attempt at modeling it shortly after my second quarter of college in Georgia. I found an Athearn GP38-2 in Conrail paint at a little hobby shop in Lagrange, GA for pretty cheap, took it home and tried wiping out the lettering as best I could with a drafting eraser. It didn't work out too well, so I applied patches of gray paint and applied decals from a Microscale MP15DC Demo set. It was pretty far from correct, but it was closer than the factory paint. Of course, once I moved back to Texas and started becoming nostalgic for the near-death experiences of kudzu-covered grade crossings in western Georgia, I stripped it and gave it a new lease on life as Southern GP38-2 5166.

My second attempt was made last year and resulted in this model. I found the factory painted Athearn shell at the Holiday Train Show in Fort Worth, Texas on a rack for something like five bucks. I grabbed it and another random powered GP38-2 and took it to the vendor. He offered to put the EMDX shell on the model and repackage whatever shell was on the locomotive, saving me a few bucks, so I said "okay" and paid the man.

I had quite a bit of technical help on this model from my Conrail-modeling friend Patrick Welch and plenty of folks on the RPM yahoo forum who fielded my many questions. Those little lollipop extensions on the cut levers were made from globs of CA on wire which is mounted to the pilot face. I'm pretty sure the front plow is wrong, but I had it on hand so I used it.

BN #1419 and BN #1902

What I know about these locomotives I learned from asking on Andy Harman's D-List. Several people offered information on these locomotives, but Steve Haas gave me a pretty thorough run-down of what I need to do to build them:

BN 1419 was originally GN 619 built 10/50. In the 77-80 BN annual it is classified as a GP7u upgraded to 1800 hp.

Modeling this one would be quite interesting:

*Long Hood - I'd start with a P2K GP7 Phase I (note the "straps").
1) Remove the set of louvers under the "4" in '1419" and the matching set on the other side.
2) Add the extra door behind the first set of grills (high up)
3) Stack modifications - note the 4 stacks
4) Scratch build the square weatherization hatch

*Cab - from a short hood GP18 or 20 - work will be needed on the front windows - P2K has a single wide window above the cab, 1419 appears to have two windows over the low hood, separated by a center post (Didn't Des Plaines or someone make a part/mini-kit for this feature?

*Short Hood - _appears_ to be flat, not sloped like the factory short hood - cut down the short hood from the GP7 and remove details as necessary.

*Frame - Start with P2K GP18 (GP20 would be an option but there's additional filling involved).
1) Remove Louvers from the battery boxes
2) Note that there are two battery box doors under the cab - none of the P2K models have this feature - depending on the degree of masachism you prefer, you could replace one knuckle buster with two and scribe the one door into two
3) Fuel and air tanks - P2K GP30 looks like the closest
4) Add the additional step on each corner of the engine.
5) Straighten out the side of the frame, taking care to leave the fuel filler and the (site glass?).

There's probably more that I've missed - perhaps someone who really knows what they're talking about can step in and correct any errors or omissions.

BN 1902 and BN 1913 are former NP engines, from NP series 317 - 344 built 8/57 according to the BN Annual.

From the pictures of 1913 - Above the walkway it's a Phase II GP9 including the single battery box louver forward of the cab

Below the cab the P2K Phase III GP9 has the right frame configuration, but the wrong battery box louvers.

The problem is the battery boxes are an integral part of the walkway/frame. If you are really good at removing and adding louvers, I might go with the Phase III frame and rework the louvers. If not, you can move the fuel filler on the Phase II and rework the rest of the frame profile.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!!

Best regards,

Steve Haas
Sammamish, WA

That was written February 2004, so sorry to say, it hasn't turned out at all yet! However, I have actually purchased the model that will become #1902, so at least that's a start. Here are a couple prototype photos taken a couple days before I left the first week of August, 1991:

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This page was modified on July 31, 2005

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