Locomotive Project #1 - GEXR 3856

GEXR 3856 returns to Stratford with loads from the Hayes-Dana plant in St. Mary's, passing ETR 0-6-0 #9. The engine, the auto frame plant, and even the steamer are now gone from the current GEXR operation. Ian Taylor photo, author's collection. 

One of my favourite things to do in the model railroading hobby is to take locomotives apart and rebuild them into other prototypes or a specific engine I’ve seen. Whether it’s a paint scheme not offered commercially or reworking an existing model for a local prototype, I enjoy both the mechanical work as well as the paint and finishing aspect of redoing an engine. This is the first in what will eventually be a series of the projects I’ve undertaken; I say “undertaken” instead of “completed” since I usually seem to start five projects and complete one before something else catches my interest and I get distracted and put the project on hold. But I digress…

Shortline engines often require some effort to model since the major manufacturers generally don’t offer models decorated for specific shortlines. Likewise, shortline engines often times are rebuilt or modified from factory designs and can be rather unique. One of the local shortlines, the Goderich-Exeter Railway, is a good example of the above point. During the period in which I model them (about 1999-2007-ish), the roster included no less than ten different paint schemes and about as many locomotive models. Similarly, as a Railtex – and later RailAmerica – shortline, units were often traded or swapped among other family roads; this all means that almost none of the units were commercially offered (the exception being FP9u’s 1400 and 1401 by Intermountain).

One of the first units I photographed when I got serious about photography was GEXR 3856, a GP38AC built for the GM&O in August 1969. After a stint as Illinois Central 9539, the engine and a number of its’ siblings were sold to RailAmerica for use on the newly-created New England Central Railway, operating the former Grand Trunk line in its’ namesake territory. As part of the start-up, the engine became NECR 9539 and received a snazzy blue and yellow paint job. After a number of years in New England, the perpetually power-short GEXR received the unit sometime around 1999-2003 (I’ll have to look up the transfer date I suppose) and it was quickly renumbered to GEXR 3856. Not much effort was devoted to the unit at the time, as the New England Central Railway logos on the sides and ends of the locomotive were patched out with the unit otherwise remaining in NECR paint. The unit continued on in service for a number of years until a broken crankshaft sidelined the unit in 2008. The future was looking rather dim for the engine at the time, with GEXR’s track record of consigning broken down units to the deadline in Goderich - a deadline from which several units did not emerge. Fortunately though, the unit was found to be worth salvaging and was sent to another RailAmerica shortline in Ontario, the Southern Ontario Railway, at Hamilton. Once there, several months were spent repairing the prime mover as well as numerous other defects resultant from years of hard work and minimal maintenance. Repairs included a new crankshaft, new horn, new truck frames, a hot-start system, cab metal repairs (corrosion had resulted in holes right through the cab walls), and a general tune-up. The unit was finally completed in January 2010 after which it was tested on SOR for about a week before leaving for the Ottawa Valley Railink, another RailAmerica shortline. The OVR had recently experienced a wreck that left that railroad power-short so north it was for GEXR 3856. At press time, the locomotive is presently at CAD Rail in Montreal receiving upgrades to bring it up to GP38-2 specs. This will likely mean a repaint and a change to the road number and reporting mark as the OVR is now part of the Genessee & Wyoming family. Like a cat with nine lives, hopefully this will keep the old girl around for a while longer. But for now, I’m happy keeping it as it was circa 1999-2007.

Pondering its' fate, GEXR 3856 sits quietly on a side track at Stratford with a broken crankshaft. Author's photo, 7/04/2008. 

A warm autumn afternoon finds GEXR 3856 in the company of ex-CN GP40 RLK 4095. The engine is waiting for parts before repairs commence at the SOR, ex-CN shop building behind the photographer; author's photo. 

Back from the dead, GEXR 3856 gets a break-in switching cars for Bunge with RLK 1755 while RLK 1808 has the morning off. The days on the SOR for each engine are numbered, with the GP20D invasion less than two months away. Author's photo 1/10/2010.

Fortunately for me, Atlas did a run of units painted for the NECR as part of their Master line of engines. Thus, it was a relatively straightforward project to create GEXR 3856. Most of the work related to the units’ external appearance. To begin with, the Atlas paint job was weathered moderately with acrylic paints; the NECR logos on the long hood and nose were patched with yellow and blue paint (Tamiya and True Line Trains respectively), and the can sides were also patched. Decals for “GEXR 3856” were cut from a Microscale alphabet set and applied over the patches; the numberboards were also changed to read 3856. A coat of Testors dullcoat was used to seal everything together. As the Atlas model was already pretty well detailed, very few add-on parts were required. One thing to be added is the rear mini-snowplow (“weedcutter” type by Details West).  Also, the model came from the factory with a fuel tank that was too large for the prototype; a replacement was sourced from the spare parts box, using a smaller Atlas tank that came with an undecorated GP38 engine from another project. One further detail to be modified is the horn; from the Atlas factory, it is located above the cab, but it will need to be moved to the top of the long hood, just forward of the oil bath air filter box. Other details to be added include an amber rotary beacon on the cab roof, and front/rear ditch lights. I plan to experiment with SMD LED’s and acquired some from Germany for use in this and other projects. Hopefully that won’t be too difficult to figure out; we’ll see. As it stands right now, the pain and some mechanical work is done on the model; the lighting and addition of some detail parts still remains, but that shouldn’t take too long to complete. When done, this will give me three GEXR GP38’s, the others being #3835 and 3821. I’ll have to post a group shot once completed.

An in-progress shot of the model shows that the paint work is mostly complete, with several details still to be added including snowplow, ditch lights, rotary beacon, new horn and numberboards. I'll post another photo once it's all back together; this one is taking me almost as long to rebuild as it did in real life, though SOR mechanics did a lot more work to the real thing!

Until then,

Cheers,

Peter.