Chuck

GP40...Glad I bought it for cheap as what a lot of work...but I enjoy it! Completely disassemble and strip off all the old paint as multi-coats of thick spray can paints. Even stripped and repainted cab interior as it was all black? Somebody hacked cab front and installed a USAT GP30 number board housing. Roof fans were hacked, front and rear sills had home made steps and were all busted up and sort of re-glued. No grills for either radiators or diesel air intake. Luckily I have an old SD45 that's a parts donor. So tonight I'm this far along. Start making decals tomorrow.

Well another year has rolled by and still no Accucraft/ AML EMD GP60/GP60M. 14 years and counting...

Yes Nick that Mike does well on steam and can hear why sounds are off!

Looking good & running good!

I installed RailPro into 3 engines right now and can switch between track or battery power. I gave RailPro a chance about 2 years ago and wasn't impressed with the input power ratings. The prior version LM-3S-G decoder had a max. input rating of 24V DC and that sucked. I even spoke with somebody at Ring and was told absolutely do not power it over 24V DC. I explained that some large scale engines need at least 24V - 30V to really get into the higher prototypical track speeds as my layout rail power supplies are set at 30V. And if using say 24V Li-On batteries their max charge is 29 almost 30V. He didn't like that. Well I guess enough of us complained to Ring and the new LM-4S-G decoder has a max input power rating of 30V. Now I'm happy with them even though some of the soundfiles are pretty crappy. The E7 & 8 sounds should have 2 engines starting and the steam chuffs sound like pink noise...static. No articulated sounds of the double chuffs falling in and out of sync and not capable of driving a smoke unit is a negative for me. So I'll stick with RailPro in a few diesels so I can run a train on dead rail and stick with MTH PS3 in all other engines...and those can be battery powered too! Recent Aristo MRL SD45 RailPro installation of mine. Number 351 I recently painted and made decals for.

If the MTH GG1 is equipped with the operating Proto-Coupler a Kadee G Gauge coupler will work with that.

Yeah those billboard reefers I'm very well aware of. I was curious about USA Trains advertising themselves using the Ultimate Series rolling stock.

@trainman605 Your trains are looking good! The "Bumble Bee" paint reminds me of a day when I was visiting St. Aubin standing at the check out counter when one of the phone sales rep. Dale proclaimed "I just sold a Bumble Bee!". That place was big with only a handful of people working there. It had to be big because the size of the trains and all the stock they had.

Nick, Great pics! How did you ever stage them to all be standing in the stalls like that??!! Sean, Nice!

Hi Jan, Nice pics of some hard workers! Yes the early and late version MTH wheels. The early version really soaks up the paint when I paint them black. Plastic bushings/ cones is an idea but seems that causes out of round wheels when not "perfect". Here's my latest MRL project. Take this... Paint and decorate into this....

Sean, Thanks! Jan, I never seen a GP40 drive before. Interesting design! My GP 40 came with the older FA style drives along with Alco frames.. I wonder why Aristo decided against using the already made 2 axle drive?? I mean wheelbase difference between the Alco and EMD trucks is minimal? I do remember the original Aristo drives had wrong motors installed so they supplied updated drives. I ordered the correct Bloomberg truck frames from Charles Ro/ USA Trains. Here's what my GP 40 was fitted with.... Here's the Aristo stainless steel wheels that they made...look a bit like the wheels you machined??!!

Jan, These with the stainless steel wheels were a very good idea but designed poorly. The flanges are smaller and when operated on a less than perfect outdoor layout they'd jump the track. So folks thought "just swap the wheels" but that doesn't work. The axles are shorter so the thick original wheels hit the gearcase before they snug up on the axles. RLD sold these drives for like $29 each and people bought them for the motors. I got a bunch of drives with no motors cheap so I bought some motors and machined some brass hex rod for couplings. They work fine on my indoor layout. Yeah, I've machined quite a few of the original wheels, forgot how much material I removed from the back side. Heck the first Dash-9 I ever bought derailed when going thru an Aristo #6 switch because backspace was so tight. Aristo-Craft the half-assed company...make a beautiful model then use hot glue to hold in the circuit boards and lights. Make a track gauge that doesn't fit on their factory OEM track. Make a nice ball bearing gear case but cast the axles in soft brass so the ball bearing races wear down the axles just to save a few bucks on machining. Oh that MRL GP40 may just be a remote control locomotive for yard use. Chuck

Hi Jan, Hope all is well with you and yours in Germany! The wheels you inquired about are different than the usual Aristo wheels as they're made out of stainless steel. Aristo made a bunch of 3 axle replacement drives with them but they didn't sell. Reasons for the RailPro decoder. I've always tried and played with new control systems over the years and wanted to have some battery powered engines and RailPro seemed to be the right product and the right time for me. Chuck

The Montana Rail Link Railroad (MRL) is soon to become another fallen flag railroad. Their 35 year lease from the BNSF is soon to expire and they decided not to renew. I always admired them for the scenery that they travel thru and the nice blue locomotives, rolling stock & they even use a caboose every now and then. Last August I acquired a like new in the box Aristo-Craft SD45 painted in MRL livery for a decent price. I have a pair of old beater SD45's in the grey, yellow and red Seaboard System paint scheme. When I mean fairly complete models with some detail parts missing and no drive blocks. So I stripped the paint off of one and painted into MRL blue and black to match the Aristo version. Number 356 is the Aristo factory painted version and 351 is the one I painted using Tru-Color Wabash Blue as their MRL blue was a bit lighter than what Aristo used and I wanted these units to closely match in hue. and lettered myself. The diagonal stripes on sides are painted on. The white horizontal safety stripes are just plain white laser decal paper. The 351, Montana and Rail Link are decals I made. Builders plate was Aristo's as it's just a decal that can be carefully removed and re-applied. Dupli-Color Matte Clear is what I use for final coat. Nose Chevron stripes are painted and the red circle and number boards are my decals. I haven't installed the air hoses yet as I'm waiting for some snowplows and ditch light housings as hoping Bachamann makes those parts and sells them when the Dash-9's appear. Rear of units and once again Montana, Rail Link red circle and number boards are decals I printed here at home. I installed a RailPro decoder along with changing all lights over to Led's. I like nice & clean installs as have all necessary plugs, receptacles, contacts, different colored wiring in various sizes and contact crimpers. If I don't have it I'll order it in from either DigiKey or Mouser. 3.5" diameter speaker in fuel tank and this thing is loud with 14 watts feeding it sound. I much prefer using round speakers over the cheap oval ones that Aristo uses. I mean how many oval speakers do you see in home stereo cabinets or pro-audio??...none. I recently bought a Aristo GP40 that's a real beater and I'm currently working on, that is waiting to be stripped and painted into MRL blue and black. Oh and MRL had 1 GP40...Number 500 The real one. Caboose...another future project! I'll use a USA Trains wide vision model. Work train in a beautiful setting! Here's the MRL corporate website if interested.... MRL

Looking at the Trainworld website they show a deliver date for the 100 ton hoppers if 12/31/2023....Plenty of time to save up! The GP40 isn't listed at any dealer that I can find.

Glad to have helped and welcome to the forum!

There's 2 more in the "middle" of tender. May have to remove a few of the 5 wheels to get to it.

Wow that does run great! Glad that it worked out well.

I was just thinking the same thing

Jan, Your GP40 looks great and with working couplers! Seems that some GP40's had a very short life! Here's from an article written some 4 years ago on Railway Age. Conrail’s Oak Island Yard in Newark, N.J., blew up at 12:14 AM on Jan. 7, 1983. Well, not exactly. The yard didn’t blow up. Texaco’s tank farm across from the east end of the yard blew up—in particular, a gasoline storage tank being filled to its two-million-gallon capacity overflowed, and the vapor from 150,000 overflow gallons exploded, setting off the storage tank. We lost four GP40 locomotives to the explosion—truly great locomotives, 3,000 hp, four-axle beauties. I heard a rumor that people in the Blue Room in Philadelphia broke down in tears when they heard the news.

Hey now that's a great video! Ross Rowland of the High Iron Company AFT fame claims he was riding the 2nd car behind the locomotives.

Magnificent machine! Was that during the doubleheader last weekend? Here's a video I swiped from TO....and turn up the sound!

Here's the announcement...

Great video about some great Americans.

The G Ga - National Christmas Tree Display Modular Layout comes up for auction on wed. Don't know how close you are to them but maybe worth buying? https://cabinfeverauctions.bidwrangler.com/ui/auctions/84762