The Kitbashes: HO Scale "Sweep"-esque Locomotive

I think that I was somewhere around eight or ten years old when I first got into model trains. My memory is a little vague (at the best of times), but I think that I started out with a basic oval on a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood, likely with a cheap Tyco train set. Over the next few years the track plan changed a few times, but it was generally an oval with a few sidings.  Everything got packed up into boxes when I moved when I was about sixteen.  Since then it only got unpacked a handful of times.  One summer when I was in university, I had a small (about 2' x 4') switching layout, and there were a couple of times when I was living in Ottawa (1995-2015ish) when I had the intention of building a layout but never really got past the point of temporarily putting some track down in a little switching layout.  One of the problems was the fact that I moved a lot.  Another problem is the fact that I'm easily distra...

Ooh, shiny.

Umm... where was I?

Over the past few years I've been experiencing some financial difficulties, to the point where I have nearly enough eviction notices from being chronically late with my rent to wallpaper my room.  So I started selling off some of my excess crap to help pay the bills, especially Bill, my bookie, and Bill, my probation officer (and if you know where that's from, we can be friends).

I started off by selling off a bunch of Warhammer and D&D miniatures, but eventually I circled around to my model railroad stuff.  As I started digging it out of its boxes and sorting through it, the modeling bug bit me.  And so I decided to make a few little dioramas that I can link together to make a small switching layout.

I did end up selling off or trading some of my model train stuff, but I also ended up buying some stuff, so that was pretty much a wash.  However, most of the stuff I picked up was old and well-used (if not broken) equipment for me to kitbash with.

I can trace my love of kitbashing to this article from the August '81 issue of Model Railroader.

I actually built a fairly close copy of this kitbash.  Sadly, plastic kits can become somewhat brittle over time and during one of my many moves the box containing my model was dropped or something heavy was put on top of it.  The model had shattered like a pane of glass into a bajillion pieces.  One of these days I may recreate this build if I can manage to find a couple more copies of the kit.

I'm not sure when this picture was taken, but I'm guessing around 1980ish, so I would have been about twelve.  The locomotive, a CP Rail SW7 switcher is made by Athearn and it still runs today.  Those old blue box Athearns are built like tanks.

So with my renewed interest in HO scale model railroading, I decided that some kitbashes were in order, starting with my trusty switcher and a dummy shell that I picked up years ago at a train show.

*Edit

Forgot to add a picture of the locomotives that inspired this build.  The CN 'Sweep'.

I stripped the paint (or most of it) from the dummy locomotive and made a few cuts.

I got the basic shape figured out.

I tried a window frame from some structure kit, but I really wasn't feeling it.

There were a few gaps that needed to be filled as well.

The glue holding these side bits failed.  I'm fairly sure they have something to do with the dynamic brakes.  I'll be reattaching them later. 

I cut the fuel tanks off of a dummy calf version of this switcher.  It ended up being the doner shell for this build.

I had to file off some nubbins so that the shell would fit on the frame.

With some strip styrene added to the shell to make it properly fit the frame, things are coming along.

The switcher with a kitbash in progress of a wood chip car.

I really wasn't feeling the big window, though.

So enter another doner shell.

This cab will suit this build better.

Side view... not bad.

Hmm...  Not quite feeling the nose part.

Ah.  Better.

A little rough, but oh well.

Yeah, this could work.

With the dynamic brake thingamabobs and handrails added.

3D printed steps.

And a 3D printed bracket for the bell.

And 3D printed ditch lights.  I'm debating whether to add teeny LEDs to them.

Broken handrail.  I guess this thing has seen some hard use.

Silk in the background checking it out.

Aside from a little gap-filling and sanding, I think this one is pretty much done.  And then I just have to wait for the painting faerie to smack me upside the head with inspiration.