Railworks America

Since the subject of SP bi-level commuter coaches came up, I thought it would be a good time to fix up some commuter GP9's to go with those bi-levels and subs (4-axle Harriman coaches). SP had a total of 11 GP9's dedicated to the San Francisco peninsula commute service.

Still very much a work in progress, I'm replacing the lettering with Pete Willard's SP font. Train numbers are displayed in the loco number boards, with the 7 DB equipped GP9's each getting a train number (taken from a SP commuter timetable). Still have more to go, but the below pick would be representative of a DB equipped GP9 in the late 70's / early 80's era before Caltrain took over the peninsula operations.

Originally, the SP passenger geeps were equipped with dual control stands. Pictures of the passenger geeps from the early 70's would show full light packages on both ends along with wings and train number indicators. When the geeps were rebuilt, they lost the dual control stands along with the rear light package and rear wing. The rear train number indicators were also plated over.

Below is my attempt at plating over the rear number boards. It's been awhile since I've made child objects in Blender and brought them into TSC. I would have liked the plates to be more flush, but the rear number board rubber gaskets protrude out. I'd also love to get rid of the rear red and white Gyralites, and just leave the bracket and the twin sealed beam. But modifying the geo file is way out of my pay grade, so this is as close as it's going to get. Now I need to make steam generator bits, a Farr air box for the roof, and finally a "wagon wheel" antenna.

cnwfan wrote:Originally, the SP passenger geeps were equipped with dual control stands. Pictures of the passenger geeps from the early 70's would show full light packages on both ends along with wings and train number indicators. When the geeps were rebuilt, they lost the dual control stands along with the rear light package and rear wing. The rear train number indicators were also plated over.

Below is my attempt at plating over the rear number boards. It's been awhile since I've made child objects in Blender and brought them into TSC. I would have liked the plates to be more flush, but the rear number board rubber gaskets protrude out. I'd also love to get rid of the rear red and white Gyralites, and just leave the bracket and the twin sealed beam. But modifying the geo file is way out of my pay grade, so this is as close as it's going to get. Now I need to make steam generator bits, a Farr air box for the roof, and finally a "wagon wheel" antenna.

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That is looking very nice. I can imagine the wagon wheel antenna you mention. I always preferred the torpedo boats, but that right there is classic SP Commute in my mind, with a string of grey Subs, maybe with a lightweight lounge/chair or bi-level mixed in.

‘PullmanCar’

For the past week, I've been tracking down my inventory of HO scale detail parts. I figured I could use them for rough measurements and form, then fine tune based on photos. I have a wagon wheel antenna on a finished SP SD7, but the thing is so darn fragile, I'm afraid of breaking it with the caliper. I'm sure I have another one unbuilt in an box somewhere... the somewhere being the problem. At least I found a Farr air filter box this weekend. That will be this week's project.

Still have some texturing work to do, but the air filter box is roughed in for now. Steam generator bits are next.

Steam generator vents are now in place along with a little rework on the air filter box. Next up is the wagon wheel antenna.

Quick update on the commuter GP9 project. The wagon wheel antenna is finally modeled and located on the steam gen vent. Texture touchup work remains along with coming up with some plausible commute coaches. Overall, it does capture the look and feel of those Geeps during their commute service. More to come soon.

Looks good.

In 1982, Caltrain was formed and took over commute operations on the Peninsula. Espee continued to supply the operating equipment until mid 1985 when Caltrain took delivery of their own F40's, thus releasing the commute GP9's to freight service. Shop crews disabled the steam generators and replaced the fuel / water tank with a large fuel only tank. Roseville became the assigned maintenance base for the commute Geeps, with the GP9's working their remaining years on the Roseville to Fresno and Fresno to Bakersfield haulers in the Central Valley, along with various locals and even Roseville hump service. At this point, just enough maintenance was being done to keep the units in revenue service until a substantial failure removed them from service.

The below GP9 is representative of what a late 80's "freight service" commuter Geep would look like. Visually, they are almost identical to when it would have been in commute service except for the diamond missing above the cab numbers along with other various warning placards missing. Additional white safety striping has been added to the step edges along with a Roseville maintenance base stencil and service stenciling that became common on all Espee units back in the 80's.

Those are looking exceptional. I loved the Espee's commute equipment, especially the torpedo tube geeps on the old Subs. As you mention finding plausible equipment will be interesting.
If only we had a decent set of Subs. The closest thing I can even think of would be either the clerestory roof MSTS conversions or Great Northerner's generic 6 axle heavyweights.

I look forward to seeing the completed passenger versions. Not to pry, would you ever consider a Black Widow version?

'PullmanCar'

If you're going to twist my arm to do Black Widows... ok... I surrender. I was looking through my Strapac book on the GP9's, and I see a couple of possible candidates. I'd love to do a version with the large barrel headlight on each end. Looks like I'm searching through my HO parts bins again.

As for passenger equipment to tote behind the commuter Geeps, lets just say something is in the very early stages that will hopefully address that issue.

cnwfan wrote:If you're going to twist my arm to do Black Widows... ok... I surrender. I was looking through my Strapac book on the GP9's, and I see a couple of possible candidates. I'd love to do a version with the large barrel headlight on each end. Looks like I'm searching through my HO parts bins again.

As for passenger equipment to tote behind the commuter Geeps, lets just say something is in the very early stages that will hopefully address that issue.

Ohhh my, barrel headlight, that is a magic phrase. Some of the low numbered 5600 series had those, did they not? I should not like to twist anyone's arm, but the thought of a black widow passenger geep with barrel signal lights, is just splendid.

'PullmanCar'

Working backwards in time, commute GP9 3008 is representative of an early 1970's unit before rebuilding. Of note is the wing on the long hood and the train number indicators not being blanked out. These units had dual control stands and could run long hood forward in the "forward" direction. Early 70's commuter GP9's may or may not have had the "SP" on the short hood end. That started to appear sometime in 72 or 73 depending on when a unit was shopped. This unit also has a triangle above the cab number, indicating a cyclone spark arrestor. More common though was the "diamond" above the cab number, indicating a standard spark arrestor. ACI plates on the long hood and EMD oval builders plates could still be found on the side sills... instead of at a vendor's table at Winterail.

At this point, this rounds out the commute GP9's in grey and scarlet paint. Black widow commute GP9's are next on the list, but there will be a short break will I figure out how to repaint Barnes Metra bilevel cars into SP gallery cars, both in solid lark dark grey and in two tone grey.

In the "about as close as I'm going to get" category, we'll have an SP bi-level to pull behind the commute GP9's. Southern Pacific had 46 of these gallery commuter coaches built between 1955 and 1968. Cars were numbered from 3700 thru 3745. This version is the later solid lark dark grey scheme, although some of the earlier cars made it into the 2-tone grey scheme. And yes, I'll be doing that version also. We need something to pull behind the black widow commuter geeps.

The closest car that I could come up with is the very low poly commuter coach from the Chicago Racetrack route. The window arrangement is close and as long as it is viewed from some distance, it isn't too bad. There will be one big hurdle to overcome in order for me to distribute the repaint. I had to alter the geo file in order to get those darn Metra logos (they're decals) to disappear without affecting the rest of the rolling stock in the Chicago route. Assuming I can get permission, then we'll be good to go. Fingers crossed!