Railworks America

I wish to thank TrueRail Simulations for the repaint of the Western Pacific GP40 in Armour Yellow. I now have another request for another WP repaint. This is for some FT A & B demonstrator units in their as delivered paint scheme. It is a green and yellow combination. This information I received from a retired former Western Pacific railroad operating manager. "The green and yellow covered wagons were GM-EMD FT demonstrators, which were on the WP to find out if they would work in freight and passenger service......they were a one time only situation, and that is why the WP did not adopt the colors. Although when Perlman came in from the Penn Central, he did paint all the locos NYC dark green."
I would like to have these so they can be retained as a part of the history of the Western Pacific in my collection and for the enjoyment of others. I am attempting to get more information on these, such as numbering.
EDIT: I was able to find this information; Officially, the FT stood for Freight, Twenty-seven hundred horsepower. Part of the model's huge sales numbers came from the extremely successful PR campaign of the original demonstrator, which embarked on a cross-country tour in May of 1939 featuring A units #103 and #103A and B units #103(b) and #103A(b). These appear to be the numbers used while in demonstrator service at WP. They may have been renumbered as #900A/B/C.
One picture in Keddie shows a # 907 on one of the A units.

Not to nitpick but I think the FT's were 1300 HP. Do we have a model in game for the FT?

buzz456 wrote:Not to nitpick but I think the FT's were 1300 HP. Do we have a model in game for the FT?

Not that I'm aware of and they have some pretty noticeable differences compared to F7s.

This 1944 operating manual calls for 5400 HP; as in an ABBA configuration. (4) 1350 HP units.
https://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Rail ... _FT_OM.pdf
It appears that early FT were sold in ABBA configurations connected by draw bars. Later couplers were adopted.

EDIT: for clarification.

buzz456 wrote:Not to nitpick but I think the FT's were 1300 HP. Do we have a model in game for the FT?

BritKits has one. ( http://dickyjim.com/diesel.html ) You can get the basic Freeware version which only has the A unit's and the Payware version which has 2 different B units as well as the dynamic brake versions of the A units. I happen to have the payware version of these and I'd like to see this repaint as well. The only thing it won't have is the two number boards on the roof by the horns.

It only cost's 4.00 Pounds Sterling ( About $5.54 ) so it's not expensive at all.

I would purchase this for myself and for someone who would do the reskinning.

Just a heads up that some of BritKit's repaint templates are PaintShop Pro files (.psp), not PhotoShop files (.psd). In the past, I haven't had any luck opening a layered .psp file in PhotoShop. But it's been a number of years since I've tried.

There are online conversion apps to move from Paintshop to Photoshop. If not, contact me, I have both programs.

Harry

Thank you for expressing an interest in this project. PM me for more information.

I was able to come up with more information. The colors are Woodfield Green, Diamond Yellow and Omaha Orange.
Because the original units were a 4 unit ABBA lashup connected by drawbars the units were numbered in sequence 901 A /901 B /901 C /901 D
These were first delivered in Nov 1941, another set in Dec 1941 numbered 902 A/B/C/D the rest per the attached roster.
MUch thanks to the Western Pacific Museum in Portola, Ca for this information.

I've been slowly working on this one. The texture file for this can be a pain when lining up the stripes across the nose and over the headlight. I've still got some work to do, but it's getting there. If anyone knows which texture file provides the textures for the dynamic brakes on both units as well as the handrails on the A-Units, I'd be greatfull for the help. (BritKits, EMD FT payware version)

Thanks

Some more updated screenshots. I tweeked the colors a bit and added the nose numbers.

Looking good.

Ok, I know this has taken me forever to get done, but I have had to deal with real life issues that have taken up all my time. I finally got these repaints done to a point to where I am ready to release them "as-is". I'm sure they can be improved upon by one of our other painters here and I'm fine with that as long as I am given credit for my work.

Here are some screenshots of how they look now. In the upload, you will get 12 set's. The Western Pacific ran these FT's as an A-B-B-A set, each numbered in sequence such as 901A-901B-901C-901D, etc. but since the Britkits model does not show letter's, each set will just have the same number on all 4 units. 901(A-B-B-A), 902(A-B-B-A), etc..

I hope you like them.

Now available in the file library.
Each set is a different file to download, you choose the ones you want.
This is for limiting bandwidth usage.