was factory painted for the Southern Ry., I started the project by stripping off the green paint. I soaked the shell in 91% alcohol for a day and then scrubbed it clean with a toothbrush. With the paint off, it was time to be- gin work. No. 655 had a lower head-
black to create a sense of depth. I chiseled off all the molded-on lift rings and used a No. 80 bit to drill holes for detail parts. I had originally intend- ed to use the BLMA No. 99 EMD F/E detail set for all the grab irons, but re- alized that some didn’t match the proto-
type. I installed narrow walkway plat- forms and 18″ drop grabs on both sides of the nose, while the nose grab irons and side handrails were bent from .008″ phosphor bronze wire. The firecracker antenna was made from a length of .008″ brass wire and a piece of decoder
Work on the E8 shell (above) includes filling in of five of the eight portholes with putty. The horns and grab irons have been installed above the cab roof and the narrow walkways added midway up the cab side. Note that in these in-progress shots some handrails and grab irons still need to be added, the dynamic brake fan in the cen- ter of the roof has not yet been removed and the skirting around the
light and an oscillating light with a red emergency light in the upper head- light. I cut the original light pipe apart and trimmed them to accept a surface mount LED at the end. Classification lights were drilled out with a No. 70 bit and replaced with .20″ fiber optics and 402 red LEDs behind the shell. All of the lights were faithfully controlled by DCC functions.
Larger modifications included filling in five of the eight porthole windows on the sides and removing the dynam- ic brake fan and using Milliput epoxy putty to match the roof profile. I cut off most of the skirting from the fuel tank to match prototype pictures, but left the fuel and water fillers in place. Strip styrene was glued to the back of the fuel tank and painted black to pre- vent bare metal from showing. The original exhaust stacks and steam generator were drilled out and painted
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 53
fuel tank has yet to be cut back. This view of the rear of the model (below left) shows some of the BLMA lift rings that were added to the roof. These are on the steam generator access panel. This nose view (bottom right) shows the headlights drilled out to accept the new LED lights, as well as the holes for the classification lights, the added grab irons and the m.u. receptacle to the left of the headlight.
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