Shortly after my last update I ended up finishing construction (I’m just way behind in my blogging). All that remains now is some painting and weathering. Since I don’t have an air brush and have a number of other projects that will eventually need air brushing I’m putting painting on the back burner. Until then here are some pictures with the finished assembly.

Fast forward to last week I was browsing through different rail road pictures websites looking for pictures of the DM&IR and I found this picture of DM&IR 11 from 2004: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=84603&nseq=0. It really got me intrigued because I had misinterpreted the Missabe Railroad Historical Societies all time diesel roster as having retired all EMD switchers by the mid 1960′s. What I had missed was that all the SW9s were gone by then but they acquired an NW2 rebuilt to SW1200 specs in 1998 as a shop switcher. This itself was fairly serendipitous as I am a fan of the EMD switchers and just finished scratch building a flat car used by the Missabe shops so It stood to reason I needed a shop switcher!

This brings me back to my odd Athearn switcher as I was looking to see what it would take to turn it into this NW2 switcher or at least pass-able as it. When I started comparing the details to photo I quickly realized that it was actually an NW2. Further research of photos I’ve found of DM&IR 11 and it became clear that all I really need to do to it is build platforms for the rotary beacons on the cab, replace the missing handrail, and finally paint the simple scheme on it. (Of course in addition to re-powering and putting a decoder in it).

So in the end I’d say it was pretty good luck to accidentally buy a cheap NW2 and later find it’s a near perfect match to model something I’d never be able to find (let’s face it, no one is going to mass produce a locomotive in a paint scheme where there is only one number!).

Today I made a trip to the hobby store and picked up some styrene, brass, and drill bits (#61-80). The drill bits were for a number of projects but will also be useful for installing the grabs I’m making out of the brass. I’ve finished the styrene and got started on the grabs:

Another reason for choosing this item was that while the UP runs in the area of my prototype I could easily do without it should weathering go wrong, add that to me having the mental image of a prototype and it was a good start. Of course the camera really pulls out the areas that could use some grime, for this stage all I’ve used is a floquil rust pen.

After a while I started having problems though and eventually I couldn’t even run it reliably on straight track, no matter what I did it just didn’t work and I ended up giving up and putting it in my doesn’t work box in a pile of parts. Since then I’ve learned a few tricks both tuning up other locomotives and fixing car problems.

While troubleshooting a problem with my wife’s car my mechanic, and father, used dielectric grease to improve electrical connectivity between contacts on a connector. Shortly after than I ended up fixing a problem with DM&IR 413 and unpowered frogs by, among other tweaks, using dielectric grease on the power pickups. Then one day while digging through my parts box fixing one of my son’s locos I came across the frame and decided to give it the dialectric treatment. Before long I had it running pretty well.

One of my reasons for giving up on it originally was because it is a bit out of my era, the Missabe sold it in July 1996 but the tunnel motors from the SP didn’t start arriving until December of that year. This is one of those situations where when I’m running it I’ll invoke the stretchable reality clause.

The Prototype

DM&IR 130, and EMD SD9, was built 1957 and was one of 74 SD9s owned by the Missabe, including #110 which was originally EMD Demonstrator 5591. It’s my understanding that 130 is still around but just sitting having ended up on the now bankrupt Modac Northern.

I took along DM&IR 210, 216, & 413 as well as EMDX 9003. It was the Oakway’s first time out for an Ops session and it ran flawlessly. It ran both solo and with 210 which also ran well (but I need to turn up the sound, its too quiet on a large layout)

I also ran all three Missabe units as a consist pulling some large trains including a large coal train, I seem to have them well matched as they really weren’t fighting each other. Both 210 and 413 ran well but 216 was a little rough so it will need some tuning. It also had some problems derailing on tighter turns, I suspect this was due to the very short coupler shanks and being in the middle of a consist.

I had been using the accessories bus plugs (trailer plugs) as temporary track bus plugs so i have to wire those back up and get a second UP5 and then the wiring is done!