Besides working on the book, and on models related to photos needed for the book, I have had some other projects on the back burner slowly moving toward completion. One was this SD24.

I call it SD24 2.0, as I made one of these previously, lettered for my MQS shortline. They both use bodies purchased on Shapeways, and I feel sure the designer had scaled them up from N scale designs. Some details would be heavy anyway with the 3D printing, but are especially so with the scale up.

The build

The big difference between the original build and this one is that I decided to use sections of a vintage HO Athearn SD45 hood for the top back end of the hood. The details present are close to correct for a SD24 and much sharper looking. I also cut the exhaust off the Athearn model and replaced the wrong shaped part on the Shapeways body.

I built the drive in the same way as I had previously, it is a “blue box” Athearn HO SD40 frame with the axles widened to OO, with the original hood cut down to fit inside the Shapeways body. Couplers are body mounted, and some weight was added inside the body as well.

New paint, new decals

From my personal perspective there is one hugely notable thing, I used different paint and decals than I have previously on any Orient locomotive. I have used Testors standard red spray paint for my locomotives since the early 1980s, but Testors standard paints are now off the market. I also managed to run out of yellow Orient decals from the sets I had printed about 10 years ago. These two issues stalled me on the project for quite a while. I finally settled on trying the most standard Tamiya red, which is close to the Testors but a bit brighter, and I’m happy with that part of this, painting a couple cabooses at the same time. I also opted to use a large Microscale yellow alphabet set to do the KCM&O lettering instead, working it in so that it did not have to cover any heavy detail on the body. Between the two I have a workable new version of the paint scheme to use going forward.

Final thoughts

I may go back and do some very light weathering, but for now the decals were sealed with close to the last gasp from my last can of Testors Dullcote. I’ll have to figure out another product to use in the future.

As to how it runs and looks, I am pleased. It runs smoothly, like an Athearn model, and pairs up very nicely with a dummy Kemtron GP7 or my dummy U23B. If I were to do a version 3.0 I might replace the handrails with ones built up with wire and Athearn stanchions. For now though I’m happy to have this running, earning revenue for the Orient.