Rock Island GP7, RS-3

[Searsport]

Dear Mr B,

Thanks for recognizing the Rock Island with your recent GP7 and RS-3, and in the best RI paint scheme too!

Unfortunately almost all the photos I can find of locos in this scheme show silver trucks - dirty, but definitely silver! The GP7s also have silver fuel tanks and everything else 'down below'. The one GP7 exception is a photo of #1204 newly delivered from EMD on June 30 1951 in "Rock Island In Color" Vol.1 by Loyd E Stagner, which has black lower parts. The RS-3s have silver trucks, but some have gained black(ish) fuel and air tanks by 1959.

I am guessing that Bachmann produce each loco in a single batch, so there is no prospect of them putting this error right for "the rest of the run".

So my first question is, can dirty aluminium be simulated with a thinned wash of silver / aluminium paint over the black, or will it all settle in the wrong places? I don't want to ruin otherwise good models finding out the hard way.

An alternative, for the RS-3 at least, is a chassis swap with the sound-equipped B&M RS-3, which does have silver trucks. That also solves the problem of the GP7 having sound and the RS-3 not.

So my second question is, do the RS-3 body shells from non-sound locos fit the sound chassis? (I believe this is not the case with the ALCo switcher models).

TIA,
Best Regards,
Bill.

[bapguy]

The parts department list silver trucks for the RS3. A Soundtraxx decoder would probably be cheaper than buying a sound equipped loco and swapping the bodies. Check out Model Train Stuff or Tony's Train exchange for decoders.  Joe

[trainm7]

Yes it is possible to swap the non sound and sound RS3 bodies between chassis. I did it with a B&M sound road #1536 and a B&M non sound road #1545.  Since I have several Now I have 2 B&M sound units 1536 and 1545 and a non sound 1536 which I will have to renumber with decals.
When I get around to it.
Ron High