Slanty Things for GG1

[Desertdweller]

Here are the pictures of my "Slanty Things" for the benefit of GG1onFordsDT&I.

My apologies to Mr. Bachmann for the lack of his products in this post.  If Bachmann made them, I'd buy them.

Not a "slanty", but new to me.  My son George bought me this in NIB condition.  I added weathering and lighted the front headlight.  It is a Minitrix ATSF FM H-12-44.


Here is one you've seen before, but in a fresh view.  CB&Q E5.


Here is a Milwaukee Road E6.

An off-line appearance by an ACL E6.


Here are some "slantys" you might not think of as such.  Does the long hood end sort of make you think of a GG1?


A real Rock Island slanty:




And another slanty from Milwaukee Road:


I hope that is enough slope to cut the mope!

Les

[GG1onFordsDTandI]

A present for Me? You make it tough to claim I prefer steam!
Leading with a high hood FM is dirty pool too.
Who made/what exactly is the R.I. engine.
The Zypher, or a War Bonnet is still king in my book.
Overall you have great taste in motive power.

[Desertdweller]

The RI engine (and the Milwaukee Road one following it) is an ALCO-GE DL109.  These were produced 1939-46.
They were 2,000hp units that were replaced by the PA1.

Each loco contained two 1,000hp 539T inline 6-cylinder engines (like in an RS1).  These were allowed to remain in production during WWII because they were sold as "dual purpose" locomotives.  RI used theirs into the 1960's.

As for the models, the Rock Island model was made by Life-Like, and the Milwaukee's were made by Con-Cor.
All N-scale, of course.

There are no more DL109's left in real life.  The last one was a NH unit converted into a mobile generator.  It was offered as an artifact, but no one wanted it!

I've got some Warbonnets, but none of them are "slanty".

I've got a couple more FM switchers.  I modified the carbodies to make them into H10-44's.

Glad you enjoyed them.

I like your BL2 in demonstrator paint!

Les

[RAM]

I wonder why they painted the FM H-12-44 the way they did.

[Desertdweller]

RAM,

That's a good question.  The markings and road number are correct, but the base color should be black, not blue.  That would make it correct for a unit delivered in 1957.

The railroad did later paint them blue, with yellow ends and yellow lettering.

Apparently, someone at the Minitrix plant in Germany thought they looked good in overall blue with yellow markings.  I agree.  I'll leave it that way.  I did add weathering and painted the end handrails white.

These old FM's have a special connection to me.  When I worked in the Milwaukee Road yard at Madison, WI we used these exclusively for switching.  Both H10-44 and H12-44 versions.  When they were cranked up on a cold start, they would blow all sorts of blue smoke and sounded a little like a giant helicopter!

I rode out my first tornado on a railroad in one of those.  It looked like the least likely thing in sight to blow away.  I made a run for the loco and got in the cab with the engine crew.  The thing was sitting still, but it was bouncing on its springs.  Proved too heavy to lift off the track.

Les

[Woody Elmore]

Don't they refer to the slant EMD engines (E-6) as "Shovel Noses?"

[jward]

no, the shovel noses were the power cars for the Burlington zephyr, and flying yankee.    i have never heard of the slant nose e units referred to as shovel nose.

[Desertdweller]

I could never understand the strange-looking paint lines on the Burlington passenger units until a guy I worked for (who was a CB&Q fan) explained it to me.

The original color scheme (as used first on E5's) was black markings on stainless steel.  The crew compartment on the shovenose units was down in the nose itself.  This caused a safety problem in case of a collision, and also tended to mesmerize the crews from being too close to the ties.

So, the E-units were designed with the familiar high, set-back cab.  But by then, the shovelnose design had become a Burlington trademark.  So, how can you make the nose of an E-unit resemble a shovel-nose?

Make the nose a shiny silver and paint horizontal black stripes below the headlight to simulate the windshield on the shovel nose!

And what about the odd-shaped markings on each side of the upper headlight?  Those are supposed to look like the radiator intake grilles on either side of the shovelnose headlight.

As time went by, people forgot what the shovelnoses looked like.  And someone decided red stripes would look better than black.  So in the late 1950's, the black stripes (and fake grilles) were repainted red.

So, that is why the CB&Q passenger units looked the way they did.

CB&Q shovelnose units were never intended to be freight units.  So there was no reason to try to make the freight F units look like shovelnose units.  So the freight scheme looked nothing like the passenger scheme.

Les

[GG1onFordsDTandI]

I could never understand the strange-looking paint lines on the Burlington passenger units until a guy I worked for (who was a CB&Q fan) explained it to me.

The original color scheme (as used first on E5's) was black markings on stainless steel.  The crew compartment on the shovenose units was down in the nose itself.  This caused a safety problem in case of a collision, and also tended to mesmerize the crews from being too close to the ties.

So, the E-units were designed with the familiar high, set-back cab.  But by then, the shovelnose design had become a Burlington trademark.  So, how can you make the nose of an E-unit resemble a shovel-nose?

Make the nose a shiny silver and paint horizontal black stripes below the headlight to simulate the windshield on the shovel nose!

And what about the odd-shaped markings on each side of the upper headlight?  Those are supposed to look like the radiator intake grilles on either side of the shovelnose headlight.

As time went by, people forgot what the shovelnoses looked like.  And someone decided red stripes would look better than black.  So in the late 1950's, the black stripes (and fake grilles) were repainted red.

So, that is why the CB&Q passenger units looked the way they did.

CB&Q shovelnose units were never intended to be freight units.  So there was no reason to try to make the freight F units look like shovelnose units.  So the freight scheme looked nothing like the passenger scheme.

Les

I see it now too!