California Northern SD9 203 test run

[torikoos]

Here's my latest project (and still not finished), but it made it's first test run today. Here it is just exiting Cordelia Tunnel, among freshly applied latex paint .....

The loco is a stripped and repainted Athearn Bluebox SD9, detailed with a Details West SP 9E detail pack. I still need to finish the handrails, install couplings, and add some light weathering, among others to mask the slight paint bleed on the green to cream transitions. The CFNR had 4 SD9 locos in their fleet, 2 of which were ex SP (no's 202 and 203) , and 200 and 201 were ex DM&IR. The SP units had the larger fuel tanks and several details showed their heritage (particularly in the first year). They helped making the CFNR a successful local railroad, and hauled their pipe trains, long trains with wood from Willits (up north) through the Napa valley. By 1999 they were all of the roster, partly due to a decrease in traffic, which meant their GP15-1's were sufficient. (these themselves have now disappeared of their home rails, and can be found as far away as Texas,and have been succeeded by GenSet units, in Rail america colours, the pretty green and cream scheme is now history too...).




Koos

[BrianMoore]

A good-looking (and sounding) locomotive, Koos.

But as we are well aware, SP-Heritage stuff usually is.

Brian

[torikoos]

Thanks Brian, yes it is sounding very good. It has a QSI Quantum Revolution decoder installed , which also has good slow speed performance, but it is a pain to program (to get everything out of it, you'd need a dedicated programmer, which I do not have).
The roof beacon is wired up, but I cannot change it's function, so now it's responding to 'cab lights' , meaning it will switch on when stationary, and will go off when the loco is moving.
Also it is a decoder that is quite power hungry at programming requiring a programming booster or similar, or program on the main.
Not sure if I will buy another QSI for those reasons.
I will however need to get my hands on more SD9 locomotives, 203 needs a sister (I am contemplating number 200 or 201) , and I'm still wanting some SP SD 9 locomotives at some point too.

Koos

PS: This is one of it's prototype sisters, albeit from a different road originally...


CFNR 200 by El Cobrador, on Flickr

[BrianMoore]

Can I suggest that, if you are going to run another SD9 with #203, you do another Athearn BB conversion? I used to run a pair of two black widow SD9's together; one was Proto 2000, the other Athearn. You could really notice the difference in the hood width. Best to keep to one type of model.

Brian

[torikoos]

yes that's a good point, the BB's are a bit 'wider'. added bonus will be that they are relatively cheap to get.
I might then use P2K models for the SP versions I'm hoping to add in the future.. and keep them separated from the CFNR units.