ARR Creations Jeff McCrea's SD40s and 45s

Jeff McCrea's SD40s and 45s

These Kato SD-45's and SD-40's also done by Jeff. Being they are fantasy it's probably not a real big deal but I wish we'd numbered the 40/45's more in line with ARR's method of using the HP ratings to number engines. These units were originally paint in the Santa Fe freight scheme, for simplicities sake I decoded to stick with the Santa Fe numbers in order to avoid having to redo the number boards. These don't have sound however each does have a Digitrax decoder. I can't say enough good things about Kato engines as these are some of my favorite engines. They were easy to fine tune and consist, and they seem to get better with age.

The hoppers are Walthers ARR aluminum cars. Each has been properly re-numbered (per your website) and slightly weathered.

The F7's are Proto 2000's which began life as Great Northern units. Again Jeff King (see a theme here) did these for me, I obtained the decals from Randy Thompson and Harold Emerick (anniversary decals). These are equipped with factory sound and DCC, hope you like them.

Added 9/28/10

I took these on my buddy Dave's home layout. I met Dave through another friend/fellow club member. Dave is not a member of our club as his schedule will not really permit it, however he is an avid model railroader and in my opinion an artist in every sense of the word.

In addition to his full time job, which is very cool as a sound engineer for the group Mannheim Steamroller, Dave does custom kit building, rolling stock detailing, and decoder installations. I took all of the pics on his layout. Although it's in one small area, he packed quite a bit into his bent dog bone design. Pictures alone cannot show how detailed and simply gorgeous as I said he's an artist in every sense of the word. In fact on a separate project he and I are building a couple of modules for our club to promote membership at local train shows. His theme is the UP in the late 50's/early 60's in the southwest hence the desert motif. Not exactly ARR country but what the heck. ;)

You might recognize the engines from earlier pics I sent you. They are the same Kato SD-40/45's Jeff King did for me as a fantasy about 5 years ago. Dave just took them a little further with a little weathering, he's spoiled me. I don't think I can ever run on a "clean" engine again. lol I'm hoping to learn some of his techniques as time goes along. Not sure if I'll ever be as good as him but it's still a skill I'd like to learn.

I attached a few more pics, most of these I took for Dave for his website to display his work. The MP-15's Dave also dirtied up for me. I picked these up from Randy at Roundhouse Hobbies.

Added 7/4/11

Also see these GP40's under Robert Krol's four GP49s creation page.

Denali Star meets the Oil Can (8/8/11)

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