Southern Railway GP7 in progress...

[supagav]

Hi guys,

I had some free time on my hands this morning so luckly I squeezed in a spot of modelling and managed to fabricate a bell for the nose of the short hood. No part is commercially available for this so it is an approximation of sorts, but I think it's pretty close. It was made from an old piece lying in my spare parts box, with the mountings made from styrene and brass rod. Just needs some black touch-ups. (Also note the new 5 chime horn on top of the short hood):

Thanks again for looking,
Gavin

 

[supagav]

Another photo with the bell painted. I moved it up few millemetres as it was hanging just a little too low over the headlights. Again, sorry about the picture quality:

All the best,
Gavin

 

[GarryH]

I moved it up few millemetres as it was hanging just a little too low over the headlights...................

All the best,
Gavin

mmmmmmmmmmm.........................thats what I thought!!!!!

 

[supagav]

Hi folks,

Appologies for the lack of an update as I had a bit of a minor disaster with the geep. I completed all the final touch ups and began giving the loco a light weathering, when I discovered that the wash that I was using reacted with something in either paint, or more probably, the varnish. It pretty much bleached most of the paint work! I came back down to the workhop to inspect my handywork only to discover that most of the black paint was now a mottled white colour!!! :crying: I guess thats one lesson learnt the VERY hard way!!! Oh well, such is life... I've done some remedial touching up and thankflly its coming back, so I'll post up some photos of the completed article very soon! Wish me luck...

All the best,
Gavin

 

[Doug]

Apply some heavy weathering, it hides all manner of sins:

 

[supagav]

Hi folks,

After a pretty long break due to work and family things I finally returned to the gp7. Despite the previous horror of losing almost the paintwork and lettering, I managed to bring it back with some pretty heavy TLC and a lot of touching up. The main problem was that the Southern had a reputation for keeping these locos pretty clean so I couldn't got to heavy on the weathering to hide the mistakes! I've just now started on some light weathering, with a light coat of road dirt on the trucks and sills of the engine.

Here is progress so far:

Still a little more detail to add: spill marks round the fuel fill, exhaust soot round the fans on top.

Thanks for looking,
All the best,
Gavin

 

[royale]

VERY nicely done - what an excellant job you have made of it.

 

[GANDYDANCER]

Great looking loco, keep up the the good work.

 

[supagav]

Hi,

I finished all the weathering last night, with the last little spots of exhaust fumes and fuel spill. That almost completes the loco at last! Unfortunately the number board decals were damaged when I had the problems with the alcohol wash, so they will be replaced in the next few days so please forgive the looks at the moment. There was an article recently in one of the British model railway magazines about making numbers using thin perspex or something so I think I'll give that a go. I'll post some more photos wnhe I can get it out in to the garden for some proper testing!

Thanks again for looking,
All the best,
Gavin

 

[supagav]

Some more:

 

[soo4513]

Nice work Gavin, thanks for sharing

Colin

 

[Dennis Paulson]

As someone born next to the Southern RR tracks and have lived by and around them since the 1940s .
Your SR GP diesel is really a fantastic model that really captures their real life look .
And as you said , usually the Southern locos were clean looking really , but , towards the end of their service life the GP units did get weathered looking .
Towards the end of the GP 7 /9 service lifes , a lot of them were out here on the Western Lines , aka , St Louis Division . Louisville KY to East St Louis , Illinois . I am located at MP 12 EB , mile Post 12 , Evansville Branch , from Evansville Indiana to Huntingburg Indiana .
Long time Southern RR fan . And your Southern diesels are fantastic modeling .


inside the nose [ short hood end ] of a GP-7 , sand tank and what the back of the number boards looks like

At the GP-7 controls , some years ago .....................

 

[supagav]

Thanks again for the kind words guys

Those are some fantastic photos Dennis, thank you! I'm always on the lookout for more prototype material so any photos or info is always much apprectiated as we can't really see the real thing too often here in Scotland!

I'm currently working on another loco, a passanger F3 with chopped side skirts, bigger water tank and the torpedo air tubes mounted up on the roof, so I'll post up some pictures when I finally get things moving along a bit more on that one.

Here are a couple of photos, the first is of the finished loco out in the garden, and the second is from the G Rail exhibition where it was out on display.

All the best,
Gavin

 

[trammayo]

I'm not always a fan of diesel motive power but your detailing and weathering work has shown that they can have real character and appeal - lovely job.

Mick

 

[5H17]

I did wonder if it was yours on display at G Rail. Looks fantastic 'in the flesh', so to speak