Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting GE 70 Tonners

I have had a long term project in the form of a Kaslo Shops GE 70 Tonner kitbash that I started eons ago.  I initially focused on Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting GE 70T #1 as it was the longest lived 70T in the HBMS fleet.  However more research has led me to realize that for my earlier 1981-83 modelling timeframe that either #2 or #3 would be a better prototype to model as it had the carbody filter arrangement that I kitbashed for my modelling timeframe.  

I had originally planned to model the late 1990's so #1 after it's rebuild was my plan.  However #1 had a different filter arrangement during the early 1980's.  HBM&S swapped around doors between the various units, so photos are the best guide to use.  So now we're doing #3.  

HBM&S operated a total of 9 units, #1 was purchased new while the balance were purchased used in the late 1960's and 1970's.  The fleet lasted until the early 1990's basically intact with only #4 being scrapped early.  The others were mixed and matched to keep a number of the units operational.  #1 was rebuilt in the early 2000's with a Cat engine.  

HBM&S #3 soldiered on until the late 1990's before being scrapped onsite along with the rest of the 70T fleet.  The replacements for these units were former CP SW1200RS units which are still used today.   

Kaslo Shops has a nicely done set of etchings for their 70T kit.  They include door handles for the long hood.  When you install them they really make the locomotive "pop".  

The long hood was also modified to reflect the filter arrangement on #3.  The original kit was a flat kit with separate sides, end and roof.  I got a second kit and chopped the hood to get the correct arrangement.  The new 70T kit is a one piece body which is an easier build but more challenging to modify.

One thing I have found is that the steps tend to come loose with handling, so I added 0.0125" wire pins to help secure them in place.  I also added pins on the pilots as well to help keep them in place.  I'll need to do some careful sanding to clean up the nubs of the wire.  

The Kaslo kit was designed to fit on the Bachmann drive that has the motor in the center with two geared trucks.  It might also fit the old drive with two motors but I don't have any of those.  I may also investigate what can be done to quiet the drive down.  Loksound has just announced a GE 70T sound file so I have that to replace the factory decoder in the model.

I moved forward on painting the locomotive using Vallejo Air paint and my airbrush.  I am a fan of the Vallejo Air product line, it sprays very well and goes on nicely.  Vallejo Air Dark Blue 71.266 looks pretty good to my eye, particularly since the blue on these locomotives changed over the years.  I have a paint chip somewhere in my files that has about 4 shades of different blue paint from one HBM&S  locomotive, so pretty much any blue is probably correct.  Whatever the paint crew could find at the hardware store was likely used.

I masked the body with Tamiya tape along the bottom with regular painters tape over the rest of the body.  Tamiya tape snuggles in nicely to the nooks and crannies and gives a nice sharp edge to the body.  The walkway and underframe got a custom warm black that was a mix of 5 parts Vallejo Air black 71.057 and 1 part dark grey 71.308 with some Airbrush flow enhancer thrown in for good measure.  I'm pleased with the results.  

Since I switched to modelling #3 I had to replace the exhaust stack as well.  I found a set of Custom Finishes extended EMD stacks (part S-247) in my stash that looked good and had the correct height and shape.  #3 didn't have the stack extension in 1978 but had it by 1981, which is fortunate as I like the look of the taller stack   A bit of steel, black and brown paint on the brass extension and we're good to go.

I painted the trucks and fuel tank with a warm black mix that was roughly the same as the walkway and pilots, but I tried to lighten it just a tad to reflect what  was seen on the prototype.  I added a bit of Games Effects 72.136 Dry Rust to the fuel tank and frame paint, as well as on the wheel surfaces.  This is a nice gritty looking rust that works well for roller bearing wheel faces as well as surface rust on areas like springs and surfaces on trucks.  

In the 1970's and early 1980's HBM&S painted the stepwells of their locomotives white, likely for visibility to the crews.  On #3 the upper two stepwells were white.  I handpainted these on the model, not being overly concerned with even colouring as the prototype paint looked pretty rough in the reference photos.  The model will get fairly heavy weathering so this will add to the character of the locomotive.  I touched up any errors with black paint.  

Bill Brillinger at Precision Design Co. (www.pdc.ca ) did a bang up job on a custom set of HBM&S decals based on information that myself and my friend Tim S. provided to him.  We can model all the lettering variations of the HBM&S fleet with these decals.  Myself, Tim and Mark P. purchased sets of decals so soon enough we'll have the entire fleet of 9 HBM&S 70T units done, probably multiple times over.  Tim has already moved forward with his fleet of Bachmann 70T units which you can see <here>.  I move at a glacial pace compared to Tim.  He's torn out his old layout and built a new one in the time that I have done a few model projects.  

I airbrushed some Vallejo gloss varnish on the carbody and carefully applied the decals from PDC.  I drew a light pencil line around the carbody using a "fancy" custom made device:

I aligned the pencil based on photos and carefully moved the engine shell and drew a line along the top of the stripe.  This will be all but invisible when the decals are applied and sealed.  The locomotive, desktop and device are all level so a good marker line is made this way.  I trust this more than my eye to keep the striping on the same level.

I painted the etched handrails with Tamiya white primer while they were still on the fret and cut them out after the primer dried.  I touched up any areas that were missed with white paint and glued the handrails in place after bending them to shape.  The etchings are much finer than the Bachmann handrails and are more resilient to handling as well.

This locomotive doesn't have MU so I only added a pair of air hoses on either side of the coupler.  One was for the brakes and the other was used to operate the air dump ore cars.  

These locomotives saw hard service around the smelter hauling ore and switching cars in the yard.  #3 was no exception.  I sprayed Tamiya TS-80 matte finish and used a mix of PanPastel and Vallejo washes to get a well  used look to the model.  After everything was sealed I inserted window glass and glued it in place with canopy glue.  

I replaced the factory decoder with an ESU Loksound decoder with their new GE 70T sound file along with a speaker under the hood.  I had to take the weight out but the lower tractive effort just means more work for the yard crew which isn't a bad thing.  The headlights were also replaced with SMD LED that I purchased online.  The smelter on my layout now has a plant switcher.  One down, 8 more to go...