North Coast Limited


montanan

Whiskey Merchant
This was posted on the old forum.

When I was growing up, our family took regular trips on the North Coast Limited. Traveling by train back in the 50's and 60's was nothing like it is today. Rail travel was fantastic. I had picked up an Athearn Geinis F-7A years ago when it first came out and had picking up Walthers passenger cars painted in the Lowey paint scheme whenever I could find one at a reasonable price.

I had been on the lookout to try to get another A unit and a B unit but everything I found was DCC (I am a DC operator) and quite expensive. I stumbled on a Stewart F-3A in the Lowey paint scheme as well as an F-7B on ebay for $36. When they arrived, the Northern Pacific green, both light and dark were completely wrong. Also the units were not numbered. Time to get out the air brush. I was able to locate the proper NCL colors from Tru-Color. Being that the units were not numbered, a complete repaint was in order as well as adding some proper details.

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The dual horns that came with the unit were removed so the proper 5 chime horn that the NP used could be added and a winterization hatch added.
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After the unit was repainted with the proper colors, decals started being applied.

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The proper road numbers were applied and the handrails were then installed.
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The B unit was next. Also the wrong color and the stainless steel grills along the upper part of the body were painted the same color as the body and a winterization hatch and steam generator details were added.

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Getting close now. I still don't have all of the detail parts as they have been on back order for months now. I need the proper spark arrestors and the firecracker antenna and then MU hoses can be added to complete the locomotives.

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It's not perfect, but for my old eyes, it will work.

The North Coast Limited would never had shown up on my rails even though I do connect with the Northern Pacific at Logan, MT but it was just one of those projects. There are like to have things and need to have things. Having been a passenger on the North Coast Limited, it was one of those need to have things. One other thing is that it is a bit long to run on my short line switching layout. Doesn't matter, I have it.


 
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..had [been] picking up Walthers passenger cars painted in the Lowey paint scheme whenever I could find one at a reasonable price.
So what do you think of the color of the Walther's cars? All my NP equipment had been painted using Scale Coat paints (#60 & #61). I bought several of the Walther's cars and found they don't match.
 
The Walthers cars were almost an exact match to the Athearn Genisis F-7 and the Tru-Color paint. The colors on the Stewart units weren't even close and that's why a repaint was necessary.
 
That 1950's video shows it to have been so windy twisty a route it is perfect for a model railroad. The foreshortening effect of the camera makes the cars look like the 60 foot brass import coaches of the train.

In 1953 I was all of 7 and living in Billings so no GN but I do remember the multi track NP crossings at Main and seeing huge black 4-8-4's.
 
Looks great. There's an unwritten rule, must haves are not to be questioned, just obtained. Unless you ask my wife......
 
That 1950's video shows it to have been so windy twisty a route it is perfect for a model railroad. The foreshortening effect of the camera makes the cars look like the 60 foot brass import coaches of the train.

In 1953 I was all of 7 and living in Billings so no GN but I do remember the multi track NP crossings at Main and seeing huge black 4-8-4's.

I noticed that some of the locations in the film were incorrect. It is a winding line. The tracks from Billings to Livingston pretty well parallels the Yellowstone River. To the west, the tracks parallel the Clark Fork River and also the Milwaukee Road tracks which pretty well ran right along side the Northern Pacific tracks. Even today you can see the old roadbed of the Milwaukee Road, along with some remaining bridges and tunnels right along side the MRL/BNSF tracks.
 



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