finally finished my Kato Southern Pacific SD38-2

[Anonymous]

I am finally done with my Southern Pacific SD38-2. I have 2 under construction right now. the second one is almost ready for paint. what i did was add a new cannon cab with the rebuilt L window front from Hi-Tech details. then I added a new sub base with the SP split equipment doors. you also have to add a nose light. i seriously doubt that Kato will have all of the proper SP details if they decide to release a SP unit.

if you dont want to go as far as i did, all you really need to do to the Kato unit is add a nose light and a rooftop bell.

here are some shots of my SP SD38-2 that i just finished![:D][:D]







and here is a shot of the prototype from http://espee.railfan.net

[Anonymous]

Very Nice Night Crawler! You've gotta have a lot of sweet looking SP units on your layout by now!

[mustanggt]

That's really cool. It looks WAY better than any kato I've ever seen- modified or unmodified. Hopefully kato will release the SD38-2 in SP due to me being too lazy to paint[:p]

[AggroJones]

Good job.

NightCrawler, keeping the modern SP alive. [tup]

[ericsp]

It looks very good.

[canazar]

Wow, that is stunning... I have a SP in a BB Athern that I want to pratcie on to model it after one close to my house that UP abuses for local industry switching. Guess now I know how good it get... Also, I enjoyed your website. Those detial shots are great.

Again, impressive job Night.

[philnrunt]

Myself and Kenlarsen also have a few of these, I left mine in the EJ&E and USS schemes, they will be secondhand power on my industrial shortline. Ken took the EJ&E and added black side stripes, he posted a few shots of it, and it looked good.
Your painting and weathering are great, you captured the look of well used Espee units (were there any other kind?) to a tee.
Fantastic job.

[cwclark]

looking good...I usually get the detail kits from Details West...their pyle and mars lights are about the SP standard, and with a bit of cutting, filing, grinding,and filling the lights can be installed into the nose relatively quickly. here's a GE U33C i just got finished with last week...chuck

[Anonymous]

Nightcrawler...thanks for using my prototype photo off of Richard Percy's espee homepage. I have also made two models of the SD38-2, not "rivet" correct but they look good to me. I also regeared them for extremely slow operation. Photo taken at Colton Yard.
Ken Perry

[UPJohn]

I have a kato CNW Sd38-2 on the way to my house right now!!!

[Anonymous]

Ken:

thanks for posting all those more recent photos of SP locomotives on that site, they come in really handy. I have a few photos of mine of SP and SSW SW1500's up on there. I am using your photo of 2971 to detail my other SD38-2.

thanks for all the compliments guys[:D] now if i could just motivate myself to fini***hose SD39's........... but I have 2 TEBU's, a SD7R and 10 SD45T-2's on the bench too. i think i have too many projects going at once and not enough time to fini***hem.

[Anonymous]

Great looking model [:P]! I have some EJE's myself.

Do you [or anybody else here] know if any of these ever ran on Tehacheppi?

[Anonymous]

I dont think they ever made it to Tehachapi. they were set up to be used only as switchers at West Colton Yard. but I have heard that they made the rare run into the Los Angeles area.