Scratchbuilt GE Prime Mover 7FDL

[GAPPLEG]

Well I'm done with this project as far as I'm going to take it. Enough is enough. It's been an excercise in ? patience? insanity? There is no way I'm going to make many of these , its a nightmare. But it's going to look good at my GE service shop on the layout.









Questions, comment welcome, before they take me away ha ha.

[Anonymous]

WOW!! FANTASTIC, that would look so cool on the inside of an engine with the axcess doors open going down the rails!

nice job!
Sean

[accord1959]

Very nice, it will look great outside your service shop indeed!

[MisterBeasley]

Wow. How are you going to display it, inside the shop or out? Or maybe mounted on a dummy body with the shell removed? It's bee-yooo-ti-ful.

[GAPPLEG]

I thought the first one would go outside the shop, maybe being shipped out to a railroad. But everyone keeps saying put it on a model, will have to think about it. I will maybe make another one some day, it's very time consuming. So one or the other will go on an athearn frame with the cab removed maybe.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

That looks dynamite. If you hadn't said it was scratch-built, I would have thought it came from a top flight kit.

[Anonymous]

the first one is allways the hardest, the second one yo build i bet will go twice as fast.

Sean

[Anonymous]

Very nice. Outstanding job. Keep up the good work.


Matt

[dragonriversteel]

Good god man........thats a great looking prime mover. Looks like a prime mover....wait it is a prime mover!!!!!!

Great job......

Patrick
Beaufort,SC
DRSC

[CMSTPP]

That is probably the most impressive diesel engine I have ever seen in the modeling world. That would look so cool on a locomotive with the doors on the side open to make look as if it were being worked on..... HEY!!! There you go.. Now you need a locomotive and build it so the doors are open and place the engine inside....[;)]

James

[GAPPLEG]

And for my next act of insanity, a GE EVO engine is in my mind. God, I must hate myself. This and a RAD cab from an AC4400 being repaired at the shop, with all the contiguous equipment on the interior of a RAD cab no one ever sees. Like some people here know I work at GE and can go look at this stuff first hand, can't take pictures in the plant though, firing offense. Anyway thanks for all the kind remarks, Up close it's ratty looking , but the three foot rule works great. from a distance it's fine.

[Adelie]

Looks great! It should add a "wow" factor to the service facility.

Maybe your next one should be an old Alco, complete with oil leaks?!? Nevermind.

[TrainFreak409]

That is absolutely stunning! How many hours of work was invested into the creation of that piece of art? That's incredible!

And the judges say:

[:)]-10 [:D]-10 [8D]-10 [^]-10

[bow]

[Hawkeye251]

That's amazing, I can't wait to see some pics of your service shop.

[GAPPLEG]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Adelie

Looks great! It should add a "wow" factor to the service facility.

Maybe your next one should be an old Alco, complete with oil leaks?!? Nevermind.

Don't laugh to soon, I recently aquired some great photos of Alco switcher engines, FM engines also, My insanity could take me anywhere. We re-build old Alco engines in Grove city,PA. and San Luis Potosi , Mexico. Service shop photo is somewhere in my
photo bucket : here it is:


GE engine not there yet.

[AntonioFP45]

Gappleg,

BTW: Is this version a modern FDL or the unit from the 1970s thru early 80s?

[mtrails]

QUOTE: Originally posted by GAPPLEG

Well I'm done with this project as far as I'm going to take it. Enough is enough. It's been an excercise in ? patience? insanity? There is no way I'm going to make many of these , its a nightmare. But it's going to look good at my GE service shop on the layout.

Questions, comment welcome, before they take me away ha ha.

It looks like an excercise in quality modelmanship to me. Speechless otherwise.

Jeremy

[ericsp]

Outstanding job. Judging for all of the detail on it, I can imagine that building it would be a nightmare. Any plans to built one in Z scale?[:D]

[GAPPLEG]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45

Gappleg,

BTW: Is this version a modern FDL or the unit from the 1970s thru early 80s?

As a master, I used photos of the later model, hence the cylindercal alternator, On the old ones there were two aux. generators attached to the Alternator/generator.Even this one isn't quite right but I'm frustrated right now after weeks of play with tiny stuff.

[Anonymous]

Great job. I was thinking you ought to put it on a flat car being shipped off to the railroad's main shop to be put in an awaiting diesel.

[davekelly]

Fantastic job!!!

[GAPPLEG]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dirtyd79

Great job. I was thinking you ought to put it on a flat car being shipped off to the railroad's main shop to be put in an awaiting diesel.

If you look at the service shop picture there is an EMD 567 on a flat moving out soon.
Rebuilt Rad Cab on left waiting to be sent to the railroad, 7FDL engine in center.

[AntonioFP45]

Gappleg,

Wow! That is excellent! That baby there looks like an FDL16 to me.

There is a cool b&w photo in the "Seaboard Coast Line in Florida" book by Bob Warren. It shows a U36B inside of the Uceta Locomotive shop. The hood section between the cab and the radiator is removed and what is revealed is a great view of the 16 cylinder prime mover and all of the attached components.

You can easily do a similar shop scene with an Athearn U-Boat. Power it with a PDT type truck motor so it can move around on its own!

Thanks for showing us your Outstanding work!

[BigBlueConrail]

Thats cool, I like the detail of that engine!

[AntonioFP45]

Gappleg,

Regarding the above photo (beautiful work) is that "Rad Cab" the radiator wing section for a GE U-Boat?

[GAPPLEG]

Yes. its the Radiator Cab from an athearn dash-9. Just had a shell laying around that I had messed up, cut it off and added the details you would see if you had this off an unit.

[Anonymous]

This is great work. Your talent speaks volumes. I wish I was half as good.

[Anonymous]

Very fine looking model. It's things like this that I wish were available commercially as I would like to build a model in eithe HO or O scale of an EMD hood unit right down to the traction motors. There are kits available of planes, ships,armor and automobiles that have that level of detail but no locomotives. What a shame, since I don't think I could do such a project from scratch as you have done.

[304live]

that looks really good

[AntonioFP45]

QUOTE: Originally posted by GAPPLEG

Yes. its the Radiator Cab from an athearn dash-9. Just had a shell laying around that I had messed up, cut it off and added the details you would see if you had this off an unit.

Good job on the details within the Radiator Wing Cab!  The dark gray tubes look like coolant hoses with red colored hose connections. The shiny cylindrical objects towards the bottom.....are they a type of 2nd stage oil filter?