Lanes Trains S Scale B&O GP30 6944

B&O GP30 6944

B&O GP30 6944 East St Louis Illinois 8-20-78

This S Scale GP30 was imported by Greenbrier Models in 1997, sold by Bill’s Train Shop (BTS) as item #1001. I did not know some GP30 did not have dynamic brakes. Version #1001 is low hood without dynamic brakes. High Hood for Southern and a PRR version was also made. Most GP30 in the east had dynamic brakes. I did score an original GP30 dynamic brake fan – not easy for a 26 year old loco that did not offer spare parts. That detail was easily changed. The other visible dynamic brake detail difference is a mesh grill casting pointing downward to the walkway under the dynamic brake fan that #1001 does not have. I could not get that original part. I am not shy about chopping into brass models to modify them but access to this area is difficult to use some other mesh screen. With the B&O dark blue it will not be very visible that the grill is missing - good enough.

The idea for this project was because of decals I purchased from Ed Sauers in 2021. I try and buy decals to support decal projects. Maybe they will get used. Ed makes great quality decals.

In 2022 a number of GP30 came up for sale on eBay and collection liquidation sales. This was the first one I bought, originally intended to be Reading. B&O 6944 is the first of a group of 4 GP30 I decided to make that still exist as already restored or are planned to be restored. They are, B&O 6944 at the B&O Museum in Baltimore, B&O Chessie 6955 at the Cincinnati Scenic Railway, Conrail 2233 at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and Reading 5513 at the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society Museum.

These photos were taken 8-11-17 at the B&O Railroad Museum. This was likely the start of my GP30 obsession! Even though this was the short lived “Sunburst” nose scheme I like it. It will look good running with the F9 and GP35 as other B&O 1960s scheme locos I have.

This is a stock GP30 #1001 as arrived on 8-8-22.

This is showing the addition of the dynamic brake fan. There was a block off sheet here that I removed.

I cut a hole in the cab sub-roof to make access to the front headlight possible. It is otherwise not possible to easily add headlights. I also remove the front and rear headlight bezel castings to open up the shell to stuff 2) 3MM LEDs in place.

This is showing my now standard rework of the GP30 drive as well as most other brass loco drives. I removed the plastic tubing motor coupling and added a real NWSL motor coupling. I also flip 2 axles so all insulated wheels are on 1 side. I add the electrical pickups as shown using Miniatronics 2 wire plugs.

Completed 1-25-23

The decaling was pretty simple except for the dashed stripe on the walkway. On the real 6944 it is in a continuous repeated pattern like the handrail stanchions are not there but they are. It is not like any number of dashes are in between the handrail stanchions. The dashes vary in length depending on where they are. And the walkway was bowed a bit making eyeing a straight line even more difficult. I did not put on the typical small warning decals. 6944 at least in the museum did not have many warning labels anyway. The sunburst on the nose fit perfectly. The sunburst on the long hood is a little higher than it should be. No matter where I moved it the decal had more issues with hand grab irons. This loco was gloss coated to fit in with the restored museum loco theme. I am happy to say this loco runs REALLY well.

Updated 1-26-23