Lanes Trains S Scale Conrail N8 23317

Conrail N8 23317

Conrail was a bit loose on standardized paint jobs. They varied greatly. There is a large Conrail logo version I did not like as much.

In spring 2022 a number of Overland GP38-2 and SD40-2 started appearing for sale. This continued for a year, including the “rare - most correct for Conrail” OMI1740. I now have 3 of the 15 made. And so became my Conrail and “modern” modeling binge, which is where the N8 comes in. It only took me 28 years to want and get another one, to be painted for Conrail this time. Conrail spanned a long time. I am not that era specific with my modern.

This is a Southwind Models PRR N8 “Cabin Car” SWM-C6 released in 1995. All of them made had the PRR Trainphone except for 10 models made without the antennas and roofwalks for Penn Central and Conrail. None of the 10 should have been factory painted for PRR but all 10 were. I bought 5) N8 in 1995, 3 of which were without the antennas and roofwalks. I added the roofwalks back to those 3 models and painted them for PRR. To the best of my knowledge they are the only S Scale N8 painted correctly for PRR without the antennas but with the correct roofwalks and full height ladders. So with this Conrail N8 project I now own 4 of the 10 made.

This is the N8 as built and painted by Southwind right out of the box. It is very wrong for PRR as shown.

Blub Blub Blub

I use automotive lacquer thinner for stripper. It works very well most of the time. I clean out my airbrush with it too.

There are a few of my parts added to this N8 including my draft gear. They were made before I was designing in Solidworks. The master patterns were made old school machining the parts. This puts the coupler correctly at 24” away from the end sill.

I designed this new stack in Solidworks on 6-3-23. The stack shown below is handmade I will replace when the stack from Shapeways arrives.

Some minor underbody details were removed and added. A signal box for the PRR Trainphone antennas that this version never had was removed. There was a smaller belt driven generator removed. Prototype photos showed a driveshaft driven generator so I added 1. It is probably a passenger car generator that is a bit large but is the only 1 I had. You can SEE it when the car is running. Good enough.

Detailing Done

6-4-23

Detailing is done except for changing the smoke stack. Note the cupola corner grab irons were removed. I got the top photo of 23317 2 days after I removed the grab irons! If there is no roofwalk photos showed the grab irons were usually removed too. I lucked out and got the last pair of leaf spring roller bearing trucks from Bills Train Shop that are much closer to the Conrail N8 trucks. The bearing ends turn as well. I added a safety kick plate to the end railings. I used my cut lever brackets I first made in 1992. The cut levers are phosphor bronze wire. It was a fun detailing project – nothing that too heavy or that involved.

Ready For Paint

6-18-23

The Shapeways “H” stack I designed fit really well. The difference between my handmade stack above and the Shapeways is small but I like the Shapeways stack better. I want to wait until I have some SD40-2 ready to paint using my now rare sealed bottles of Scalecoat Conrail Blue to paint the N8.

Added 3-3-24

This is what a bare brass car looks like after being left to sit for 8 months. I got “distracted” with other projects as usual.

Painted

Added 3-30-24

I had 2 new sealed bottles of Scalecoat Conrail Blue I was saving. I was painting 2 SD40-2 so I made sure I got this N8 painted on 3-14-24 too. There was almost none leftover. This batch was a nudge on the lighter side but just still acceptable for me. I normally would paint the roof first as the minority color but I painted the Conrail blue first. At the last second I decided to leave the Kartrack label off. I don’t have many of them on my other cars plus it dates the car to a specific time period.

The masking was rather extensive. New to me this year was using Tamiya masking tape. That worked pretty well giving sharp cut lines right off the rolls. I previously would cut a new edge on the tape with a steel ruler and Exacto knife. I have my own oven in my shop just for baking paint.

Completed 3-30-24

This was not as extensive of a detail job as my earlier PRR N8. I thought about adding marker lights (not lit) but none for this era exist in S Scale. All of my projects for the past year+ have used Circus City decals custom made for that project to the exact number I wanted. I highly recommend them. But there was a CMR Products decal set made just for the Conrail N8 included with the car. I never used CMR before, but pretty much did not like them instantly. The decals on the Conrail logo curled up in the shape of the printing. This is not a difficult car to decal but I stopped. I got a decal set from K4 Pacifc also using them for the first time. It was a generic Conrail caboose set so not the convenience of just cutting out the correct number. I had to old school it cutting out individual numbers etc but the quality was excellent. The decals went on well.

There are handrails on the end walls that should be white. The handrails go right into the tight corners of the platform safety walls making access really difficult. I got those handrails painted yellow many years ago when I first painted my PRR N8. My dexterity is not what it used to be so they are remaining blue here. Good enough. I had the weathering dusty as I wanted it but it got smeared during assembly so I had to add more. It is what it is…. some days you are the windshield some days you are the bug.

Updated 3-30-24