I became interested in modeling Boston & Maine in the 1980’s after reading Scott Hartley’s book Guilford, 5 Years of Change. The variety of paint schemes and the possibility of modern era modeling in N scale was attractive to me. This book has a large number of great color photos and a great locomotive roster at the end. The New England Rail Photography Archive was also an invaluable tool for finding photos of Guilford operations during this time period and later.
GuilfordGP-40
This is an old Atlas (imported from Yugoslavia) GP-40 shell with new fans and grab irons added. This is on a used Kato mechanism. The Atlas shell has the nose headlight just like the prototype MEC 381. This is the only GP-40 in the Guilford roster to have nose headlights instead of headlights over the windshield. I custom painted and decaled it. Hand rails are a bit large. May be some day they'll get replaced. It runs well and is my first Guilford painted loco.
Guilford SD-26
I am using the Lifelike SD-9 locomotive with a Lifelike GP-20 cab and a scratch-built blower/filter hood section to model this in N scale. The GP-20 cab/nose fits on to the SD-9 fine. My first attempt to build the blower/filter section did not come out square so I am trying again. Model Railroader had a Jim Six article on building the SD-26 in HO some time 2001. This has been very helpful.
Guilford purchased several of these used from the Santa Fe railroad and they still operate on the Guilford Rail System (former Boston & Maine and Maine Central).
GP-9 Repaint
I am repainting a used Atlas GP-9 to the 1970’s Boston & Maine blue scheme. The paint and decals are complete. I just need to spray with Dullcoat and weather it.
Future GP-40-2W Project
Athabasca Scale Models makes the wide nose Canadian safety cab shown here. I plan to put this on an Atlas GP-40 and paint and decal it for the Guilford GP-40-2W bought second hand from Canadian National.
U-18B Project
I have shortened a Bachmann U36B shell, replaced the radiator with a U30C radiator and will put it on an Atlas RS-3 chassis to construct an MEC U18B. Model Railroading, Sept, '96 has a good article on kitbashing an HO U18 that I am using for guidance. I have also gotten invaluable information from a Yahoogroups HO U18B kitbash clinic run by Jim Six and Mike Rose. Mike did one of the Guilford U18B's. I'll paint it in GRS gray and orange..
Kato RS-11
This is not really a project. I got this as a Father’s Day gift from my amazing wife! What a surprise! It runs beautifully, fits the period that I model and looks beautiful in the MEC Harvest Gold and Pine Green. I have addded white safety stripes on the pilots, move the horn over the nose, added number board decals and a bell per MEC prototype photos. These additions are not shown in the photo above. Now I just need to weather it.
DJJX Gondola
I used an Oddball Decals set to customer letter a MDC Thrall high side gondola for David J Joseph Company.. Apparently the Boston & Maine delivers these to scrap dealers in Massachusetts for scrap service. Prototype photos are available at the Highball Graphics website. They offer a similar set in HO scale.
Last Updated 12/28/03
