KCS Ghosts!

For a long time I've always wanted some White KCS Deuces, meaning SD40-2's.

Back when I went railfanning a lot in the late 80's there were a couple sets of coal trains that usually had several KCS white deuces which we affectionately referred to as "Ghosts".  These trains were generally powered with a trio of SD40-2's

Here's a few examples of those trains.

Over the years I was lucky enough to pick up a couple of them.  An SD40-2 Snoot from eBay and an SD40 from a friend.  But I've always wanted a third one to go with the other two.  Well I finally decided to build the third one.

At some point I either seen an illustration or read about someone doing it.  KCS SD40-2's were numbered in the high 600's and one was numbered 666.  I pulled up CorelDraw and made quick drawing of a pentagram and added the wording "The Beast" so that I could add it to one side of the long hood.

In the process of gathering up everything I needed for the build, I remembered a guy on one of the forums who models KCS and how he always wished some manufacturer would release a white KCS SD40-2.

So I contacted him and asked if he'd like to have one?  Of course he said, so I decided to build two of them.  Mine would be a standard SD40-2 and his would be a snoot version, both of which KATO made in N scale.  

Unfortunately I did not get a lot of pictures as I was building them, because I was planning to use washes this time and I was thinking more about that than pictures.

Instead of using Pan Pastels this time around as I have on most of my recent Rock Island locos, I decided to give some commercial washes a try this time, primarily due to the fact that the locos were white.  I think the pan pastels would have or could have gotten them too dirty too quick?

These were made by MIG AMMO from their Rail Center line of washes, powders and paints.

There wasn't much for detail parts to add:  Three Firecracker antennas, a beacon, a horn and instead of a plow, they used what others have referred to as a "Rock Kicker" plow.  Here you can see what they look like.

I started out with TCP KCS Off White.

With the basic weathering done it was time to apply the washes.  I started out using one called "Aged", a very light gray, then I used another one called "Old Streaking Dust".  By the time that was applied it was getting kind of dark so I stopped.  But on the one for my friend, he said he wanted it rather dirty as he was modeling a later time period, so I added a lot of soot to his as well as some rust stains and burn marks.

This is how they turned out.

The 683

The Beast

I was pretty happy with how the washes worked out, now I have another weapon to add to my arsenal.