again, hi steve !!! just watched your weathering of chessie/csx hoppers and the weathering looks nice !!! here is another trick to go along with your baking soda texture... way back when i was attending rx school at univ. of buffalo i accidentally spilled a small bottle of liquid white out on my desk and did not get all of it cleaned up... several days later i found a hardened "glob" and wiped it up, but there was some residual left behind with a bit of texture to it. it then hit me that this stuff would make a good weathering material for hoppers, gons, etc. !!! it comes in yellow ( for legal pad use i assume) and white, but i have since used docs weathering powders from micro mark to add different colors to the white. i have used the white with a touch of black for a gray cement spillage when loading, yellow with a bit of red for sulphur spillage on 3 and 4 bay older hoppers... you can imagine the possibilities with this stuff... relatively cheap, too !!! there are different ways to use this liquid. .. i have hit it straight downward with a small but stiff paint brush, stippling i believe it is called... i have also let it dry ( as i accidentally did on my desk years ago, as previously discussed) and then wiped/dabbed it and in both cases it left a nice, dried out edge to the spillage area which was readily visible and a bit raised up from the inner spillage area. cold beers to you, steve !!!
hi steve !!! excellent video work !! 2 points for you... first, i watched one of your previous clips and you asked for suggestions on weathering telephone poles, so here is what i do. i make a slurry of burnt umber oil paint and thinner in a small glass/porcelain bowl and just "glop on" the mix and it seems to look fine as the watery part gives one type of weathering look and the thicker "muddier" part of the slurry give a different look, all of which ends up pretty nice. pre-spraying the poles w/dullcote helps a bit as it seems to help both the thick and the thin slurries stick a bit better !! then, for the look of "newer" poles, you can actually add a bit of tan/buckskin colored acrylic paint and they will look like a somewhat recently upgraded pole ! i buy the cheap acrylic paints at walmart... the manufacturer is called apple barrel but i am sure there are others as well. second, after your atlas gp 38 cr review, i am considering buying the 2 furx engines for my pike... nice job on that video, steve !! i model the current bprr from buffalo,ny to pittsburgh and always "fit-in" an older p2k crq/crq/ns (non horse head) sd60's consist that runs eastward towards nyc ( "NEW YORK CITY ???) and the engines are very smooth runners, lubed nicely and 20-22 years old !!! life like did excellent engineering on their sd 50/60 products prior to their purchase by walthers... do you run any on your pike ? steve, please keep up the really nice videos as your discussion style is really down to earth and well versed !! i am retired now and mondays are work days on my rr... i will run my crq consist today in your honor, with an ice cold beer at lunch !!! blessings to you, steve !! ps... i buy the cheap, old ahm telephone poles at the shows as their dimensions are perfect and cheap !!! also, if you look at poles near rr tracks here in western ny state, most are beat to hell and leaning over, so the cheap ahm poles are a perfect fit !!!
Thank You! The Atlas GP38's are defiantly worth picking up. Ill have to try out that technique with the next set of poles I weather as it sounds like it would work great! I don't currently have any of the Proto 2000 locomotives currently on the layout although I may pick up a few in the future.
steve... if you want to find some nice p2k sd 50/60 engines, trainz has them now and then, especially the beautiful sd 60 safety cab in crq... totally beautiful and they pull like crazy !!! of course you must add a decoder, but putting one with a p2k ns ( non horse-head), which can be found, too, looks and works great on the layout !!! i went to a local club at christmas time and most folks could not believe their pulling power as 3 crq's pulled a 44 car train around the pike smoothly and easily for over one full hour !!! yes, they do not have the detail of scaletrains or athearn, but with your weathering skills i see in your videos, i am sure you can "supe-them-up" !!! i believe i have 20 or so p2k's on my pke and they are the real thing !!! blessings to you, steve !!!@@ConrailSteve
Awesome review! A Scale Sound Systems speaker would be a great replacement for the factory speaker. Atlas, Walthers, Fox Valley, and older Intermountain locomotives seem to often have cheap speakers in them.
It look great and nice details too. Look at how easy it is to remove the body contrary to some other overprice loco😄. Since it it Atlas you know it's smooth and reliable. 👍👍
I was very impressed with this GP38 and how it looked. I also really love how well these Atlas units always run and how easy they are to open up and work on when needed.
Wow this loco looks good in person, I have only seen the illustration of it on the online retailer’s sites. I might need to buy this one. I bought an Athearn SD38 after watching your review on those, and I like it. I do not have dcc atm, might just get this in DC and upgrade to DCC and sound later down the road.
Thats part of the reason I am making these product videos when new things come out. The illustrations and stock photos never seem to really show how good a model actually looks. These do have the stock Atlas 21 pin DC/DCC board in them so upgrading to DCC would be easy plug and play when the time comes.
@@ConrailSteve Heard on that. So when I buy a decoder with sound, where does the speaker go? Can I buy the same decoder that comes on the ones that have sound from the factory?
I believe the DCC ready Atlas units have the plastic speaker mount that the sound ones have just with no speaker installed but am not positive on that. If anything a cube type speaker could be mounted on the rear weight the same as location the sound ones have factory. You can buy the same ESU V5 decoder that comes in these factory but will need to have it programmed with the factory sound file off the ESU website. Most places that sell the decoders will do this for free but personally I would recommend getting a Lokprogrammer and doing it yourself. They are pricey but they are worth it the more locomotives you add ESU to.
I am very surprised by the huge color tempature difference in the head lights and ditch lights. The ditch lights look yellow. That would drive me crazy.
Thank you! I actually have a pair of the CSX GP40's from the most recent run as well (one YN2 and one Pumpkin). Those are quite nice as well but the ditch lights on those don't look as nice in my opinion.
I still have one of the old Athearn blue box philly division sets myself! These new atlas units would be a great starting point to build a proper philly division GP38.
@@ConrailSteve I agree, I actually made mine out of the original Atlas gold but not happy with the decals , cmr decals are layers and didn't set right . But 3' rule no complaints.
I have some of those CMR decals as well to build one eventually. The CMR decals can be very hit and miss I’ve found as sometimes they go on smooth and are barely noticeable, other times they end up with edges that are very visible.
@@ConrailSteve I agree , after the decal is in position, I hold it down with my finger to get it flat .. little trick... shouldn't have to do that . But it stays down, sometimes
again, hi steve !!! just watched your weathering of chessie/csx hoppers and the weathering looks nice !!! here is another trick to go along with your baking soda texture... way back when i was attending rx school at univ. of buffalo i accidentally spilled a small bottle of liquid white out on my desk and did not get all of it cleaned up... several days later i found a hardened "glob" and wiped it up, but there was some residual left behind with a bit of texture to it. it then hit me that this stuff would make a good weathering material for hoppers, gons, etc. !!! it comes in yellow ( for legal pad use i assume) and white, but i have since used docs weathering powders from micro mark to add different colors to the white. i have used the white with a touch of black for a gray cement spillage when loading, yellow with a bit of red for sulphur spillage on 3 and 4 bay older hoppers... you can imagine the possibilities with this stuff... relatively cheap, too !!! there are different ways to use this liquid. .. i have hit it straight downward with a small but stiff paint brush, stippling i believe it is called... i have also let it dry ( as i accidentally did on my desk years ago, as previously discussed) and then wiped/dabbed it and in both cases it left a nice, dried out edge to the spillage area which was readily visible and a bit raised up from the inner spillage area. cold beers to you, steve !!!
Ill have to try that out on the next set of covered hoppers I weather!
hi steve !!! excellent video work !! 2 points for you... first, i watched one of your previous clips and you asked for suggestions on weathering telephone poles, so here is what i do. i make a slurry of burnt umber oil paint and thinner in a small glass/porcelain bowl and just "glop on" the mix and it seems to look fine as the watery part gives one type of weathering look and the thicker "muddier" part of the slurry give a different look, all of which ends up pretty nice. pre-spraying the poles w/dullcote helps a bit as it seems to help both the thick and the thin slurries stick a bit better !! then, for the look of "newer" poles, you can actually add a bit of tan/buckskin colored acrylic paint and they will look like a somewhat recently upgraded pole ! i buy the cheap acrylic paints at walmart... the manufacturer is called apple barrel but i am sure there are others as well. second, after your atlas gp 38 cr review, i am considering buying the 2 furx engines for my pike... nice job on that video, steve !! i model the current bprr from buffalo,ny to pittsburgh and always "fit-in" an older p2k crq/crq/ns (non horse head) sd60's consist that runs eastward towards nyc ( "NEW YORK CITY ???) and the engines are very smooth runners, lubed nicely and 20-22 years old !!! life like did excellent engineering on their sd 50/60 products prior to their purchase by walthers... do you run any on your pike ? steve, please keep up the really nice videos as your discussion style is really down to earth and well versed !! i am retired now and mondays are work days on my rr... i will run my crq consist today in your honor, with an ice cold beer at lunch !!! blessings to you, steve !! ps... i buy the cheap, old ahm telephone poles at the shows as their dimensions are perfect and cheap !!! also, if you look at poles near rr tracks here in western ny state, most are beat to hell and leaning over, so the cheap ahm poles are a perfect fit !!!
Thank You! The Atlas GP38's are defiantly worth picking up. Ill have to try out that technique with the next set of poles I weather as it sounds like it would work great! I don't currently have any of the Proto 2000 locomotives currently on the layout although I may pick up a few in the future.
steve... if you want to find some nice p2k sd 50/60 engines, trainz has them now and then, especially the beautiful sd 60 safety cab in crq... totally beautiful and they pull like crazy !!! of course you must add a decoder, but putting one with a p2k ns ( non horse-head), which can be found, too, looks and works great on the layout !!! i went to a local club at christmas time and most folks could not believe their pulling power as 3 crq's pulled a 44 car train around the pike smoothly and easily for over one full hour !!! yes, they do not have the detail of scaletrains or athearn, but with your weathering skills i see in your videos, i am sure you can "supe-them-up" !!! i believe i have 20 or so p2k's on my pke and they are the real thing !!! blessings to you, steve !!!@@ConrailSteve
Ill have to keep an eye on Trainz I buy alot from them. Hopefully they will get one in for a reasonable price soon
Awesome review! A Scale Sound Systems speaker would be a great replacement for the factory speaker. Atlas, Walthers, Fox Valley, and older Intermountain locomotives seem to often have cheap speakers in them.
Thank you! I have been wanting to try out the Scale Sound Systems stuff for a while now just need the right project for it and this may be it!
It look great and nice details too. Look at how easy it is to remove the body contrary to some other overprice loco😄. Since it it Atlas you know it's smooth and reliable. 👍👍
I was very impressed with this GP38 and how it looked. I also really love how well these Atlas units always run and how easy they are to open up and work on when needed.
Wow this loco looks good in person, I have only seen the illustration of it on the online retailer’s sites. I might need to buy this one. I bought an Athearn SD38 after watching your review on those, and I like it. I do not have dcc atm, might just get this in DC and upgrade to DCC and sound later down the road.
Thats part of the reason I am making these product videos when new things come out. The illustrations and stock photos never seem to really show how good a model actually looks. These do have the stock Atlas 21 pin DC/DCC board in them so upgrading to DCC would be easy plug and play when the time comes.
@@ConrailSteve Heard on that. So when I buy a decoder with sound, where does the speaker go? Can I buy the same decoder that comes on the ones that have sound from the factory?
I believe the DCC ready Atlas units have the plastic speaker mount that the sound ones have just with no speaker installed but am not positive on that. If anything a cube type speaker could be mounted on the rear weight the same as location the sound ones have factory. You can buy the same ESU V5 decoder that comes in these factory but will need to have it programmed with the factory sound file off the ESU website. Most places that sell the decoders will do this for free but personally I would recommend getting a Lokprogrammer and doing it yourself. They are pricey but they are worth it the more locomotives you add ESU to.
Good to know, there are some Conrail fans, love the extra attention to details
Thank You!
Oooo!! I have to get one!
They are really nice and a great value for the price!
I have to take some pictures of the conrail locomotives I have.
Great layout and your work is awesome especially the Conrail fleetsss..,joe
Thank You!
I am very surprised by the huge color tempature difference in the head lights and ditch lights. The ditch lights look yellow. That would drive me crazy.
I was surprised as well but it does make sense as the the ditchlights and headlights use different style bulbs.
Awesome video brother I have the orange CSX GP40 new run as well
Thank you! I actually have a pair of the CSX GP40's from the most recent run as well (one YN2 and one Pumpkin). Those are quite nice as well but the ditch lights on those don't look as nice in my opinion.
@@ConrailSteve you should definitely do a video on that pair so we can see what you think of them
I may try to fit that in in the future. I have a lot of videos planned out for the next few months so Ill try my best to fit that in.
Really cool man you should wether by the way love you layout
Thank You! I do plan on weathering it and upgrading the lighting etc eventually.
Athearn puts everything on a -2 😒philly division too. Supposed to be 38. This is a great step forward!
I still have one of the old Athearn blue box philly division sets myself! These new atlas units would be a great starting point to build a proper philly division GP38.
@@ConrailSteve I agree, I actually made mine out of the original Atlas gold but not happy with the decals , cmr decals are layers and didn't set right . But 3' rule no complaints.
I have some of those CMR decals as well to build one eventually. The CMR decals can be very hit and miss I’ve found as sometimes they go on smooth and are barely noticeable, other times they end up with edges that are very visible.
@@ConrailSteve I agree , after the decal is in position, I hold it down with my finger to get it flat .. little trick... shouldn't have to do that . But it stays down, sometimes
I have the worst luck trying to push down on decals they always seem to tear whenever I do that.
What scale is this loco?
HO Scale. Sometimes the obvious thing get overlooked when making a video and somehow I forgot to mention that in it.