A few questions on GP7/9m's [Chopped Nose]

  The nose on Conrail 7571 appears flat.  What type of chopnose Geep are you trying to model?

I spent a good bit of time on a former Seaboard/CSX "GP16" rebuild in the late 90's. Those units have a flat short hood, and on this particular one (1706), there was a toilet in the nose. Obviously this would vary according to the railroad or contractor that rebuilt a certain unit. For instance, Conrail 7571 above appears to be one of the group rebuilt by IC's Paducah shop. Seaboard did the GP16 fleet at its Tampa shops, and many others were built by contractors like Precision National.

The Western Maryland Geeps had a flat chopnose.  The number boards were left in the nose, and on all but the first one, a large one-piece windshield was installed.  The first one had a two piece windshield. 

What type of chopnose Geep are you trying to model?

 

The Conrail types. I see many pics showing a flat hood.

If you're looking for a tradition model, I'd start with this: Lionel Conrail GP20.

 

Technically, its the same old GP7 tooling with the nose already "chopped".  The dynamic brake housing should pop right off, hence the 3 small fans.

 

Or, if you wanted to go with a GP18/20... MTH Railking GP20. note the 48" fans.

 

Thanks,

Mario

 

 

A real GP20 had a COMPLETELY different nose configuration as delivered from EMD, i.e. it was tapered from the windshield downward towards the front. 

Yup... it clearly visible in the models, especially the old Proto2000 geeps.

 

Weren't there some with one-piece windshields and some with two?  The pic shows two, but I remember single windshield...

 

Thanks,

Mario

The low nose GP 18s/20s had one piece windshields as delivered from the factory.  So did the low nose late GP9s that were delivered to to Southern Pacific. 

I love that "torpedo tube" ex NYC model. I will have to wait for that one to do as my anticipated mTH "engineering sample" will have a dynamic brake blister. thanks for the rooftop view! SWEET!

 

Now that is surely an ex-NYC GP7 rebuild!  With the four small fans...

Nice.

I might be remembering this wrong, but it seems to me at one time EMD offered a "kit" to railroads that wanted to do a chopnose alteration on a GP. I seem to recall years ago reading something about how on a particular railroad, the engines whose noses were altered with the EMD parts had a slight taper down, where the ones done by the railroad where they removed the top of the short hood off and chopped the sides down and reinstalled the original roof section lower down, were flat.

A real GP20 had a COMPLETELY different nose configuration as delivered from EMD, i.e. it was tapered from the windshield downward towards the front.

 

NOt to mention the other differences as well;

• boxy cooling vent for traction motor structure after the cab on fireman's side

• different fuel tank/air tank sub assembly underneath:
• 
• Different hood cooling fans on top.

 Thanks for the suggestion though!