Presenting Lionel Santa Fe GP35 w/pictures

Nice looking unit.

I prefer this color scheme as well on SF locomotives.  I really wanted a set, but I should have a place to run them 1st.  Thanks for the photos, it's a beauty.

I was waiting to see pix before I bought one to go with my GP30. I see they left out the gauge on the side of the fuel tank again, although their catalog shows it has one. No big deal, another Detail Associates part I can add, as well as Roof top AC, antenna stand, moving the horn, eliminating the foot boards, fixed pilots with Kadees....

Oh yeah, its another project for me...not that I need one.

At least Lionel got the pilots aligned right with the GP35. As you know, the rear pilot of the Santa Fe GP30 was just a tad off (being a bit sarcastic).

 

Also, the catalog picture is not of a Lionel product. It appears to be an HO sized unit. So it is not surprising that the actual product is a bit different.

 

 

 

Yes Indeed, this is a really nice looking engine. Mine is in at my hobby shop in Evansville, Indiana, ABC, and I am doing a lash up with a CSX SD35 and this should

make a great looking freight consist. They will be pulling Auto Carrier Cars.

Thanks for the pictures.

Your ATSF GP35 looks great!

 

Regards,

Swafford

Sure looks good to me. Nice addition to your layout.

The GP35's are one of Lionel's best diesel efforts IMHO.

 

Here is an interior shot of the GP35 locomotive. One thing that I sometimes over look and do not always appreciate is the mounting of the motors.  Part of the LionTech truck design is that the motors do not swivel, rotate, or otherwise move in the cab. They are in fixed position. Thus there is no tugging on wires when the locomotive enters curves which reduces the chance of wires coming loose or breaking. Very cool design which I would put above the others.  

 

 

I was able to operate the locomotive for the first time last night. All functions worked as intended. One simple thing impressed me. I ran the locomotive in complete darkness. No lights were visible through the plastic. So many products these days have the lights visible through the cab in spots where lights have no business being visible through. Not a problem with this loco.

 

Eight small screws hold the cab to the chassis. The cab has metal insets by which the screws hold the cab to the chassis. The treads of both the screws and the metal inserts are very fine. I would not screw and unscrew too many times since there is a chance of stripping the threads over time. 

There was a remark on another thread which stated that this GP35 is painted wrong. The main complaint is that the top of the nose and the adjacent walk ways are not blue.

While the majority of the GP35's had blue top nose, not all of them did. Here is a pic of Santa Fe #2925 which clearly has a yellow top of the nose and yellow walkways.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=383937&nseq=151

 

There is another pick on the web of #3312 which shows the unit with yellow sanding equipment on the nose just like it is with the Lionel unit. I am quite comfortable with the paint on the unit. 

It's not painted wrong, some of the details are just wrong. That picture you posted does NOT have yellow walkways, and if you look close, you'll see the anti-glare panel painted on the nose. If it wasn't there from the factory, it was added soon after it went into service. A lot of times the blue was worn off the walkway leading to the front door, even the paint on the bottom of the door was worn off from us kicking it closed. I assure you, those walkways and the nose was painted at one point or another. It's easily  correctable.

On this thread

https://ogrforum.com/t...nel-vs-atlas-o-gp35s

it was stated that 

 

"Atlas all the Way for the Santa Fe. I did not want to crash the party on the other thread about the New Lionel GP35, But they Missed it on not painting the nosetop and walkway Blue."

 

I interpreted that statement as to the unit being painted wrong. 

 

The picture of #2925 clearly has the the top of the nose yellow, that's all. Perhaps at some later point the top of the nose was painted blue, but ATSF operated this particular GP35, however briefly, with yellow nose tops as well.  

Well I took the plunge as my GP30 needs a running mate, so here's my GP35 in pieces as the transformation begins.

 

 

I've removed the outer brake shows from the side frames. It makes it more modern but more importantly, allows the rear truck to swing after I body mount the pilots and Kadee couplers.

 

The truck bodies have been cut down to allow room for the body mounted Kadee. I didn't have to remove that much material, but it was apart and the finished product will look better this way.

 

Anti-glare panel painted on top of the nose.

 

A few more parts ordered from PSC that I thought I had but didn't, and needed to finish the project.

 

The footboards will be ground off the pilots, also making them more modern, and scratch built fillers will be added as well as the mounts for the Kadees.

 

Obviously all the electro coupler stuff has been removed, as well as the 9volt battery harness. Not needed as I only run command environments with this.

 

This is a major project, and will take many hours, but like I said, my GP30 needs a running mate for my switching layout. 

Cool stuff.

 

It looks like you are well on your way to a GP35u.

 

My GP35 is back at Lionel since it stopped working. Appears that a motor driver board is bad.

Laidoffsick,

Since you have torn your new GP35 apart, I would like to know if the handrails are easily removable?

I was thinking of buying two to repaint, but would need to remove and re-attach the handrails.

 

Dave

Great looking engine.

 

Art

That blue/yellow paint combo is very striking! I really like it a lot more than the war bonnet look.

I liked Warbonnet a lot more in red and silver, but it does look good, I'll say that.

Seems pretty easy to get them off once you're at this stage. They are just push pins into the walkway. You can probably get the handrails off without even taking the shell off.