The best thing about modeling the 1973 era on the Burlington Northern is that it took them about seven years to repaint all the legacy locomotives into the BN Green paint scheme. This means that my locomotive roster is a rainbow of colors with interesting histories. In this case, Athearn recently released the F7's in the original NP diesel paint scheme lettered for #6015A and 6015B. All I did was to remove that lettering and the front NP herald on the A unit (using MicroSet and a sharpened toothpick) and apply Microscale decals to the sides and number boards per prototype photos. The most time-consuming part of the project was researching which locomotive numbers would be seen in the Seattle area in 1973, and hadn't been repainted to BN green yet. I ended up deciding on FA#720 and FB#753, which were both based in Auburn, WA and were repainted later than 1973.
The final part of the project was to apply pan pastel weathering to bring out the detail, and to adjust decoder settings to get the performance from the locos that match my existing fleet. This includes setting the maximum speed to 30 miles per hour and mapping the brake function to F9.
The photo above shows the units parked on the mainline in Bayside Yard in Everett, WA, waiting for their first assignment.
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