Monday, October 6, 2008

Life-Like HO scale GP38-2 in Conrail and Santa Fe colors, circa 1980s...


...more from the barn loft treasure chest. The Conrail Geep had a broken step that was easily repaired, the Sante Fe unit was spread out in pieces between two boxes. Once reunited, it only needed a couple of #2 1/4" self-tapping screws to stand in for the retainer clips that went missing in the distant past. When cleaned and lubed, they will actually run quite well for toy train set stock.

Note the effort to make a more realistic product...the deeper relief on the truck side frames and the color matched handrails all speak of a marketing effort to draw and keep model railroaders, not just kids playing with trains. Also, the number of the Conrail unit is correct, an unusual bit of detail for a toy. The Santa Fe does not appear to be correct though Life-Like now offers the same unit number in Santa Fe's blue and yellow paint.

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10,000 hits since I first started less than a year ago...wow.

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