Modeling Monday - Introducing #0604

In the Connecticut Valley of 1948/49, the local freights were powered primarily by DEY-3 and 5 class switchers (Alco S-1s and 2s). Unfortunately (depending on your perspective), the New Haven's Alco S-1s and 2s had a special low-profile cab.

Fortunately, my friend MikeR has created a kit for that unique cab, and my friend JoeS has blazed the trail in building one (and shared his process with us all).

So, I got an undec Atlas S-2 and am converting it into NH DEY-5 #0604 (I also have a Proto2000 undec S-1 waiting for a decoder and Scale Sound Systems speaker before being converted into the Valley Local's #0967). If you've been a regular reader, you've seen occasional progress posts - usually for Wordless Wednesday. But starting today, I plan to do a more-thorough step-by-step series of posts showing how I went from unit you see above to (hopefully) something close to what you see below . . .

This Kent Cochrane photo shows the "Haddam Local" (aka PDX-2, aka westbound Shoreline local) northbound entering East Haddam/Goodspeeds. It's here to swap cars with the Valley Local (HDX-7) that will be arriving here from the north (Hartford). For more details, click here. But for now, suffice it to say that the 0604 is a "must have" loco for my layout. 

So I hope you'll follow along as I recreate it in HO scale!