MTH SD24 Hi-to-Lo Hood Conversion?....Anyone Done It?

I toyed with the idea a couple of years ago before I got side tracked. Issue is you will have to remove the front can motor. The low hood is about the same as the GP20 so you would need a couple of donor shells. Other option I was working was to have cab and nose made for me by a guy on Shapeways who had made HO scale ATSF SD24s

 Issues was to insure Cab would fit over the metal frame. Because each unit would only have one motor, they will have to be paired. Now the shell of the MTH SD24 will break down into three pieces.  It is possible to just have cab and nose made and install it on the deck piece.  There was a thread on this a while back in 3RS.

I used the cab from a Legacy GP7, and an MTH GP20 windshield frame and number boards, and cut down the nose from the GP7 using the up-sized drawings of the GP20. 

The nose is tapered down and not flat. 

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/.../build-your-own-gp20

Thanks,

Mario

KD,

I have an ongoing project in which I am converting a Atlas high nose GP7 to a chopped nose. Donor parts are from Red Caboose GP7. Doing so makes the removal of the front motor necessary. It's pretty close right now just need to find time to get it back onto the project bench.

I was investigating doing the same thing. Santa Fe ordered their SD24's with GP20 low-nose cabs installed. I have the ATSF Zebra Stripe offerings from MTH and have had this conversion on the back burner. The quick way would be to get a basket case MTH Rail King or old Premier GP20 (same tooling), cut the cab and start grafting. The catch, though, is that MTH used the SD9 frame (the SD9 and SD24 are on an almost identical platform and long hood). With that comes a forward-mounted front motor. My plan was to take the forward motor and truck and place them into the rear of the dummy unit and run them as a pair (hence the back burner status). No forward motor gives you the opportunity to do a cab interior and better lighting.

By the way, you guys know that as soon as one of us goes through these hoops, 3rd Rail will issue the ATSF SD24/SD26.