SWSAT Time!!!
(Disclaimer: For the foreseeable future, you're just going to have to use your imagination to view my model pics... on account of there ain't no scenery and the recently acquired new engines still lack weathering!)
Scale: HO
"The Q's NW2 #9245 sits in the West Bottoms waiting for a signal to clear before trundling off into the West Bottoms to do some switching."
The above is a bone-stock Broadway Limited Imports NW2 factory painted in the classic Burlington black and gray "slogan" scheme. I remember seeing examples of the CB&Q's switchers so adorned as a lad in North Kansas City. Here's a pic of the front of the engine:
BLI does a good job with their paint and the engines run nice and smooth. Weakest point would be the sound, IMHO. However, by itself the sound is pretty good, just not quite up to the quality as offered by decoder-only companies. (Tsunami, LokSound, etc.)
However, you can't complain about the price! I purchased the above NIB engine from a dealer for something like $180. I have picked up NIB BLI switchers off eBay for as little as $130! We're talking a BRAND-NEW-STILL-IN-THE-BOX with detailed w/interior, excellent paint, and DCC/Sound... for $130!
And NOW, for my "Proto-Pic" of the week. This week's Proto-Pic is a pic of the first diesel the Kansas City Terminal purchased back in 1938: The ALCo HH1000 diesel switcher. It served the KCT until about 1964.
I have just ordered an Atlas HO scale ALCo HH660 (looks almost identical to the above) to become my Kansas City & Gulf's first ever diesel that is still doing yeoman service for the KC&G in the early 60s era that I will be modeling. I intend to model it in the "as delivered" black KC&G scheme that I have flitting about in my mind.
Also, I will be reserving an Atlas "Gold" HH660 in painted in the livery of the Tennessee Central, which is the spittin' image of the above sans the hood lettering... even the same number! I will remove the hood lettering and replace it with "Kansas City Terminal" and add the needed yellow stripes to reflect the KCT #50 paint scheme of the early 1960s.
All fer now!