SD70M-2: The Mid-Semester Crisis Locomotive

It happens many times all across the model railroader subset of North America. "Honey, I need some 'me time,' I'll be in the train room." There are variations on this, but we are often driven to flee the cruel, unfair "real world" and run off to our little rails. I know I've wanted to hide with my model railroad pretty much all semester, except for going to classes (which aren't half bad,) and weekends at the trolley museum. I guess I'll just gloss over the reason and say that it feels near-impossible to find meaningful friendships in this day and age.

But I have found some good things in working on trains, from the joy of solving problems to the pride of creating something unique. My major project has been turning a Kato N-scale Union Pacific SD70ACe locomotive into a Norfolk Southern SD70M-2, and having this work on has been a huge help. Firing up the finished locomotive for the first time tonight gave me a feeling of pride and joy that I really haven't felt since this stressful semester started. Boy, has this project been worth it!
In the real world, an SD70M-2 is a reduced-emissions upgrade of Electro-Motive Diesel's popular SD70M locomotive. Since these new locomotives were introduced to Norfolk Southern Railway's stable starting in 2006, they were all over the place by 2008-- when I entered college and found myself in NS' big, stallion-shaped shadow.

When I very briefly considered producing an informative railroading TV show for my desperate campus TV station, I saw SD70M-2s everywhere, and even filmed a few (as you can see in my video screen capture image above). Looking back, these angular machines are as much a reminder of the adventurous days of Freshman year as all the icebreaker games and new experiences. I like that, and by extension, I like these locomotives. I've always wanted one in model, but nobody produces one.

In a regular review item package, MRN's sweet news editor, Jen Lindsay, had sent me a Union Pacific 4141 SD70ACe locomotive (the George Bush Presidential Library special scheme) which was probably left over from a news bite article. It's a neat engine, but, I don't really like the UP. So, I ordered the SD70M-2 detail part set from Trainworx and the 2002+ Norfolk Southern decal sheet from Microscale. And of course, I'm a sound junkie, so I ordered another 1806-2 sound decoder from MRC.

The package for all these items arrived the very day when everything on my plate became too much, and I picked it up right before heading home mid-week for badly needed rest. The first night home, I sat at my dad's well-worn workbench and worked on converting the locomotive, applying key detail parts and painting things black (like shown below). It was just like I have spent my hobby time since I was, oh gosh, I don't know... now I feel old. :-) But it was nice, even though I lacked the tools to finish the model at my parents' house.
After returning to school, I finished painting and spent a few rather relaxing hours applying countless decals to the model. I got more and more excited the more the locomotive started to look finished. I added some missing details, reassembled the model, touched up the paint, and got the sound decoder installed. One important step is that I took the MRC speaker off the decoder board, leaving its wires connected and letting it sit behind the decoder board. It will be too tall to let the body fit if you don't relocate the speaker. I also changed the LEDs to bright, pure-white LEDs scrapped off a Digitrax decoder, since Kato's yellow-tinted light lenses make the headlights look silly with a yellow-white LED. Finally, with some oil, grease, and decoder programming, my SD70M-2 came to life.
This project has provided much-needed relaxation for me, and has given me one thing to be fully proud of and happy with this week. I achieved a little dream of mine to have my own [little] SD70M-2, and I know how much effort it took. It looks and runs pretty much just as good as all my factory-painted trains, and it stands proud as my most ambitious painting project. It's just been really validating, almost like buying a new car when you start to question everything in life. But you can have your midlife crisis Mustang. I'll take an SD70M-2 any day.

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor