Back in my late teens I got to know two GP10’s very well. Both operating them and working on them for the local shorline. I learned how to start, repair and diagnose basic issues with thier 567bc diesel prime movers. How to run them light engine so the head mechanic could run tests. Then on weekends(I was in high school then) if the local grain elevator called for us to take a unit train, it would be the shorline’s president as engineer, the head mechanic as brakeman and me as switchman/general helper. I got stuck in the engineers seat more than once to learn to train handle, and I usualy ran the light power home so they could talk about the coming weeks needs over on the other side of the cab. I actualy have the beacons off both units and one of the front number glasses off 1410 in my collection. I am going to use two of the old Lionel Geeps as they can handle my R1 curves where as the USA units barely do it and cannot pull anything around them. I know thier limitations, swinging pilots ect. I am fine with that and have owned a couple of them in the past, so I know they do well on my line and will do even better once I put onboard battery power in them. I am searching for a pair of them, in any form but the powered/dummy BN GP20 pair would be perfect being already low nosed and proper air horn detail. (I would trade a LGB 2019S C&S mogul for the powered GP20) Then I just have to update the roof details too reflect the units. An alternate to building 1416 is to do one of the NYC lightning stripe TP&W GP20’s we would lease when grain season was in full swing. They were shape looking with AC units on the roof, twin white Xenon strobes that could be seen for miles at night and the unique turbo sound over the 4 stack non turbo exhaust on 1410 and the other 3 GP7 rebuilds we normaly had. I might do all three units if I can find them affordably. Do the two ex BN units in powered/dummy combination, then use another powered unit for the TP&W unit. All lights and beacon/strobes would be functional. Here are a couple pics of the BN GP10’s. Mike
