I have always wanted a UP SD70 M-2 in my fleet of locomotives and have Been searching for a USA trains SD70mac to use as a kit bash base. I
Finally came across a flawless brand new in the box never sold Unit that was buried in the forgotten nether reageons of my local hobby shop, and struck an amazing deal on it and then rushed it home eager to start my project. The problem began when my fellow model railroaders learned that my unit was waring a factory Alaska Railroad road name, and began a campaign in protest against me repainting the unit claiming itâs rare and should just be super detailed and run as is. I have to admit it is a gorgeous locomotive, but my layout is modeled prototypicaly after Midwestern rail traffic. My big question is, Is this diesel really rare? If so I will hunt for another one and spare this oneâŚif not, thereâs a large razor saw and airbrush ready to go!. I canât find anything on line about the unit so I m hoping someone might know for sure if the unit is in fact rare, if so I guess I will get to rivet counting on it and run it as unexplainable foreign powerđ
Welcome to the forum. I have heard this said before to others, âItâs your rail road, do what you want with it.â
We all like pictures too.
Jenny, Welcome aboard. Iâm sure youâll get mixed reviews on your inquiry, but as much as your loco may be rare to some, few if any will pay the value theyâll place upon your loco. Do not torture yourself over your loco. Strip it down and repaint it to your needs as that is why you purchased it. You will get so much more enjoyment from it in use than having it sit on a shelf collecting dust while you wait for a purchaser who can give you a flawless brand new in the box never sold SD70 in UP livery.
JMHO YMMV 
Iâm not at all concerned about the value of it as I have no intention of parting with it at all. Itâs more about preserving a hard to find or rare items in itâs original form. I have some very old Lionel FM train masters, and some old Baldwin diesels that were passed down to me , and I love the old original fallen flag road names that came on them. If the SD 70 is in fact rare in this road name as built by USAT, I might just keep it the way it is as not to take it out of circulation. No matter what, I am certainly going to unbox it, detail it, gut it, stuff it full of decoders, receivers, batteries speakers, lights, Etc. And run it till the wheels fall offâŚthen replace them when they do and go another round. The issue is more about preservation. The simple coolness of knowing an original painted in that scheme still
Exists. And add some train spotting fun on the layouts at large scale train events. I can always buy another one, or just build one from scratch seeing how simple EMD locomotives are to build, in which case I can go full blown SD70AH. Guess I will resort to the ancient American ritual that solves all matters of indecisionâŚthe coin toss.
Welcome aboard Jenny,
I not sure how rare the Alaska paint scheme is on this particular locomotive. However I do know that the USA GP38 is still available in that livery. I also know that the SD70 is no longer available new from Charles Ro. I actually have a pair of them in CN livery that I plan on eventually selling as I need space, one is new the other is used. Either way whatever you decide we love pictures here.
read your own text.
it is not about the loco.
the real question is: are you more of a collector, or more of a player?
in my head, any money spent on the hobby, is lost/is the past.
so, if i got something, i do with it, whatever i fancy at that moment.
and be welcome.
The Alaska paint scheme is really nice and I wouldnât paint over it. I would instead make up an excuse for why it is running with your UPâs. You could say it is being leased or simply lost or maybe it came down to get a retrofit in the UP shops? If leased you could slap some UP stickers on it.
Tell us more about that great looking wedge plow. Is it 3D printed?
I wouldnât worry about the supposed rarity. Yes, Charles Ro produced less of them in that paint but so what? Personally, I see collectors as a necessary evil as they support the manufacturers with purchases but also deny modelers who wish to enjoy the models for their intended purpose.
That said, I really like the Alaska scheme so I made modifications to mine to better represent the HEP-equipped units and will add it to my Proto-freelanced New England shortline as a leased/acquired loco. For those interested, Iâve shared the printed mod files on Printables
Search models | Printables.com
Hold on!
I could care less about the locomotive but tell us more about the scratch built Jordan Spreader hiding behind the locomotive!
Strip away.
But also share some photos of that other project!
Like they said, welcome aboard!
I would advertise it on Facebook G scale Swap & Shop group at a price higher than a replacement UP version will cost you. It is really is rare, then one of the campaigners will get a chance t own it.
If no-one wants it as-is, do whatever you want with it!
I have made the mistake of investigating alaska railroads SD 70s and find them absolutely fascinating! They have very distinct details that separate them from the herd including HEP and. Various changes to the long hood that make it a worth while subject to model and run. Also one of its advocates supplied me with proof that one of these actually prowled the Twin City rails for a brief moment with CP rail in the mid 2000s in full alaska livery ! I I have waited too long and grown to adore the real thing, so the model gets a pass, but still gets "plastic " surgery.
As for the wedge plow, itâs a Jordan spreader Iâm building to help contend with the all the nonsense mother nature dumps on my layout- leaves, twigs, straw, snow, toads, etc. Itâs hand built out of a giant
block of steel coverd with metal window flashing, sheet styrene, and a bunch of odds and ends I had in my scrap box. It will be powered by an Ho scale sound decoder for the sound, lights and consist control, but use a separate remote to power the plow hight and wings via mini servos. I borrowed an older steam era version of a spreader built by a local neighbor and fell in love with it. The modern version however seemed very sophisticated and to intimidating a project. I almost settled for a Russell, but saw a modern 1:29 scale spreader built by my dadâs friend, and went for it.
I have repainted a lot of both O and Large-Scale engines and rolling stock. Since I never remove the existing paint on the models, but do sand out all the stripes, road names, anything that would show the paint lines when I re-paint. I find the factory paint to not obscure the process on a newly paint engine, etc. that its worth all the time needed to remove it. In most cases I tried to buy engines, rolling stock that did not sell well, usually because of unwanted road names and the price was always lower than the popular road names models. I also wanted models that were usually one color and with the least number of stripes, names, etc., just easier to sand the model for repaint. I think my work is 1st class as I wouldnât have it any other way, just the way I model to please myself. Here are two LGB diesels, a White Pass and a Rio Grande repainted to my railroad the Fort Worth & South-Western.
Those units are absolutely gorgeous!! Love how you have both the glamorous and utility versions of the road. Amazing work!
You own it, do with it as you like. 
Nice information about the Jordan. Can you explain how you used the micro servoâs? Are they in the pneumatic piston that go to the wings? Iâm curious as I have a long lost GN Snow Dozer project that I want to do the same thing with.
Havenât gotten to the installation as of yet ( waiting on the arrival of several key components) But the basic idea is to mount the servoes in a space just behind the front truck using a rod to connect an arm mounted to the servo spindle to an arm connected directly to the wings rotating mounting post. Essentially Iâm just re-purposesing an rc car steering system on two separate servoes. As for the front, the back of the plow housing will have a vertical notched post behind it that interacts with a third servo that has a geard pinion on its spindle to raise and lower the assembly. The other movements will be fixed and locked down considering the amount of abuse this spreader is likely to encounter. It is extremely heavy for something thats not a locomotive, and I donât want to have to keep constantly repairing broken parts. As we all know, itâs certainly going to derail or even worse yet, get stopped dead in itâs tracks with about 30 to 40 pounds of locomotives shoving against it. So I had no choice but to keep itâs articulation as minimal as possible. The servo rods will be connected to the arms via ball and socket which will hopefully pop off and separate allowing the wings to collapse shut in the event of a hard strike or violent derailment. (Well thatâs the theory any way) my dadâs buddy has a big red older style D&H spreader he picked up from Mark at Kirkvill a long time ago and a CP rail one he built himself. Both are plow only and have the wings locked back permanently. So I have no idea how this is going to work out for me. Hope this helps, I absolutely love when people build projects of any kind and hope you decide to bring your snowdozer to life!! If you do, you got a big fan already! I have learned so much from the building techniques of others and am eager to learn more! Without people like you and others, I would never have had the courage to take on half the projects I do. Or even know how for that matter.
Ahhh yes, my dads old D&H MackâŚIts a sorce of grief for me. Itâs a 1:32 scale ATM plastic model kit that was converted into a hi-rail truck using the inner workings and power truck from an old Ho scale athearn blue box VO-1000, and a Tsunami 2 sound decoder. It used to have a utility bed with a folding boom and all sorts of neat services truck detailing gizmos and gadgets. That is up until the day I decided to accidentally leave a switch open causing a fast moving 16 car train to rear end the truck shoving it down the tracks in to a end of track bumper, where itâs bed was promptly destroyed. It happend a few years ago, and I still catch flack to this day over that. The power assembly, frame, and rear axel was also damaged as well as the front bumper and lead hi-rail wheel mount. Total loss.
It still runs, well kind of runsâŚand Iâm thinking of rebuilding it .
Keep it as is.
Look for the rare Alaska Caboose (USA) and then fill in the train with equally rare Alaska rolling stock.
Thatâs what I would do. 