TSG GP7 15 and GP30 25

TSG GP7 15 and GP30 25

Several years ago I created a fictitious shortline railroad using the initials of our company, TSG.  The Tuscany & Sabine Grove runs somewhere in California.  Eventually I may get around to pinning down the location a little more closely.  The main idea is that the TSG is a small railroad that interchanges with either the Union Pacific or BNSF (or maybe both).

GP7 15

Not long after I had the concept I started to paint equipment.  An Atlas N scale undecorated GP7 was the first locomotive I painted in TSG colors.  It became GP7 15.  I wanted a simple paint scheme that looked plausible for a shortline railroad.  Nothing too fancy.

I chose a dark purple as the predominant color because purple and blue are the colors we use for our logos and such.  The paint scheme is otherwise inspired by the Burlington Northern, with black on top and purple in place of BN green.  The white barricade stripes and trim are also reminiscent of BN.

Polly Scale Atlantic Coast Line Purple was applied with an airbrush, followed by the black.  In the future if I do any more TSG locomotives I may need to find an alternative paint, as Polly Scale has been discontinued.  Fortunately I still have a bottle or two stashed away.

The decals are from Microscale.  These water transfer decals were applied using Micro-Set first to position the decal, then Micro-Sol to make them adhere and blend into the paint.  I used alphabet decal sheets for the “TSG”, road number, and number boards.  I used a white barricade stripe sheet for the ends of the locomotive.  The striping is from another Microscale sheet.  Warning labels and such were borrowed from other Microscale diesel sheets.

The model is equipped with a Digitrax DCC decoder.  This GP7 is one of the newer Atlas DCC-ready models so it was an easy installation.

GP30 25

The GP30 was another Atlas N scale undecorated model.  It was painted and decaled the same way as GP7 15.  I had to adapt the paint scheme a little since this locomotive has a low hood and front-facing cab windows.  The GP30 has a black anti-glare panel on the top of the nose.  The purple turned out a shade lighter on this unit compared to GP7 15 for some reason.  The same paint was used on both models.

Since I had some Operation Lifesaver decals that I wasn’t using, I used them on GP30 25.  This is the TSG’s one and only Operation Lifesaver unit.

The GP30 was also DCC ready.  Like GP7 15, it is equipped with a Digitrax DCC decoder.