Retired

SD9 1774 has finally been retired. A recent change in motive power assignments at North Pierce has enabled the railroad to put this old work horse out to pasture. The unit is shown below after its last run on BC-11, also known as the Big Chimney Roustabout. 

This engine was purchased in sometime in the late 1970's. I spent a considerable amount of time scraping off cast-on details and replacing them with finer parts. New handrails were crafted from .012 brass wire. It was the second diesel painted for the railroad and the second one to be painted in the original "Central Belt" scheme. For more on the CWE locomotive paint schemes, see the July 2016 issue of RMC. At some point along the way, probably in the mid-1990's, I finally got around to re-numbering the unit. The original Railroad Roman numbers were painted over and it was renumbered into the 1700 series.

It wasn't until operations began on the railroad in 2012 that I considered adding a decoder. This engine was paired with another SD9 and was intended for use on the Big Chimney Roustabout, which works out of North Pierce. There aren't any significant grades on this run so one powered unit is all that is really necessary. This old workhorse still had the original Athearn motor in it. Rather than rebuild the chassis, I elected to turn this engine into a sound-only dummy. I removed the motor, replaced the jewel headlight lenses with clear ones, and added a Tsunami and a speaker. The unit performed well in this capacity, although the deep flanges on the original Athearn wheels liked to talk a lot over the hand-laid turnouts.

So 1774 is off to the drawer where a handful of other equipment patiently awaits the display case that will be built some day.