San Luis Valley Southern Crandall Cab

The project that kicked this all off was a cast resin shell of a Chicago Northwestern crandall cab E8AB. For some background the Crandall cab was a series of EMD E8Bs that the CNW had bought to supplement its existing commuter fleet. They fabricated simple sheet metal cabs and carved out a section of the original body to place them in. They operated in commuter service in the Chicago area until the mid 1980s and were sold for scrap. When I bought this shell, I had no intention of putting it in CNW, I just liked the weirdness. Eventually when my interest in San Luis Valley railroading started, I decided to paint mine in a railroad that never had a proper diesel in its life. San Luis Valley Southern D504 is where the freelance future of the San Luis Valley Southern started.

SLVS D504 is created from a Skytop Models Crandall cab kit that fits on a Kato E8A chassis. This was my first skilled kit and has been constantly modified, changed, and upgraded since the project started in 2020. D504 is still missing decals and numberboads. Main modifications to the original Kato E8 include new front and rear lights, ESU sound, seperate fitted grab irons, wipers, airbrake hoses and lift rings. While the Crandall cab will never be complete, it has not been updated since 2023 when sound and most of the details were fitted. I intend to take some nice pictures to show it off better. Photos taken at the Altoona Association of Model Railroaders during the time I was a member there.

On the SLVS, D504 serves as a main loco on the daily mainline interchange run between Alamosa and Walsenburg. Despite this assignment it has been seen on local turns and even in switching opertations around the Alamosa yard.