grain trains, and is slowly repainting its locomotives into a new
all-blue paint scheme.
I saw my first blue-painted Pam Am Railways locomotives on a
2011 trip to New England. During a stop in Waterville ME I saw
MEC 610 waiting to depart with a southbound road freight, I
only had time for a quick snapshot of the train, but further rail-
fanning trips to New England convinced me I needed to model
one of these units.
Pan Am gets six-axle power
During 2010 Pan Am acquired 20 six-axle locomotives from
Kansas City Southern Railway and Helm Leasing. These were
the first six-axle units to join the Pan Am/Guilford roster in
many years. All units were rebuilt to SD40-2 standards with
16-cylinder EMD 645 engines, but they retain the looks of the
SD40, SD45, SD40-2, or SD45-2 models they were originally
built as. All 20 have MEC reporting marks, and are numbered
600 to 619.
When choosing a locomotive to model I decided I would build
MEC 610, the unit I saw in Waterville. Research showed this
unit was originally a Southern Pacific SD45 and had been
rebuilt at least once under the SP’s GRIP rebuilding program.
The unit retained several SP features such as split doors on the
cab sub-base, and the front windshield had been converted
from its as-delivered L-shape to a more common multi-panel
window. The steps I used to build this model can also be used
to build a Southern Pacific SD45R; some of my techniques can
be used on other diesel projects. All of Pan Am’s six-axle units
have detail differences, so be sure to consult photos of the
exact unit you are modeling.
While building my model I constantly referred to pho-
tos I found online. Some of the best websites for this are
