Robyn,
If you're considering both a GP-10 and a GP-16, I'd strongly encourage
you to start with the GP-16.
SCL's Uceta Shops basically replaced the 567 prime mover with the 645
and chopped the noses. They did this in an assembly-line format that
pretty much kept all of the original parts with the locomotive being
rebuilt. From the modeler's perspective, this means that you only
have to chop the nose, add a couple of exhaust stacks, add some grab
iron details and fabricate a cab front/number board to get a GP-16.
The handrails and the louvers on the sides of the units went
pretty-much unchanged, so you can use the handrails and long hood that
comes with your donor GP-7/9.
A GP-8/10, on the other hand, requires a great deal more research and
work. ICG's Paducah Shops, rather than working sequentially, rebuilt
many units simultaneously and the parts were swapped around all kinds
of ways as the units were rebuilt. This resulted in somewhat random
placement of louvers on the long hood as some units received doors
that belonged in a different spot on a different unit. From the
modeler's perspective, you still have to chop the nose, fabricate a
cab front/number board, and add exhaust stacks. But the GP-10s
require you to fabricate a longer battery box (right front side of
unit), fabricate some sort of filter box, and add louvers to the doors
on the long hood (preferably with some prototype photo guidance). If
you want the frog-eye headlights, add that to the list. And these are
just the "major" things you need to get a GP-8/10; a more exhaustive
list is available on the "illinois-central-model" Yahoo group. If
you're not already a member, you should probably join and search their
archives before attempting a GP-8/10 or GP-11 conversion.
The GP-11 conversion is the most difficult of the ones you've
mentioned. On these units, new cabs were fabricated and set farther
forward on the frame. In addition to all of the work required for the
GP-8/10, you'll have to chop AND shorten the short hood, lengthen the
long hood, and build a cab to fit.
Al Warren's article on an ICG GP-11 in the February 2004 RMC is an
excellent reference for building any of these diesels. He uses
styrene and door parts to build up the sides of the shell with the
appropriate door/louver configuration for the GP-11. This would be my
preferred option for building most of these units, but I've not
located individual door parts in S scale (like the Cannon parts in
HO). I'd certainly make use of Ron Sebastian's GP-7 hood parts,
especially since you can work with them as flat pieces before
assembling them to form the shell.
Another idea (albeit a long shot) would be to contact Kaslo Shops and
see if their GP-8/10 conversion kit for HO scale could be modified for
S scale. My guess is "no", but it's worth a shot (especially since
Kaslo does have some S scale)...
Hope this helps,
Rhett Graves
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