Color matching model trains from prototype photos is tricky business. Shades can fool you. Fortunately when it came time to “pick the shade of blue” for our HO Limited Edition Yreka Western S-4’s we had a better option. Although the prototype S-4’s are long gone from the YWRR there is a boxcar in their yard that solved our situation. YWRR had 43 ex-WP boxcars painted in the same blue paint in the late 1960’s. One car was damaged switching in Hornbrook one day and has set in the Yreka yard ever since as the other forty two were scrapped. With the Railroad’s permission we were able to find an excellent loose paint chip on the inside of the car, just inside the doors and unweathered. Passing it on to the Atlas paint-matching lab our locomotives now have their true color.
These models are available at the DUNSMUIR HARDWARE and the YREKA WESTERN RAILROAD GIFT SHOP.
http://www.dunsmuirhardware.com/
http://www.yrekawesternrr.com/
Golden West Hobbies commissioned Atlas Model Railroad Co. to custom paint a limited run of 300 Yreka Western S-4 diesel locomotives in HO scale in two road numbers in 2004. The locomotives have all wheel electrical pickup and all wheel drive making for smooth running Alcos. They also have dual flywheels.
These prototype Alco 1,000hp diesels were built in 1955. Acquired by the YWRR, a Kyle Railway subsidiary, in 1972 they retained their former UP designations #1171 & #1172. Number 1172 remained active with the YWRR until 1979 when it was transferred to another Kyle Railroad, the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad. It was finally scrapped in 1987. Number 1171 spent the remainder of its life with the YWRR before being scrapped in1988. The Alco was a preferred choice of the train crews of the YWRR in the 1970’s due to its ability to haul heavy tonnage over “Butcher Hill” without a second diesel.
The models are available at the DUNSMUIR HARDWARE and the YREKA WESTERN RAILROAD GIFT SHOP.
http://www.dunsmuirhardware.com/ http://www.yrekawesternrr.com/
Our main retail outlet is at the Dunsmuir Hardware in Dunsmuir, California. Ron and his staff are there to help you with your hobby needs (and your hardware needs). Check out this historic hardware store founded in 1894 at either web site,
http://www.dunsmuirhardware.com/ http://www.dunsmuirhardware.blogspot.com/
We also have selected items at the Yreka Western Railroad Gift Shop (Yreka, CA), the Siskiyou County Museum Gift Shop (Yreka, CA), the Sisson Museum Gift Shop (Mt Shasta, CA), the Train Depot (Redding, CA) and the Shasta View Gift Shop (Weed, CA).
Golden West Hobbies is a dealer for Horizon Hobby, Walthers, Precision Scale, Northwest Short Line, Con-Cor and Weaver. They include brands like Athearn, Atlas, Bachmann, Bowser, Roundhouse, Broadway Limited, Kadee, Life Like, Walthers, Hanger 9, Hoyle, Whitman Coin Co, etc.
