Modeling a CN Big Blue Dash 8

A step by step way of turning a rare locomotive into an excellent model

Dash 8-40CWs in Conrail Blue have been beloved by railfans. Today, since CSX and NS have finished repainting their Dash 8-40CWs from Conrail colors to their respective colors. The only blue Dash 8-40CWs are owned by CN and have CN markings, but are still popular with rail fans old and new. Atlas did a run of the CN Blue Dash 8-40CWs years ago, but those are rare and hard to find. Here, we will turn one of those engines into a high-quality replica of one of those blue Dash 8s in service today.

The first step is to get a CN blue Dash 8 from Atlas.

Then the second step will be to add the detail parts. Detail parts added were:

  • A Nathan P3 horn, per the prototype
  • Smokey Valley Handrails, metal handrails are better than the cruddy plastic ones
  • A brake chain
  • Kadee couplers
  • A Hi-Tech GE exhaust stack, which is accurate for certain Dash 8-40CWs
  • Brass sunshades

Then the third step will be to add decals. Decals added were:

  • Yellow safety stripe
  • CN logo on the nose, as 2460 is the only blue Dash 8 that has the nose logo on the nose
  • www.cn.ca logo on the sides

Then the next step will be to weather, which will be covered soon.

©2016/2020, Patrick Baca, https://www.modelrailroadtips.com