Modified RTR - A Canadian GP38-2 in N (Part 1)…

This latest Canadian adventure was going well and nearly focused on just Canadian National - until the Budd RDC arrived in CP Rail…That meant, in my simple mind, that whatever follows has to include both CN and CP trains. My lovely Intermountain F7s would need to be joined by something else, something action red…It seems as if prototypical Canadian N, unless modeling the prototype in the last twenty years or so, is almost non-existent. Not helped of course by GMD practice, vertical corner step wells, markers and bells on cab number boards, nose mounted headlights - all tooling options not progressed by Atlas, Kato or Lifelike. Even Rapido have shied away from freight units - just their lovely (yet CN only) Dash 8 and GMD-1. Beyond the first generation GP7 and 9 the Canadians skipped the later EMDs 18/20s and 35s really and didn’t buy until the unveiling of 645 powered second generation units; CN had a batch of 40s and CP some 38s. It was the upgraded electronics of the 38-2 and 40-2…