HO Maryland & Pennsylvania Diesel Decals (1969-1992)

This set was produced to introduce a more comprehensive set for these classes, which hadn't been done by previous manufacturers.

By the mid-1960’s all that remained of the original Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad line was the Pennsylvania Division. Following the events of Hurricane Agnes and the bankruptcy of Penn Central, Ma & Pa acquired additional railroad, and was granted additional operating rights effectively doubling the size of the railroad.

Due to this acquisition, they acquired additional motive power. Please see the spreadsheet for specific information on the locomotive fleet.

The Yellow and Black locomotive fleet started appearing in the scheme after 1969. Zebra stripes on the pilot by March 1980. The pinstripe were only applied to locomotives 81 and 85. Also, for some unknown reason “Pennsylvania” was miss-spelled on the firemans side of 83.

For the best available models, Athearn and BLI have done the NW2. Walthers/Life-like Proto 2000 has done the SW9 and the GP7. Athearn also recently released the correct GP7 version and you can use the SW7 as a base for modeling the SW9. As for 83, there’s no good model in plastic unless you scratch or kit bash it. There have been some close to correct versions in brass, however because of the specific modifications done to the locomotive it’s hard to find one that is 100% accurate.

Painting the locomotive is recommended as follows, paint the entire body yellow first, then using the provided templates, mask the hood so that for the SW/NW’s the curve meets the radiator edge. The entire radiator also gets painted black. Using rubber cement the template to a masking tape brand of your choice and then apply it to the body. For the GP7, the curves came to a point, and a template is provided for that as well.

This decal sheet includes both stencil-cut and solid lettering, for any variation of lettering, also white and black lettering for the number boards of the SW and NW switchers. 83 didn’t have number boards, so its number isn’t included. Also there is a black and a yellow herald, depending on the locomotive and the time period. In all cases, check photo for specific placement and schemes. The decal film is tight to the lettering, so you do either do the Ma & Pa lettering in a line, or stacked.

A thank you for assistance in creating this set goes to Michael L. Brown, Michael C. Brown, Ivan Frantz Jr. and Richard Bradley.