Acquired from the Green Bay & Western, the Michigan Interstate rostered two Alco RS2 diesels and quickly had them decorated in the Ferry-in-Fog paint scheme. These units typically operated together on the south end of the railroad, while the GP35s continued to ply the rails of the hilly terrain in the northern Lower Peninsula.

 

My N Scale versions are undecorated models from Walthers, with a drop-in decoder installed in #301, and custom installation of a decoder and speaker in #303. To make the sound features fit and function in the narrow-hood body of #303, the motor was removed. My plan for these units is similar to the prototype: keep them coupled together and operating as a pair, assigned to the flat, southern section of the layout and shorter trains.

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The custom sound installation work was performed by Streamlined Backshop Services, and I have not regretted the sacrifice of pulling power at all, because the sound coming from this lash-up is simply awesome.

 

By the time I was modeling these engines, my paint skills had improved and MicroScale was producing Ferry-in-Fog decals for narrow hood units (along with Ann Arbor billboard-style decals). These units were sprayed with Model Master Huggar Orange and decorated with a combination of decals from MicroScale and SoliDesign.