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This is where it all began.  In 1974 my family moved into a house that was about three blocks away from CN light industrial trackage, and it wasn't long before I was down by the tracks and watching trains.  The locomotives I saw looked very much like this one, either SW-8s, SW-900s, and an occasional SW-9.   After a couple months' worth of train watching I decided I wanted to do a little railroading of my own.  I bought a train set, and I had to have a model of a GM switcher.  The closest model I could find was a Cox SW-1500 in Union Pacific colours  (same as Athearn's SW-7).  That was fine, but I wanted a CN loco. So I bought some Testors paint and smeared the whole thing black and red.  There were no CN wet noodle decals at the time, so I was left to paint the lettering by hand.  Not very pretty.  The home made spark arrestors looked even worse.  But hey, I was only a kid.  The loco eventually burnt out and I chucked it in the garbage.  However, as I got older I made several other attempts, and about two switchers and sixteen years later I painted this unit.  7239 was my first careful attempt at brush painting, and I was quite satisfied with the results.  The only mistake I made was to use glossy paint.  The dry transfer decals stuck, surprisingly enough.  The details are basically the same as 7236, except that I left the Athearn single trumpet horn as is.
 

Here's a picture of me holding the Cox SW-1500 while
it was in the process of being painted in CN colours.
Photo taken December 1974.
 

Make:
Athearn

Detail Parts:
Keystone Locomotive Works   HO-11 CN SW spark arrestor
Detail Associates  SS 1301 Cab Sunshade
Detail Associates  RA 1803 Radio Antenna, Sinclair Type
M.V. Products  LS 17 headlight lens for Athearn SW-7

Decals:
C-D-S Lettering  HO-163 CN roadswitcher - original modern 'CN' logo (before stripe), pre-1973