Joliet This image shows a Rock Island outbound commuter train clacking over the ATSF/GM&O tracks at Joliet, Illinois. This has always been a great spot for rail enthusiasts.

The wonderful station here is made from Indiana limestone, of which I'm a fan, growing up amongst the quarries of southern Indiana. The locomotive is an EMD E8A built for the Union Pacific in 1953.

This model of Amtrak 234 was created using a Proto 2000 E8a model that I picked up at a train show for a reasonable price with the B unit. They certainly aren’t the best models, but they run well and are one of the few options for a decent E8 in HO scale. I assume that the Walthers version isn’t really that much better. I did this build a while ago, so some of what I write here might be a bit inaccurate.

There aren’t too many images of Amtrak 234 on the web, but there are certainly plenty of references for E8 units from the Amtrak formation era on the usual sites. I also relied heavily on Stephen M. Timko’s Amtrak Power in Color Volume 1 while doing this build. I always print reference images, but using the book was a bit nicer than shuffling loose laser prints.

The first thing I did was open up the loco to see what was going on inside. I purchased a pair of the MRC sound decoders for the A and B units with the appropriate sound for the dual prime movers in the E8 prototype. The sound is pretty basic, but the decoder has a mars light effect and gives me no issues while running. I had to do some modifications to fit the speaker, but it wasn’t too bad. What kills me about the decoder is that you can’t silence it without initiating a shutdown sequence.