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Pat,
I worked with Athearn on the Mopac Genesis GP7s. All 4 of the prototypes selected had the winterization hatch. I have photos of GP7s down in Louisiana with the hatch as they traveled and worked all over the system and they didn’t remove them based upon where they worked.
The 4 tall exhaust deflectors (spark arrestors) are for sparks which would start fires along the right-of-way. The engines would put out a considerable amount of hot carbon/exhaust. The Mopac experimented with the 4-stacks (liberated exhaust – normally the engines only had 2) to increase horsepower and efficiency – if I remember correctly.
The spark arrestor included with the model is from 1972 and on. There was an earlier spark arrestor that the Mopac had starting in the 60s, but no model of this type of arrestor is available.
To help you out with choosing a road number if you decide to purchase a model. The 3-digit numbers (165 and 168) would be accurate from 1967 until their retirement in December 1979. The only difference from when they first received Jenk’s blue would be the size of the road number on the side of the long hood (6″ tall circa 1962 to 8″ tall in 1967). The 4-digit locomotives would be accurate from 1974 to early 1977 when they were renumbered back to 3-digit numbers (600 and 603) to make room for new GP15-1s.
Hope this helps,
Nate
