>From the ATSF list. Looks like they are in the same HO boat we've been
talking about lately.
Another vote for the 2-10-2.
Terry
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Tyesac@A...
In a message dated 3/18/2002 6:58:52 hj Central Standard Time,
Normbruce@A... writes:
If you insist on Santa Fe, though, you have a few choices, all brass.
The
inexpensive one is AHM, who imported a brass Pacific (then painted it
gold,
of all things!) a few years ago. They're not bad, and can usually be
picked
up for less than $200.
I have one, bought years ago when there were few other available choices.
It's a poor chioce today. It was painted gold because it wasn't entirely
a brass loco, some parts were Zamac. It has an open frame motor that
protrudes way back into the cab, it has unsprung drivers and the level of
detial is on par for something from the 1950's, not the late 1970's when
it was imported. The tender is also crudely detialed, rivit detial is
oversized as well. The box is also mislabled for a mike class number.
Balboa imported this class years earlier, and those are detialed better
than the AHM model (but rare to find for sale).
Last week at the GATS show in Naperville, Il, there was a Key 3400 class
for sale for $325. I don't remember which version it was, "original"
with spoked drivers or "modernized" with box-pox drivers. It has a
level of detial the matches well to today's state of the art, the drivers
are sprung, the can motor is mounted behind a detialed boiler backhead.
If you can find one, they're worth the extra bucks compared to the AHM
version.
Speaking of SF steam, it's a shame we don't have other choices than brass
or crude versions of the 4-8-4 & 2-10-4's done long ago by Bachman. The
common reasons given are:
They won't make a plastic loco that was a one prototype design & built in
few numbers or wasn't the biggest of it's type, yet consider the
following:
Bachmann just redid thier N&W J class 4-8-4's. The prototype only had
TEN of them, and they ran through a small section of the country. Why
not redo the SF 4-8-4's (two classes 2900's 3776's, 40 engines in total)
Trix now is making (on top of AHM's) the Big Boy. The prototype had only
TWENTY FIVE of them, they ran through an even less populated section of
the country. Yet those few engines have been imported in brass and
plastic many times over.
Rivarossi has recently brought out the new model of the C&O H-8
Allegheny.
We've seen plastic PRR K4's, NYC Hudsons in many versions, SP GS-4's,
even B&O 2-10-2's, UP Challengers & FEF 4-8-4's in many verisons.
SO if those are selling in spite of the "they won't make 'em
because______" rule,
Why can't we have a state of the art Santa Fe prototypes? It a popular
road, ran to many more states and large cities than UP, C&O & N&W did
(steam era).
Here's one I'd like to see:
The 3800 class 2-10-2 They had very long careers, ran everywhere on the
system, and they had a whole lot (141) of them. So how many of these
would be bought by people modeling Cajon, Tehachapi, Raton or the SF/CB&Q
joint line?
IF they did that, and separated the parts shrewdly (cab, tender oil
bunker, domes, pilot, trailing truck, valve gear, cylinders & front end
detials) they could lead to some other offerings say 3260 & 4000 class
2-8-2's, perhaps even 4101 class berks or 3700 class 4-8-2's. The
obvious significant variations being the boiler & drivers. Those are more
common parts than what we see on the Bachman 2-8-0 & Russian 2-10-0's,
but on par with the UP Big Boy/Challenger/FEF combo.
An advantage to separating those parts, even if the 3800's were the only
one made, is that a coal burning & single sand dome versions could be
offered as well as an extended cab version without retooling the whole
thing.
Why not 3800's?
OH yeah, must be because they weren't streamlined, were only painted
black, and rarely, if ever, pulled a passenger train to a coastal city.
Tom Casey
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
|