Akirasho, I had a set of Athearn HO PA's They ran nice and graced the front end of my Santa Fe Passenger trains, Streamline, Athearn shorties. They didn't much like my 15", 19" or 22" radius curves. That's when I decided it was time for a change up. To N Scale. Eugen, you managed to capture the essence of Santa Fe and then later BNSF. Nice! David, that would be it. Although I had to lay down on my desk to see it. No problem I copied the image and then flipped it. Nice.
Rick, no idea why the site flipped it on its side....I miss that beauty. Maybe Kato will do one after they do the BigBoy..... I will buy the BigBoy even though I do not model UP, just to make it happen!
Looks like Russell Straw came to the rescue. Gosh is that not one of the most awesome locomotives. Texas Style 2-10-4. Nice! And it has the right tender for a 5000 class. Thanks Russell for flipping it. Now when it comes to Big Boy's, Challengers and the like. Athearn did put out both the Big Boy and Challenger. Doing a nice job. I can only hope I'm in a position to get my hands on one of them should they come out again. Kato would be preferred but I'd buy one from InterMountain, Athearn or Broadway. NOT Bmann. No sir!! Wasted to many dollars on that name brand. Not even an apology from them. Harrumph! I'm waiting on anyone of the aforementioned providers, you know the exception, to come out with a Santa Fe Northern, 4-8-4, with the proper tender on it. It's a shorter tender with a three axle-d trucks. Something else that would be of interest to me and at times in the past we were able to buy them. Every now and then you could buy an upgraded chassis or mechanism for a certain locomotive. Fly wheels all drivers geared up, smooth runners and out performed anything else out there. I was able to do that with my HO Tyco GP 20's. Ran nice after that. As far as Bmann, that still wouldn't solve my problem their 4-8-4's are oversized and the shell just doesn't get it. This wasn't meant to be a rant BUT I've ranted on long enough.
The Santa Fe's Northern and Texas types used the same tenders. The 1937 purchases (3460, 3765 and 5001 classes) used the 20,000 gallon "square" tenders, and from 1941 on (3776, 2900 and 5010 classes) all new steam locomotives came with eight axle, 25,000 gallon monsters. Extra "square" tenders were built for older locomotives, but the only eight axle monsters came with and stayed with their original engines.
Acptulsa, thanks for the heads up. No argument. Interesting thoughts. The #3751 used the shorter tender pretty much it's whole existence including now. Oddly looking short tender.
Pretty close. It isn't her original tender. But she got it before she was rebuilt with 80" drivers and a new cast frame. She's had it for some odd 82 years now. She wasn't ten years old when she got it. I know what you mean. But that tender isn't that short. It just looks short because it's tall, if that makes any sense. And because those locomotives are such monsters.
I love this car Russell. Is it a brass model, or did you construct it using etched car sides? If they are car sides, would you mind sharing which ones you used, and what car/core you used? Regards, Ron McF
I built it up from M&R etched sides and an American Limited core kit. I believe I heard that Roberto at M&R said his job situation has allowed him to start producing sides again so maybe we can start seeing them available once more. This etching is from a later run so has a few more details than the one shown in the photo above. I am quite puzzled as to the purpose of the new etched car ends. Only one has the roof contour on it but all three have slots for mounting diaphragms. I used the plastic ones that came with the American Limited kit for the car shown in the photo.
Something a little different... I generally model Santa Fe in July '72, which is when I rode it as a teenager and coincidentally the only summer when Amtrak 19/20 "Chief" ever ran, which was a pocket streamliner with early Amtrak and leased ATSF units - the last great summer of the F-units running lead. But as I don't have a big layout, I can get a little more into some of the fun details like night running: And at Chalendar, just west of Flagstaff:
Many thanks Russell. I'll be watching for the car sides, but even if they become available again, the core kits are pretty much unobtainable (when I last looked, at least.) I'm hoping that I will be able to use a Con-Cor or Kato car instead. Can you please tell me how long the sides are?