Evening Gents, A brit newbie to the forum, looking for information on American build diesels and steam. Does anyone know of a manufacturer who makes any of the following USA built diesels Alco DL-560D GE C30-7 GE B39 In either HO or 'G' scale. I'm wanting to repaint them in FCCA, (as was FCC = Central of Peru) colours. Whatever turns up, has anyone got any tips on improving the adhesion of locos, I'm wanting to try to get them up prototypical gradients of continuous at 1 in 25 (USA 4%) and occasional bits at 1 in 20 (USA 5%)? The Bachmann Baldwin 2-8-0 seems to be as close as I am going to get to the Andes class locos in 'ready built' form, does anyone have any experience of these? What track, in 00/H0 is recommended for outdoor use, I'm not terribly worried about exact scale, more of durability? NOT build it yourself, I don't have either the time, of the manual dexterity these days! Alec
I am not sure on the Alco or GE B39 but Broadway Limited has made the C30-7 (with sound as well) and I see these on Ebay from time to time. Also, Atlas has made the C30-7 which are DCC ready (no factory sound). I own five of the Atlas c30-7 locos installed with Digitrax DH165IP decoders and I am very pleased with them. Two I purchased used and the others were new-old stock. It has been some time since Atlas has made these but you can still find new ones for sale on Ebay and allot of online vendors for under $100 (paid between $50 and $80 for mine less decoders).
Hello. My own recollections of the FCCP track system were that the grades were heavy, but not greater than about 4%. A search of the www bears this recollection out. If your model locomotives are struggling at that gradient, particularly with the ridiculously tight curves we tend to have on our layouts, you have two practical choices, both practiced by all railways around the globe: limit your trailing tonnage or double and triple your head-end power.
Not bought the models yet, just know from bitter experience that its not hauling power that's the problem, but always adhesion! Regarding the gradients, I know the 'published' grades are max 4.0%, but reading Brian Fawcett's 1963 book, then there were, and still are, sections at well over that, the maximum he measured was 4.89%. As he said in his book, whatever the gradient profile might say, the engines don't lie! For the FCC/FCCA, the ridiculously tight curves are almost prototypical. As regards train loadings, in steam days, uphill with a Rogers 2-8-0 max load was about 180 tons in 6 cars (passenger). I understand that even the GE B39's are limited to 500tons uphill!
If you're interested in Souh American railroads you might want to look up Frateshi of Brazil. Don't know if they make anything for the FCC, but they do for Brazil, Argentina, and a few other countries in the southern hemisphere.
Now that's very interesting, thank you. Seems that Frateschi make a C30-7 which,would you believe, is available in Europe (France and Switzerland). The only thing that slightly worries me is the price? About $90.00 or thereabouts, brand new?
$90.00 U.S. dollars is about the discounted price for SOME locomotives. I've noticed recently that with the exception of some Athearn items and a lot of Bachmann items, discounted prices on most HO scale engines are migrating north of $100.00. And there's another potential rolling stock source for you. Bachmann is apparently beginning to supply such internationally. Don't know anyhing about their running qualities but their model of the GEs assembled in China are beautiful and extremely well detailed. In any case, good luck with your quest.
