I model the 50's, but would push this up to 1966 to include three sets of 636's! They were brutes. Massive machines that looked great running the Columbia. Con Cor did indeed produce this, but never in SP&S. I owned a couple, but their biggest drawback was they were way too short. This and that they never ran well. I always thought Atlas would do this after the 630 release, but so far no luck. Atlas did do the 425 in HO, but never N scale. ???? The Life Like 424 runs well, but the rear end is wrong. Biggs offers a partial shell to correct if still available. A spendy fix. Atlas already has the molds to do the GP9, S2 and VO100. I guess they think there is just not enough of us SP&S modelers to support these. I know they are wrong by the response to this thread. Atlas could also be waiting for Lowell Smith to do his versions. I saw his samples of the RS3 and it looks great! What I would really like to see would be a rerun of Life Like FA1 in SP&S. They did the FA2 of which the RR only had two total. Bad choice. When they ran the FA1s they let the SP&S go by the wayside. The RR had quite a few of these and would have sold many more. This hour glass paint scheme is a real bugger to do well. I guess its back to the paint booth for me. At the N scale convention on Milwaukee, Fox Valley showed some interest in doing the C636. Maybe we could all call Matt and convince him? He would do a great job as well. Thanks, Rick
mine is crying while rocking and saying to itself, "find your happy place, Find your happy place." hahaha!
It's from the Winter '88 issue of "North Western Lines". This was a really hard back issue to find. The details are all Northwestern specific, but it's about 99% accurate for any late phase C425.
I've bashed one from a LL C424 and some atlas parts, there's a thread about in on here somewhere. Here's something to whet your n scalel alco appetite:
If Atlas were to come out with a late phase C425, I sure wouldn't complain though. I want at least 2 more and it would sure make things easier.
I don't think we'll see anything from LL/Walthers on the FA front. The 2's were a decent shell (but truck mounted couplers), and a dated (but good running) chassis.....they'd be laughed off the planet unless they did a total remake. I have a pair of A's and one B that has been powered, all converted to MTs........I'm OK with how they perform, and while I might take a second B unit, SP&S only had one ABBA set so I probably wouldn't bite on another set. I bought 2 undecorated sets of the 1's, which are even better chassis wise but I haven't seen anything "new" for some time, and aren't DCC ready either, so again a complete re-engineering would be needed to keep the buyers happy. One set I painted in broadstripe to run with the 2 LL C424s I have .......which are very rare. The first run was only 180 locos, which was split between 5 canadian RR's/2 numbers each.......or just 36 locos per RR/18 per road#. The second run of American roads was a little better, but I heard it was only 425 units. The second set of FA1's I'd like to paint in the hourglass scheme with the oxide roof, but as mentioned, that nose is a pain to try to paint. And yes, I forgot the Atlas ballast hoppers, even though I have some............ But SP&S didn't run a lot of "odd" stuff. Most of their stuff came from NP or GN used, or was tagged onto GN or NP orders if new, So Atlas must have made a lot of boxcars over the years that could have been SP&S.......they've done 2 #s of one 50 foot car. Both Intermountain and MT have made a lot more cars in SP&S. And Atlas has the biggest pool of possible SP&S locos, but have never cataloged any except that early open-pilot RS1. They produced RS1's and RS3's for Lowell Smith, but they were never cataloged as Atlas. They sold excess shells off about 2 years after LS sold the locos......there must be some sort of "deal" between them .........maybe that's why no GP9's, S2's or VO100's either. All I know is everything that gets made in SP&S seems to sell out, and they don't reappear on the used/auction market very often.
This, 100 times this. All atlas and Kato would have to do is produce Unnumbered loco's in both schemes, they'd have SP&S modelers literally wrapped around their fingers.
I'm surprised by the number of LL C424's still out there on Ebay. Apparently they aren't that rare. Nobody is giving them away, but if you want one bad enough you can still get one.
Ok, I am puzzled by your comment. You do realize that the later runs had a split frame mechanism and body mounted couplers? They run great and the only thing that needs to be improved on is the DCC readiness.
If I remember right, DCC readiness is the determining factor for which Life-Like locomotives Walthers will continue to produce. Then again, is it that much of a surprise considering how often Kato-Atlas RS-3's show up on Ebay?
I'm not so sure about that. The new release of the SW9 was not DCC ready. The original GP60 amd GP20 weren't either. but were revised to be. Just because the original wan"t DCC doesn't mean it won't be retooled/re-run, as these examples illustrate.
There's only one page worth of them. in CP, CR, CN, but not SP&S or BN. while it wouldn't be a hassle to repaint them, I've got a couple locos I already have plans to repaint.