I have recently heard that Fox Valley is going to re-issue the Hiawathas locos with Loksound in them. Maybe soon? I have no idea. My question is will that just be the loco or will they offer the whole set again? Should be an interesting. Perhaps this going to be a new partnership? That would be sweet. Anyone out there know anything?
Cool rumor! I believe folks at FVM monitor trainboard. Let's make it real. I do believe I heard they were going to rerun the loco. Loksound is a new twist, but would make sense considering Bmann is releasing the Berk with sound. Now if onlysound could work in conventional for my shelf stuff.
I was hoping the announcement would have been a little different... like an F7 4-6-4 Hudson... with Loksound.
That would be sweet! However, Milwaukee always called that wheel arrangement a Baltic. Somewhere along the way, they developed the 4-6-4 before anyone else did. But NYC called theirs a Hudson. And it stuck. But Milwaukee didn't change. Either way. It would be awesome to see more 4-6-4 locomotive's. And Pacific's, Atlantic's, and maybe some more Atlantic's............
I'll have to remember that the Baltic is the name given to their 4-6-4's. I think they called their 4-6-2 Pacific class a Chippewa... which is another really cool looking streamlined Milwaukee Road locomotive. So many different names for the wheel arrangements like the 4-8-4... the FEF for Union Pacific... it is a Niagara for the New York Central... it is a Northern for Great Northern... and is a Western for the Rio Grande.:wideeyes:
Ummm, I don't think so.... The first real North American 4-6-4's were the NYC and B&A Alco-built J1a class Hudsons delivered in 1927; the first Milwaukee 4-6-4's, the Baldwin-built F-6 class didn't arrive until 1929/30 (though it may have been designed earlier). The "Baltic" was a long established European moniker for the 4-6-4 wheel arrangement and I can certainly understand why the midwestern Milwaukee wouldn't want to use the term "Hudson", but in this country, the Hudson name hit the rails first and that's why the name generally stuck. Having said that, I'd love to see an 84" drivered F-7 (if only to use it as kitbash fodder). Otto K.
The 4-6-4 class is the most notably 'missing' steam locomotive in N scale. This is why I was expecting an announcement from one of the large companies (Kato in particular) to have done a Dreyfuss Hudson with a Twentieth Century consist. Since Kato chose instead to do the FEF... and with no regrets on my part... I guess they will not be doing a Hudson/Baltic or other such 'new' steamer for several years. I've always figured Fox Valley to announce an F7 4-6-4 Otto Kuhler streamlined 'Baltic' after the success of the A1 4-4-2 a few years ago. Perhaps we may hear something this weekend... or by mid-summer???
While the 4-4-2 Atlantic sold well and probably would again I would rather see a conventional boiler version come out based off the same mechanism. At least 49 roads on the North American continent rostered some, and in some cases more than one class of them. Quite a few were in the 79 to 80 inch driver range, and some in the 73-75 inch. Other than some differences in cylinder design and valve gear, and a new shell for the mechanism, plus a new tender shell, and maybe truck sideframes it should be relatively cost effective to produce a different model based on the same mechanism. At least three roads ran a Belpaire firebox version maybe a couple more. I would say there is quite a good market out there for various versions for the steam modeler. My modeled road ran a number of them and when they did finally get bumped by adequate numbers of 4-6-2s they managed to still run the wheels off of them in freight service until the end.
I love that idea, as I think the drive train on these is as close to dieselishly simple, as you can get. They should be flawless runners
In response to a poster about Loksound working on DC. I remember reading in the CV setup section of my Loksound that there is a way to set it up to work on DC, tho I have never tried it myself. A Baltic led Hiawatha set would be awesome if they do come out with. One can only hope they also come out with the next style of BeaverTail observation car to go with it!
