dose any company make a santa fe f7 ab set for 115$ or less or a aba set for less than 150?
Athearn “Blue Box”.
Dave H.
“Afforable” is a relative term. One man’s ‘afforadable’ is another man’s ‘out of reach’.
If you mean CHEAP, the Athearn F-7 is probably the cheapest . (It’s a 60 year old design). Some of these are sold USED for as little as $20. I’d rather have a used ‘Stewart’ F-7 for $100.
Check out WALTHERS for ‘Super Chief’; and Proto 2000, Genesis, & Bowser, for F7AB sets .Remember those sets with Dummy B’s are in your price range… Both powered is around $200+, and DCC/Sound runs $300+.
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/HO_Scale_F7_s_s/1569.htm (credit card only).
Whatever is “affordable”.
The Athearn “Ready to Roll” F7 AB sets are relatively decent for the price. I believe they retail for around $69 (anybody?). The paint is a heck of a lot nicer than the BBs, and they come with glazing. The B unit is a dummy (if I recall correctly), and aren’t true to prototype, but you get what you pay for. At least they have dual headlights.
DCC and sound are the other factors you should consider. If you look at the pricing, you’ll see that the difference between a DC engine and a DCC engine with sound is now about a hundred dollars, sometimes less. When you consider the cost of a sound decoder, speaker and enclosure, you’re close to that already, if not over, and you still have to do the installation. So, if DCC is in your future, consider delaying your purchase until you can buy an engine that already has it.
Try www.trainworld.com and www.modeltrainstuff.com for online bargains. Both of these are reputable merchants, and both have really amazing “blowout” prices. They buy closeout lots from distributers and pass the savings on to you. They are mostly selling out-of-production items, but they are still new-in-the-box.
Go to www.walthers.com and sign up for their monthly flyer. They advertise a lot of very good sales there. A while back I picked up a Proto SW8 switcher, with DCC and QSI sound, for a hundred dollars.
DG:
I think I can say with 99% certainty that he does in fact mean “cheap”, or perhaps “the cheapest you can go while maintaining reasonable quality”.
(Heck, the real railroads buy stuff because it’s CHEAP.)
The Athearn BB F7 was always a pretty nice runner for the money, too.
First of all, its affordable.
Second, for $150 I got two Athearn Genesis (widely considered the best) Great Northern F7’s. A-B.
misterbeasley-
i haven’t realy looked at trainworld.com, but i recently bought stuff from madeltrainstuff.com and i do get the walthers flyers.
I’ve always had a rule of thumb - If you want cheap that works, go with Athearn.
[:-^]
Check out the Micro Mark web site. They have some great prices on various locomotives right now.
I just got a SD-45, which is a $130.00 Bachmann Spectrum unit for $38.00 shipping included.[swg][wow]
Johnboy out…
Recently I picked up a Athearn RTR AB set in Santa Fe paint. The B unit was a dummy. I paid $59. I think it is a great set for the price, very pleased with mine.
I’ve heard that the Model Power “Metaltrain” series F7 is a great. They run very smooth, have DCC sockets and have excellent factory paint jobs. Unfortunately, I think they only do F7A’s, no B units.
-scax330
well its not exactly an F7 but walthers have F3’s AB units for $75 but infortunatly they don’t have Santa fe’s, but i was very happy to pick up a ABBA blackwidow SP unit
Of course there is the Athearn Blue Box, but for about $99 new discount price you should be able to find a Stewart F7 AB set. I’m surprised no one has mentioned Stewart yet. Stewart has the best drive and a much nicer shell than the old 1950’s tooled “Globe” shell used on the Athearn BB F7. The Stewart drive was tooled by KATO and run like it too. The newer versions made in America run just as well.
Do yourself a HUGE favor and don’t settle for anything less than a Stewart. (now sold by Bowser).
You get what you pay for. I don’t mean to sound elitist, but in my humble opinion, the Athearn “Blue Box” F7, even in the better painted RTR version, should be relegated to train sets. The shell is very crude compared to anything tooled since the 1980’s, including the relatively crude Botchmann Plus F7. Again, since you can get Stewart F7AB sets for about $99 (F7B is a dummy), there is really no reason to settle for less.
Proto 1000 made Santa Fe in the past, in the old Blue and yellow freight scheme. Trainworld sells Proto 1000 F3 A/B sets for $45: http://www.trainworld.com/lifelike/lifelike_proto.htm
Can’t hurt to call and ask if they have Santa Fe. I’m pretty sure it’s a foobie, though.
Some friends of mine picked up MRC F7s for $30.00 or so from somewhere (maybe Trainworld?). I don’t know if they made a B unit, though, and the Model Railroader review was very unkind to this model for its inaccuracies.
If you don’t want/can’t afford DCC and sound, many hobby shops and e-bay sellers are looking to reduce inventory of F units with that came without DCC and sound, such as Intermountain, Athearn Genesis, and Stewart. You may be able to find a good deal on an A/B set in Santa Fe.
And there’s always the Athearn Blue Box models.
I’d second the Proto 1000 as a good lower cost alternative for F units. Yes, they are F3’s, an earlier model than the F7 but very similar. The Proto 1000 run very well and the shell compares favorably and almost as good as the Stewart, but for less money. Certainly better than the old Globe Athearn blue box clunker.
Most of my shopping recently has been on E Bay. You need to check the pictures carefully. I download the pictures of the items I am interested in and then blow them up on my computer looking for flaws or problems. Anything I question I e mail the seller for an explanation. So far so good and the prices are what I want them to be. If I get outbid I try for the next one put up for auction.
Hey, why Santa Fe F7s? Why not the Frisco??? [;)]
because Santa Fe is, as my 13 year old daughter would say, prettyful! Nothing against Frisco, but even as a 10 year old, I was always impressed with the Red/Silver warbonnet paint scheme. It is universally a crowd pleaser.
Then there are the rest of us that have our pet favorite. I think the Rio Grande yellow/silver paint is very sweet also. Santa Fe did a yellow bonnet which wasn’t terribly different.