I have been wondering this for awhile. So does anyone know the answer.
No, they are not, but the vast majority of recent introductions are.
The Hogwarts Express and Thomas the Tank Engine immediately come to mind.
Both of those models are based upon real locomotives, although the paint is purely fiction.
The overwhelming majority of model locomotives are based upon a real locomotive, however loosely they may portray that locomotive.
Good thing is the basics are the same, such as round wheels!
Except for the more expensive engines what you are getting is a hybrid or generic version, i.e., a bit of this and bit of that. IHC/Mehano are perfect examples. their engines are loosely based on a specific prototype but with a lot of variances.
Fergie
For scale models in the early days some manufacturers would buiild a composite model that was similar to several, but not exactly a match to any, prototype engines. Others would use the nearest engine. In both cases detail was left off to simplify production and keep the cost down. Many of these models are still in production. Other than fantasy engines such as Thomas they all have at least this basis in reality. The Hogwarts engine is an actual engine in a different color scheme - I don’t know how faithful the model is to it. Early on it was common for a manufacturer to paint the engine for all the popular roads even if they didn’t use it - the high cost of tooling could not be recouped otherwise. This still occurs today, but some manufacturer’s at least will tell you what engine theirs is based on.
Many of the early toy train engines are abstracted to the point that there is no protoype.
Enjoy
Paul
Some paint “fakes”:
Tyco Rock Island “Sharknose” (RI never had this loco)
Athearn Rock Island “SW7” (RI never had SW7s - they had SW 9s and 1200s, which look simular but have differences).
Athearn John Deere F7s, F45s, boxcars, flat cars, cabeese, etc
(Really! I’m painting my JD F45 to a IMRL paint scheme … Yeah, I bought one - it was my first HO loco as an “adult”, whatever THOSE are!)
Athearn “RI” GP40-2s done by custom painters (the real RI “GP40-2s” were upgraded GP40s done by the RI Silvas shop, which are different than the real -2s).
The new Athearn RI GP35 - the Athearn model is the wrong phase for the Rock Island, but that didn’t stop them …
And there are others.
Bottom line - know your road, it’s history, and paint schemes before you buy !!!
One of my favorites is the GG1 paint scheme for the Milwaukee Road (and others that never had it) http://www.ihc-hobby.com/cgi-bin/bsc.cgi?sn=J7GC160210671372Y1R684029R2480 but hey they tell you up front it is ficticious.
On the other hand if you like GG1’s and want to run them with your Little Joes, why not.
Enjoy
Paul
Hey there ! emmar,
Maybe I can be a little bit helpful, I have a fairly good working knowedge of what is out there in HO scale as far as replicating prototypes. Along with the many books on trains of the world and N. America, I visit train yards and have one such yard right down the road in Deming, NM. We have every sort of loco and box car and ore cars as there is a spur line going north to a copper mine just outside of Silver City…that doesn’t sound right, eh ?! Well, the area is rich in history, both mining and RRing as the two go together.
My layout is about the SW. And the theme allows for greater latitude in what rolls down the tracks although I must say I’ve seen everyhting out here along our area, from Norfolk Southern to CSX and Amtrak.
Now and again the model RR industry copies prototypes “before” the real ones get off the ground, one example is the " Kodachrome " Yellow and Red paint scheme that was for the pending merger of So. Pacific and Santa Fe. The merger never took place so all the modelers who had the locos where wondering what to do with them, I imagine some repainted their models or lived with the results. The resulting saying was…" Shouldn’t -Purchase -So -Fast ", well at any rate, you get the idea.
If you visualize something in your mind as possible for a railroad, chances are at least one of the same things or close to it actually exsist on a railroad at one time or another. Short lines used just about anyhting they could get their hands on and some lines even re-built from parts of other locos and rolling stock. So if you come up with what you might think is a doozie, and can’t seem to fit it anywhere, I suggest you look around the nearest RR yard, past issues of TRAINS magazine and others.
The best of luck in your pursuit…
Yard-dog ( because I have two dogs that run my RR )
Sometimes there are models painted for not just the roadnames of companies that didn’t own them, but ones from countries they didn’t operate in. A good example is Model Power’s 2-6-0 ( http://www.modelpower.com/site/519087/product/6720 ). The tender is North American, but the engine is a model of a German Class 24 steam locomotive, minus elephant ears. They also make a model of the German ICE train in Amtrak markings. I have a Lima train set made for the British market. The engine is an American Plymouth switcher in BR markings with buffers added and the cars are continental European types in British markings. Years ago, many toy train companies from Europe made North American export models that were exactly the same as their European ones, except with a cowcatcher added.
Actually there were prototypes for this scheme. The Santa Fe had more than 200 painted in anticipation of the merger.
http://atsf.railfan.net/sfkodcrm/
I don’t know how many the SP had, but it was probably a similar number.
Let’s not leave out the good old Athearn DD40! That is a loco that never had a prototype. For those who don’t know, the Athearn model was first produced based off of the offering in the EMD catalog. Unfortunately, no one bought any real ones. It was a couple of years after Athearn made theirs that EMD built the DDA40X locos for UP.
The old Tyco “GG-1” comes to mind too. They basically took a GG-1 shell, shortened it, and stuck a pair of 6-axle power trucks under it and tried to pass it off! The bad part is, as a kid, I REALLY wanted one! Fortunately, I didn’t get that loco either.
There were a few “fantasy” locomotives produced for the toy-train market. I don’t have the issue handy, but in a Sixties MR I saw an ad for a model railroad “racer” (apparently intended to challenge the slot-car market, then cutting seriously into model railroad’s hobby share) that was basically a totally toylike thing that ran on Tyco flextrack, driven by an electric propeller. It came with a double Figure-8 of track and used two of these weird vehices to race.
There are a lot of “fantasy” cars, too–the boxcars containing missile launchers spring to mind, but the ever-popular MOW spotlight car (a flatcar with a “shorty” caboose body on one end and a spotlight on the other) is purely fantasy.
Here’s a link to a good essay on the subject from the Thor Trains website:
Look at the June 2005 Model Railroader on page 23. There is a full page color add showing 24 Hudson steam engines. NOT 1 IS AN ACCURATE MODEL! Four are for RRs that never owned a Hudson. One is for a RR (B&O) that owned only one and it was very distinctive, looking more Briti***han America.
What ever you do, check your books and websites first. MDC/Roundhouse even produced wrong cars, for instance, wong road numbers, wrong paint schemes. Bachmann was lousy. And we wont even mentioned how crappy of a job that Pemco did on the Rock Island. By the way, this one is for George Bailey, I Didn’t catch the difference on the Athearn GP35. Please enlighten me on this.
thanks,
Josh
I always liked how Bachman could make a 2-6-2, a 4-6-0 (4-6-2?) and an “Old Timer” switcher with a bell stack and long cow catcher out of a USRA looking 0-6-0!
There’s a few modelled on “might have been” locos too - Athearn’s DD40 springs to mind here, there was never a real loco of this exact design but Athearn tooled it based on a set of EMD plans that never went into production (hence why mine’s in EMD Demo paint - in my alternate history they built one but didn’t go into series production). Not sure I can agree about the “Hogwarts” - I’d say it’s an accurate model of 5972 “Oulton Hall” painted for film work. Hornby’s model is incorrect in that they used a Castle class rather than a Hall, but is a lot more convincing in terms of the standard of paintwork and running than the Bachmann effort.
Is this what you were thinking of? http://tycotrain.tripod.com/tycotrains/id25.html
Believe it or not, such a thing was actually attempted in real life. One such car was actually built. See: http://www.csxfan.railfan.net/dodx/WECX1002.html There were some plans for a simmilar car in the 60’s (where Lionel got the idea for theirs from), but they never made it past the drawing board.
Triang had one of those prop-driven locos too - motor powered the prop rather than the wheels. Interestingly the idea was tried out in real life - during the 1930s the Zeppelin company experimented with a very long, sleek railcar built using airship construction techniques and powered by a large prop on the tail.
The Athearn GP35 is a phase one model, but all the RI locos were phase two.
There were physical differences between the two phases, one main difference being in the frame. The following is taken from Thompson’s web site:
http://users.inna.net/~jaydeet/gp35.htm
GP35 Phases:
Phase Ia1- fishbelly frame, groups of three louvers on both battery box doors, seven latched engine doors, short inertial intake, flat dustbin hatch, flat under the front headlight (roads that used rotating lights had a bulge under the numberboard assembly) Type I radiators (the Cannon GP35 rad). [10/63-3/64]
Phase Ia2- three latched engine doors. [2/64-4/64]
Phase Ib1- long inertial intake. [3/64-9/64]
Phase Ib2- seven latched engine doors. [9/64-10?/64]
Phase Ib3- bulge under the front headlight becomes standard. [10?/64-11/64]
Phase Ib4- two louvers on the fireman’s battery box door. [11/64-1/65]
Phase Ic1- Type II radiators (the Atlas/Con-Cor/Pemco/IHC SD35 rads). The bit of sheet metal at the front of the engineer’s battery box was eliminated with this phase. [12/64-2/65]
Phase Ic2- two louvers on both battery box doors. [2/65-5/65]
Phase Id- raised dustbin hatch. [6/65]
Phase IIa- straight frame, two louvers on both battery box doors, seven latched engine doors, long inertial intake, flat dustbin hatch, Type II radiators. [4/65-5/65]
Phase IIb- raised dustbin hatch. [5/65-12/65] (Southern 2526 and 2641 lacked the piping by the air reservoir.)
Phase IIc- corrugated inertial intake. [8-12/65]