I am surprised at the lack of ATSF steam locomotives that are DCC sound ready or DCC sound fitted, other than the Broadway Limited ones, what are my options?
Nothing wrong with the BLI steamers. Cannot get enough of ATSF steam. So, look no further. Get the BLI’s.
Rich
Alec:
Right now, BLI is about your only choice for ATSF steam that is sound-ready or DCC fitted. Santa Fe right now is not represented as well as it used to be for steam.
Back in the days of ‘affordable’ brass, Pacific Fast Mail, Westside and several other importers had a plethora of Santa Fe steam, everything from their stubby little 2-8-0’s, right up to their big 2-10-4’s. Ofcourse, this was DC brass, and if you check shops that have large brass consignment inventories, such as Caboose Hobbies or The Brass Shop, you’ll probably find a lot of them available. Of course, you have to add decoders and sound systems, but the prices are usually pretty reasonable, often not much more than current models from BLI.
Though Santa Fe steam was very popular back in the 1960’s through the 1980’s, it seems to have faded in recent years. Also, remember, Santa Fe was one of the first really MAJOR railroads to dieselize early. To all intents and purposes, most mainline big steam was off the line in major service by the late 1940’s or early 1950’s, and a lot of model railroaders focused on their very colorful diesels.
Right now, about the only Santa Fe steam that meets your requirements are the BLI 4-8-4 (if you can find them) and the 2-10-2. Bachmann did make a plastic model based on the boiler of the Santa Fe larger 4-8-4, which also did ‘double duty’ as a 2-10-4, but I understand that it was only DC, and had some motor/pickup problems.
Some of us, unfortunately, are kind of left in the lurch as far as our favorite steam models, these days. You model Santa Fe. I model Rio Grande steam–there’s ONE current loco available, a 3500 series 2-8-8-2 from Proto. Needless to say, the rest of mine are used brass.
Wish I could give you better news.
Tom
Bachmann has a 4-8-4 in ATSF, does it not? I know nothing about it, but I seem to recall a recent listing with that engine. It isn’t a Spectrum if I recall, but the newer basic Bachmann series seems to have improved.
-Crandell
Which ones are you looking for? I would like the heavy 2-6-2 of the 1900 class, the heavy Pacifics, or Hudsons.
BLI also produced a 2-10-4 and, fortunately, I have all 3 BLI steamers (4-8-4, 2-10-2, and 2-10-4). However, steam engines from any soure seem to be in short supply right now, for whatever the reason.
Rich
As stated earlier, early PFM and Westside brass are about your only options for more Santa Fe steam at this time, however that is not all bad as there is a lot of it out there on the market right now and a lot of it is a lot cheaper than it was 5 or 10 years ago.
If you go that route the supply is almost limitless, from 0-6-0’s to the mighty 2-10-10-2’s. I sold a rather large brass Santa Fe collection I had in the early 90’s and it brought a lot of money, since that time I have replaced almost everything I had for a fraction of what I sold them for in the 90’s.
As an example, the PFM Toby 2-8-2’s were bringing $350 and up back then, today you can pick them up for as little as $150 so that leaves plenty of room for the purchase of a decoder and sound system and still have something of much greater value than most anything else. It seems that the only ones that still command a premium are the oddballs like the 2-10-10-2 or the 4-4-6-2 but they didn’t last very long on the roster anyhow. As for when they left the roster there were still quite a few of them in service as of 1955-56 with the 5000 class being leased to the Pennsy for awhile before they returned to the Santa Fe.
Talk to the folks at Caboose Hobbies as well as The Caboose and ask them about decoder installation as well as sound systems, I’m sure they have someone there who does those installations.
Mark
Well I guess I am going
Alec:
Thanks for the information, I forgot about the Athearn Rio Grande 4-6-6-4. I do have one on my roster. Odd thing about those 3800’s, they were part of a UP order that got transferred to the Rio Grande by the War Board instead (Rio Grande wanted more of their Baldwin-built 3700 series, but the design was ‘frozen’ during WWII). Rio Grande never bought them, just leased them and got rid of them as soon as they could, because they couldn’t ‘cut the mustard’ on the Rio Grande’s mountainous profile.
But the Athearn model is a darned good one–smooth runner and hefty puller. Now if Athearn could come out with a model of the Baldwin-built 3700 series (much more handsome than the UP clones, IMO), I’d be a Very Happy Camper.
But it looks like as far as contemporary HO steam, even though you and I model ‘rival’ railroads, we’re both in the same boat.
Tom
I would check ebay, I have found some nice brass steamer there and you could get the decoders for them afterwards. That’s what I am doing now, with anything I buy and upgrade.
Hi!
I did a post similar to yours a year or so ago. The response was pretty much the same. I have the BLI Paragon 4-8-4, 2-10-2, and 2-10-4 and they are terrific!!! You can almost always get them on Ebay. These locos are fair representations of the prototype.
BLI also put out an ATSF USRA Mikado and I got one - only to find that the Santa Fe did not have a USRA Mike, and the model didn’t have the ATSF number boards or boiler tube cowcatcher. I put it on Ebay (sold it for more than I paid for it).
Spectrum has a 2-10-0 and 2-8-0 that are barely passable but could be fixed up. Their 4-8-4 is pretty nice (for the money) and if money is a constrant I would not hesitate to get it.
Rivarossi put out a couple ATSF stearmers years ago, but they needed work to make them passable.
Ha, I would love to see BLI or P2K come out with a Hudson, but I haven’t heard of anything.
Oh, BLI has a “modernized” 2-10-2 coming out in a month or so, and this should be pretty good.