I have just bought two Bachmann FT A diesels, roadname CB&Q. They are painted off white including the roof. Should the roof not have been grey? If so which grey tone would be nearest or correct for this diesel. I thought all the F series diesels were silver on the CB&Q.
William
Actually, only the passenger Fs on the CB&Q were silver-to match their stainless
steel passeger trains. The freight Fs (including FTs) were painted with a very
light gray-it almost looks white-with the red and black trim. So, your Bachmann
FTs are probably correct. Hope this helps.
Rick Is right. To boot, CB&Q only used F-3s in passenger service. They were purchased initially for the California Zephyr, But were comparitvivly quickly replaced by E-8s as it took 3 F3s to move the Train vs 2 E-8s. My research on the GN to CB&Q hand off of the Empire Builder in Miniapolis, indicates that the passenger F-3s were used on the Chicago-Miniapolis route for a time before being regeared for freight service. They were eventually traded back to EMD for GP20s or GP-30s I can not remember which at the moment.
Also solid main body color with red or black trim is correct on the FT.
James
The off-white paint is correct - these FTs were amongst the batch allocated to the CB&Q during WW2, not sure how many they were allocated but they were delivered as drawbar-coupled AB pairs. There’s a few photos of these in “F units: The diesels that did it” (Kalmbach) which might be of use. Hope this helps!
Thanks for the information guys, really helpful. I shall look for the Kalmback book suggested. Might be just the thing for me. I have some Stewart F3’s in silver, great runners. I don’t think these Bachmann diesels are as good, but maybe after some running in time they may improve. Or I may re-motor them as I have with others.
Have a nice weekend
William
[:)][:)][:)]
Assuming they’re the same drivetrain as their latest GP40s, the motor is fine - it’s a big can type that they also use in most of their other diesels. The weakness in the drive train is the lack of flywheels, as the trucks are also good - I’m guessing they didn’t want to charge the extra few $ to add them. Pity really, as these locos are highly under-rated in my opinion! Running in and lubing the motor bearings with a light oil will improve matters - my GP40 now runs like a Proto at anything except very low speeds - it’ll crawl happily but needs very clean track as it doesn’t have the safety net of flywheels to keep it going.
Thanks Railroading_Brit,
I have run them on my test circle for an hour forward and backwards this morning. One of them felt quite warm after a short while, a tiny drop of oil helped.
William[:)][:)]
There was a time when I wouldn’t wish botchmann locomotives on my worst enemies. But they have gotten their act together and have a product I would reccomend. They even make some prototypes the GN used.
James
The Bachmann Proto 1000 mechanism is a Chinese copy of Athearn’s venerable Blue Box drives, with or without can motor, flywheel’s, and CV lighting.
Last I heard, Proto 1000 was a Life-Like product-now owned by Walthers.
Careful with that advise. They still have three lines - Spectrum, Plus, and regular. As far as I know the regular toy train type have not been improved at all. They got their act together about 18 years ago when they came out with the Spectrum’s. The MR community was slow to figure it out. Similarly Life-Like came out with the Proto series in 1983? or so, but it took years for the regular MR community to get over their prejudice and try them. I believe that despite what the Chicago Museum says Proto 2000 still holds the worlds record (Guiness book) for the longest running loco. BUT as Student of Big Sky Blue says I still wouldn’t wi***he Life Like toy train line on anyone…
Bachmann Did away with the Plus series completly in 2001. When they did that they transferred there Bachmann Plus drives inplace of the pancake drives. All the bachmann diesels currently listed in the walthers catalog come with what are essentially clones of the classic Athearn Drive. The spectrums are pretty good. Though I feel that the prices they ask for their diesels are just a little over the top.
The Proto-2000 line was started in 1989. However Life-Like did introduce their "Delux: line in 1983 or 4 My research is a little fuzzy. (I was all of one year old then) The few of those locos I have seem to indicate that they were trying out the Proto-2000 concept. I have two of theFP-45s and they have drives that are set up very similar to a proto-2000 drive. However they used old AHM shells manufactured by Mehano in Yougoslavia. In the delux line I know they had the FP-45, RS-11, and a USRA 4-6-2. I do not know if there was anything more in the Delux line but that is what I have been able to positivly Identify in my research.
THe problem with all this fancy stuff that has been comming out in the last 15 years.is that costs have gone up to the point I can no longer afford anything new.
Last 5 years I have boug
According to MR Dec 2005, LL will replace the Walthers’ Trainline name.
An amazing thread. We start with the usual CB&Q paint scheme question: are they silver or white? End with comments about product lines and their legacies. Still, very informative.
Considering the thread ended about seven years ago I wouldn’t expect a lot of comments on it.