I wonder, if we leaned on Athearn, if they would produce a GP35 in TSBY colors, and with ALCO Trucks. It’s not that big of a stretch since they’re doing Ann Arbor RR already. If you find that they do SOUND OFF cuz I wouldn’t mind adding a short line to my plans.
As a point of information, I’m now half the state away due East of Traverse City. About 18 miles East of Grayling. If you’re ever in the area, let me know in the CS, and stop in. Duke has, and we even fed him lunch.
Thanks for the invite William! Yeah, I would think Athearn could make one in TSBY colors since they’re doing one in Ann Arbor and they have one with Alco trucks.
Another funny thing, Proto 2000 Heritage makes their HO Berkshires in Pere Marquette, but they haven’t done one numbered for 1225 or 1223, the other surviving PM berk.
This is because, unfortunately, the way they designed their tooling, none of the combinations work out to make an accurate PM N-1 Berkshire like 1223 or 1225. The way they did it, they can make an accurate N class and N2 class Berkshire.
By the way, the sample PM Berkshire they showed in ads this Fall and the Walthers catalog is supposed to use their N2 body, not the N body they used. Luckily, when it was pointed out to them, they still had time to rearrange things so that the correct number will go on the right body (the N class body and the N2 bodies are different enough that you can tell from eight feet away). The PM Berkshires in the upcoming run, #1235, 1236 and 1239, are all N2s.
Now, if they’d only make replacement driver sets available for those of us who bought their first-run PM Berkshires and ended up with those shiny drivers that seem to run on the driver centers. I’d been planning on buying six, but luckily I only bought two of 'em before I found out about that gaffe. I’d gladly spend some extra money to make them look right (though for the price I paid for them, I really shouldn’t have to), if they’d just offer the opportunity. At least they corrected the driver tooling on subsequent runs.
Seein that Berk makes me want to get out my Riv. PM Berk and take it to the club and run a while. Alco AAR trucks on GP35’s aren’t uncommon. Most of the SOU railway’s GP35’s were that way because of Alco 1st generation trade ins for the 35’s.
The TSBY line is about 150 yards from my house in Howell, I have a clear view of them and see the trains daily. GREAT shots of the 1225, someday I must see it in person.
Cool! Is Howell on the line between Owosso and Cadillac, or is it north of Cadillac? If it’s south of it you may have seen the 1225, as the run it up to Cadillac once or twice a year. They never run it north of Caddy, though, because of weight restrictions on a bridge. That will change next year, however, when SRI finishes restoring the 2-8-0 they aquirred and then they’ll have a locomotive to run everywhere.
