If you go by what is offered by the manufacturers there doesn’t seem to be much interest in the ALCOs FA and PB units
I always liked the FAs PBs more so than the E and F units
I know there weren’t as many rostered but they sure were sleek lookin
Here are my Favs
Since they had a relative short life in production, and since that life was a few decades ago, there probably isn’t much interest in the modelers/railroaders of today. I have a pair of the PA’s in Santa Fe, but they don’t run much since I model ATSF in 1989. I just run mine for fun a few times a year.
Bob
I think the FA and PA’s are some of the nicest looking locos every built.
I had been looking for an FA2 for a while until I picked up an undecorated P2K FA2 at train show in February. I just finished it this week. Installed a Soundtraxx Tsunami and decorated it in Western Maryland Speedletters. I still need to weather it.
My brother has the same one, but in Black and yellow, and also in speed letters.
They’re long engines, so they aren’t going to look or run as well on the tight turns many of us need to squeeze our track plans into limited space. Also, their limited production run means that not as many roads owned them. As a Transition Era modeller myself, I look for 4-axle diesels like F7’s and Geeps that will do well on 18/22 inch curves. There were so many of these made that almost every road used them.
That said, I think you’re right. They’re neat looking engines, and I’m glad some modellers have the space and the desire to run them.
Actually the FAs are about the same size as GPs and the PAs are about the same as SDs and PAs are shorter than Es
Hello Uncle Bob,
By your forum records, you’re a newer member. I do remember that just a few years back (around 03-04) on this forum there was a relatively strong interest in the Alco cab units. There were a number of PA/FA related threads that you’d likely find on the forum search feature. Personally, in the long run, I’d like to have at least one pair of a Proto Alco FA/FB comination in New York Central’s scheme.
Good new is that interest in pre-Amtrak passenger trains in the HO and N scale has been growing thanks to manufactruers such as.Walthers, Rapido, BLI, USP and TSP.
IMHO, chances are we’ll see interest in the PAs go up again as it did back in the 90s. Pennsylvania, New York Central, Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, Nickel Plate, Union Pacific, Erie and the New Haven had PAs with some hauling “hot name” passenger runs at one time or another. Though they were dominant, the scene wasn’t an entirely E and F unit game.
Even though I’m not a big diesel fan, the Alco PA’s to me were just about the handsomest passenger units ever produced. The railroad I model–Rio Grande–had four paint schemes that they applied to them: Black and yellow (short lived) silver with an orange nose, Grande Gold and Silver with both four and single stripes. For myself, I’d be very happy with a set in the original short-lived black and yellow original ‘passenger’ scheme. Hopefully, someone will do it, sometime. I’ll be first in line.
Tom [:)]
I still have my dad’s FA units–they sit up IN a display case so a certain fellow doesn’t go trying to FA- nap my pieces–[:-^]
UncBob,
Um, actually, there’s been a continuous interest in Alco’s PA’s and FA’s for a long time. Athearn cranked out PA’s for decades, and Proto 2000 has released at least 3 runs (and maybe more) of PA’s in the past 10 years or so. The most recent PA model released was by Precision Craft, which is actually the Trix tooling from around 5 or 6 years ago (which also had a US distribution…but very expensive).
As for FA’s, for a long time, there was only a few examples. Either metal castings from Hobbytown (which were just awful), or from a company like Proto Power West or Chuck’s Chop Shop. But then in the early 1990’s, Proto 2000 released the FA-2 and FB-2 and ran them for years. They became very common at train shows and with deep discounters. Around the same time, FA-1’s and FB-1’s started coming out by an foreign company called “Frateschi”. Decent shells, but lousy drives. This product line became “E-R Models” with a much better drive. Around this time, Walthers started their own run of FA-1’s and FB-1’s in their Trainline series (they’ve done at least three runs). In the late 1990’s, Proto released the FA-1’s and FB-1’s in several releases. They also re-ran the FA-2’s and FB-2’s in the past 5 years or so.
The problem is there’s a little bit of a lull in demand due to the abundance of production in the past 15 years or so. Just haunt eBay and train shows, and you should have no trouble at all finding PA’s and FA’s.
PastorBob,
Alco made 294 PA/PB’s of all kinds, and 1354 FA/FB’s of all kinds. By comparison, EMD made 144 E9A/B’s and 460 E8A/B’s, and 1807 F3A/B’s. So while Alco didn’t win the battle by any means, it’s not like they didn’t show up.
As for the reasoning that they weren’t produced very long and they were made over 50 years ago so that limits interest? I don’t buy that at all.&n
You left out the last class one US railroad to have PA’s (although they were Santa Fe’s hand-me-downs): The Delaware and Hudson’s 4 units. they even kept their handsome warbonnet scheme, but sudstituting D&H blue for the red.
Train Miniature also did FA’s back in the '80s.
BN had some FAs from the SP&S, but never made it to the green scheme. IIRC, the SP&S ones were GN at one point.
Nope. SP&S was a big Alco fan and bought them new.
Andre
MisterBeasley,
I assume you’re talking about the PA’s. The following roads had them:
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad
Erie Railroad
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad
Lehigh Valley Railroad
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad
Missouri Pacific Railroad
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (“Nickel Plate Road”)
New York Central Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
St. Louis Southwestern Railway (“Cotton Belt”)
Southern Railway
Union Pacific Railroad
Wabash Railroad
You forgot the Southern Pacific. SP eventually had 53 PA units (39 from SP Pacific lines, 12 from the T&NO and 2 from Cotton Belt) as well as 13 PB’s.
Andre
ALCO FA & PA units are real popular here in the make believe world of 1954 on the Atlantic Central. We have 2 ABBA sets of FA1’s, an AB set and an AA set of PA1’s. And the local interchange with the B&O often sees six more FA2’s in B&O colors come and go.
One other historical note, although the B&O never “owned” PA’s, Alco did paint a set of PA’s in B&O colors and sent it to the B&O as a demo. They where returned, repainted and sold to someone else.
I think the large production by Proto in the 90’s some what saturated the market. Then PCM did some more not that long ago. It could simply be that every one who wants them has them? As you can see, I bought my share (18 total units).
Sheldon
The SP preferred Alco’s PA diesels over EMD’s E units on mountainous routes because the PAs were available with dynamic brakes and Es weren’t until near the end of production.
Mark
IIRC, dynamic brakes weren’t available on E units until the E8’s. Also, the Alco’s had better low speed capability as their traction motors were more robust than EMD’s. Unfortunately, Alco’s prime movers weren’t as rugged as the EMD 567 engines.
Andre
I’ve got to mention here that the Winter 2008 Classic Trains feature story is on PAs, mostly Santa Fe but with lots of information,especially the remotoring to EMD power. Worth a read.
Actually, the ALCO prime mover was fine, it was the turbo charger on it that had problems. A problem ALCO fixed, but not until after the damage to the locos reputation was done. EMD used a larger, non turbo prime mover to get the same 1500 HP. That simpler approach proved more reliable. “Parts left out cost nothing and cause no service problems”
But dispite their supposed shortcomings, many FA’s had long careers after their turbos where updated to the new design.
Just like the B&O, here at the Atlantic Central we like both our ALCO’s and EMD’s.
Sheldon