I AM LOOKING FOR 1940S TO 50S F UNITS WITH DCC AND SOUND, ALSO WITH PASSENGER CARS WITH SAME ROAD NAME AS UNITS, PERFERABLY WITH SHORTEST CARS AS POSSIBLE THAT WILL FIT THAT ERA. MY LAYOUT DOES NOT HAVE LARGE RADIUS TURNS. I HAVE LOOKED EVERYWHERE THAT I KNOW. IF ANYONE OUT THERE CAN HELP PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
THANKS PHIL LOCO
Athearn F7s with Athearn Streamlined passenger cars.
David B
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/HO_Scale_F7_s_s/1569.htm
Here’s a good starting point.(if your not HO, they also sell other scales.) They have a passenger car section too.
Phil–
Just curious, what is your minimum radius? If you’re looking for DCC and sound, both Proto 2000 and Athearn/Genesis make very detailed F-units that are smooth running and powerful. I’ve heard that the Genesis sound leaves something to be desired, and the Proto 2000 sound is better, but I’ve got a pair of straight DC F-3’s from Genesis w/o sound that are very powerful and very smooth runners. I use them to pull my BLI California Zephyr train. As to passenger cars, Athearn makes a series of 70-foot streamlined cars in a great number of roadnames, depending on which railroad you plan on modeling. They’re not THAT detailed, but they run smoothly and will take anything down to an 18" radius.
Tom
Phil loco: May I call you Philco? You forgot your apostrophy’s.
Assuming pre-Amtrak & post 1946, Anybody’s F units will fit, - along with Athearn’s ‘Streamlined’ passenger cars.
‘Genenesis’ - or other close coupled engines - can switch to a longer coupler between units, such as KD #38 OR #36.
Wrong.
“I grew up in the 1990’s” is wrong; “I grew up in the 1990s” is correct. (See page 118 of Painless Grammar by Rebecca Elliott, Ph.D.) Do not use aphostrophes with years unless you are in the possessive case, such as “1947’s most important event, at least for me, was my birth.”
Mark
PS - And Don, you misspelled “apostrophe” and used an apostrophe incorrectly to indicate the plural of apostrophe. Hopefully, you are only having fun with us.
Assuming you are in HO scale, you have lots of options there.
There are probably more that have slipped my mind.
That isn’t too hard either as there is still lots of old stock IHC passenger car sets out there (they come in a set of 8 or two sets of 4). The problem is that they need work in order to run well. Old Rivarossi and AHM sets would work. They have truck mounted couplers that swing with the curve of the track. For shorties look for old Athearn Blue Box passenger cars they were all shorties. I do not know if Athearn is currently producing any of these in there current RTR series. The other brand that comes to mind is Con-Cor, but I know little about them.
That is the hard part. The companies that make good passenger cars don’t make them short.
By the way a technicality - EMDs FT unit came out in 1941. The F7 didn’t arrive on the scene until 1949. So by specifying an F7 the time period would be the 1950s. In general F3s are m
I beg to differ. If you’re talking detail, yes - but the smoothest running, best-tracking passenger cars, bar none, are Athearn “shortie” streamlined passenger cars. And they even look OK on 18" curves. Furthermore, I’ve never had a bit of trouble backing a long string of them, complete with truck-mounted couplers (Kadees). Weird, huh? Yeah, no interiors, but whaddaya want? No longer in production, I think, but can be found readily on eBay.
Again, I beg to differ. The first FTs were built in 1939, and continued in production until 1945. You are correct, however, in that the F7 was first produced in February, 1949. It remained in production until December, 1953, when it was replaced in production by the F9. Since we’re getting technical… [:D]
MARK PIERCE:
OK.So i shoulda used my Spel Cheker.
At least the ‘sedementality’ was there.
‘CAPS 4 CHAPS’
The Athearn cars are indeed the best bet - Rivarossi’s old cars would be nice if you could find them, even their 80’ cars will take an 18" radius curve but with a lot of overhang. The key in my experience is to get cars with truck-mounted couplers!! Walthers 60’ cars with body mounted couplers may give you trouble on anything less than 24" radius track, despite being so short.
Keep in mind in the 40’s-50’s heavyweight cars were still used on many trains, Athearn’s ATSF-inspired heavyweight cars would be a good choice too…plus their RPO, Baggage and Coach heavyweights aren’t “shorties” as they are
I’ve noticed Google spell check inserts apostrophes incorrectly.
There was no mention of price range. I was looking at the Walthers catalog just last night, and I noticed that their recent AB sets with DCC and Sound are $370, while a single A is $190. The pictures in the catalog look great. They have a good selection of road names, too, but it still seems like a lot to pay.
You’re welcome, Phil.
There might have been some FTs built in 1939 but a railroad could not purchase any until 1941. So unless one wants to model the EMD demonstrator (of which Stewart painted a set - plus I think Santa Fe painted the demos in their colors while they were on their line but they never pulled passenger cars) they have to be modeling 1941 or later.
I’ve got to agree with you guys–the Athearn semi-shorty lightweights make a really nice looking train on a small layout. I’m glad they still make them.
Ed