The General Electric B23-7 and B30-7 Diesel-Electric Locomotives have been made in HO Scale by the Atlas Model Railroad Company.
Many people have expressed an interest in the production of an O Gauge version of the General Electric B23-7 and B30-7 Diesel-Electric Locomotives at a reasonable price.
What product line is best for your track radius, budget, and control system:
LionMaster
TrainMan
Rugged Rails
Industrial Rail
For my interests and equipment I would choose TrainMan First, LionMaster Second, Industrial Rail Third, and Rugged Rails Fourth.
What version of the B23-7 and B30-7 would serve you best?
It will be made someday, do you have a comment?
Thank You for your reply.[:)]
Andrew Falconer
Andrew,
Stay way from LionMaster, you may want to consider Williams or RMT for quality and budget.
My opion is to stay away from the Lion as they don’t make good quality any more, basic rolling stock may be good to purchase but anything with more than one moving part don’t buy!
Lee Fritz
Lee Fritz,
“Stay away from Lionmaster…My opion is to stay away from the Lion as they don’t make good quality any more, basic rolling stock may be good to purchase but anything with more than one moving part don’t buy!”
Wow, that’s pretty harsh. I have a few Lionmaster engines and love them. They have great detail, look great with scale rolling stock since the height dimension is correct, and have had no problems with mine what-so-ever. I would have to disagree with your quality statement since they are no worse than MTH’s engines also made in asia. The only issue that Lionel has is the smoke unit fan being wired backwards, an easy fix.
I believe all the manufacturers are clamping down on their offshore manufacturing quality issues, but they all have the same problems.
I have a few LIONMASTER engines and I have had NO problems with them.
As a matter of fact I am also getting the new CAB FORWARD LIONMASTER due out in July.
LONG LIVE THE “LION”.
laz57
pmilazzo,
I have had problems with Lionel in the past 8 to 10 years that Lionel would not resolve or acknowledge so I am very much modern era Anti-Lionel any more. Also have you read the posts about Lionel’s CW 80 transformer?
Lee
My main problems with the O Scale Lionel Diesel-Electric Locomotives were electronic.
The wiring harness and back-up battery position inside the first release of Lionel’s O Scale SD70MAC could have been studied more carefully.
Later locomotives have had design improvements. I hope they keep testing and improving at Lionel.
Andrew F.
I wouldn’t expect to see these locos under the Rugged Rails of MTH or the Industrial Rail line under Altas.
Personally I’d love to see someone make an affordable non-scale version of some type of modern locomotive. The closest anyone has come is MTH with the earlier Railking SD45 and the SD90MAC, which is I think the very best looking “scaled down” loco MTH ever made. I’m glad to see that one under the Rugged Rails banner now, but the $180 list is still a little high in my book.
I think the train companies have a tough balancing act for the near future: how to tool up expensive new product while assuring the best sales potential possible, meaning how to please the broadest spectrum of modelers. Which also means waltzing the traditional/scale fence carefully. I just don’t understand how the train companies can continue to spend loads of money to tool up new products that haven’t even begun to make money, and then have to turn around and blow out those items. There’s certainly a market for the new scale proportioned, scale detailed products… the big question is how much of a market?
I think Lionel accomplished the fence balancing act very well with the release of the recent Dockside switcher and RMT accomplished it with the “BEEP.” For their faults, they both appear to have pleased traditionally sized operators as well as more scale oriented ones. And both are cheap enough to please budget operators and those who want to spend the extra money to make the electronic improvements. I think by necessity, this will slowly become more of a trend in the next few years.
What is left for release under the Industrial Rail line that does not repeat what everyone else has done?
The Six-Axle Locomotives are more difficult to compress.
Lionel’s LionMaster line and the Atlas O TrainMan Line have yet to add a GE Diesel-Electric Locomotive. So someone has to add a worthwhile GE Locomotive that has many road names and paint scheme.
This is long term planning, it does not have to happen this year. There is no rush, but only one GE Locomotive can be chosen for only one of these product lines. Somebody has to say something. We need a consensus.
Andrew F.
The Lionmaster line has always featured mega-sized locomotives which, if modeled to scale, would require large-radius turns. Lionel compresses them for 0-31 operation, but still gives them scale-like proportions.
So far, the only diesels to make the Lionmaster line have been the SD-90MAC and the SD-80MAC. Both of these engines have traditionally required 0-42 curves when modeled to scale proportions due to their excessive length.
In contrast, I think the B23-7 and B30-7 locomotives are about the same size as a U30C (Lionel’s scale U30C can handle 0-31 curves). I suspect full-scale versions of these models could be made to negotiate 0-31 curves. Thus, I doubt we’ll ever see Lionmaster versions of the B23-7 and B30-7.
It looks like Lionel’s focus for the Lionmaster line might change, though. Apparently, they plan to incorporate a number of the newly acquired K-Line locomotives into the Lionmaster line…
Sorry guys, IMO we need a SCALE version of this, and I would prefer to see MTH make it in the Premier. I am sure Atlas O would do an excellent SCALE version of it too. Make mine in Providence and Worcester livery, please.