Did anyone hear yet? Genesis announced that they will be adding EMD FP45s and F45s to their line next year![:D] No roadnames or arrival dates as of yet, but if they’re Genesis I bet they’ll do one with sound!!! I believe they also announced they will be doing UP FEF-3s in HO as well, and the FP45s and F45s will also be done in N scale.
Also, it was either Genesis or BLI that announced SP MT-4 4-8-2s. There were a lot of announcements, all made at that big National Trainshow this weekend. I’ll have to go look at the page and come back with more, or someone else can chime in and add announcments I missed.
Oh, 4884bigboy, if what you just said is true about N-Scale F45/FP45 locomotives you just made me a very happy hobo! Hope they bring it out painted for the Undec Railroad; that way I can put my house road colors on them and not have to go through the rigors of stripping paint - which is one of model railroading’s more unpleasant chores.
About the only thing that would make me happier is if they would bring out an SDP model of something so I would have the boiler extension to splice onto an SD35 - I purchased several of those when Atlas first came out with them - to give me an SDP35 which I fantasize the Ohio, (East) Tennessee, and (South) Atlantic or Seaboard and Western Virginia - can’t quite make up my feeble flippin mind about just which one I want it to be - purchased in the mid-60s to replace the E-7s purchased immediately after big brawl number 2. FP45s have just a little more muscle than my railroad would need to do the job but I’ll settle for them if that’s all I can get!!
Again, Thanks Mucho, for the Info - poetic aren’t I???
If I’m not mistaken, the FP45s hit the mainline rails sometime in 1967-68 after delivery was accepted from EMD. Along with F units, Alco PAs, U28, and U30CGs, they hauled the varnish but were designated as the official “Flagships” of the fleet.
According to my book “The American Diesel Locomotive” by Arthur J. Roberts
Santa Fe’s FP45s were originally geared for 102 m.p.h operation (wow!). After the birth of Amtrak, Santa Fe regeared at least some of them for freight service though I don’t know if all were regeared. A few of them were assigned to Santa Fe’s “Super C” freight service, which was known as the fastest long distance freight run in the U.S with 80+ m.p.h speeds. Santa Fe did it with style!
An interesting side note to this is that just a few years later, Santa Fe FP45s were occasionally “pinch hitting” in the west for ailing Amtrak E-units and again in the mid 1970s, when SDP40fs were temporarily banned from Santa Fe and Burlington Northern rails due to mysterious derailments blamed on those big cowls. There are few shots of the FP45s hauling Amtrak trains on Railpictures.net
Now if we can get them to manufacture an SDP40F! For those of us modeling Amtrak in the early days, this would be a dream come true. E-units alone do not complete the Phase I timeline. Fellow Amtrak modelers send a email to Athearn! Hopefully they will take it into consideration.
Definetly agree that SDP40fs would be neat models to be produced in HO and N.
These giants were essentially modified SD40-2s with streamlined carbodies.
Inspite of the derailment problems on certain curves, SDP40fs hauled Amtrak trains on the east coast all the way up until 1981 after the last sections of the Silver Star and Silver Meteor were converted to HEP and the F40s took over.
I have very fond memories of these big cowls and took quite a few photos of them. Even got a cab ride on one occasion. Cab interiors were roomy, color was gray. The SCL crews that ran these trains from the Florida west coast back then were very friendly towards railfans.
Was really neat that the locomotive class “redeemed” itself after Amtrak traded 18 of the SDP40fs to Santa Fe in exchange for CF7s. After Santa Fe regeared them and replaced the “hollow bolster” trucks with standard trucks, they racked up hundreds of thousands of miles before being retired in the late 90s. Photos of them on hot shot Santa Fe intermodal trains can be found on railpictures.net.
One prototype was saved last year by a gentleman who purchased it. I’m not certain, but someone on the TRAINS forum mentioned that it was the MAERSK unit.
The SDP40fs, IMHO, were attractive units that should not be so easily overlooked, especially by Amtrak and Santa Fe modelers/fans.[8D]
The old Athearn F45 and FP45’s sure were looking quite dated compared with today’s tooling.
Oh and for you late Santa Fe early Amtrak fans, don’t forget the Intermountain Yellowbonnet (passenger unit #304). I have one and it’s hot, although it’s been out of production for a while now.
It would be great if Athearn released a genesis F7 in the Yellowbonnet passenger scheme…but being such a rare scheme (only an ABBA set ever wore it) I doubt it.
Another loco I’d love to see with genesis quality tooling is, well the Amtrak genesis. Originally Athearn intended this to be the first in the genesis line but something caused delays. But an Athearn P42 with genesis quality detailing would be terrific.
That does make sense, having a Genesis in the Genesis line.[:D] But the RTR model is still pretty well detailed, and also has a more perfected version of the mechanism Athearn developed almost 40 years ago, which runs both quietly and smoothly.[:D] I’m pretty sure there’s also a detail kit for it, so it can have near Genesis quality detailing.[:D]
Yep… Both Details West and Detail Associates have detail kits for the AMD103. DW #271 and DA #771.
I am very disappointed in the paint quality of some of the Athearn AMD103’s, in particular the Phase-3 speed stripe versions. The red-white-and-blue striping looked HORRIBLE on the Athearn model-- The striping was pixelated, like it was made on a newsprint machine or something. Blech.
I bet you already know this, but if not; The original phase III striping on Amtrak P40’s was in fact sort of pixilated toward the rear. Railfans sometimes refer to it as the “faded” scheme. So this may be what you are referring to as pixilated. Check it out here: http://www.hebners.net/amtrak/amtGEN40_800_809/amt802side.jpg
I don’t know if I was spoiled, but here in New York the speed-stripe Gennies I saw are the P32AC-DMs (the dual-mode Gennies). And their faded scheme didn’t look anywhere as pixilated as that!
This is good news for me, as I have decided to model parts of California for my next layout (forget guilford). And also because the big EMD cowls are some of my favorite locos ever.
Think we may also see an F40C out of this? Or maybe that one loco that the F40PH replaced? (can’t remember the designation)
Here’s something I don’t think anybody metioned on the forum yet…The 700 dollar HO Walthers/Heljan operating container crane. I wish I had the URL for the pic I saw of it…but I don’t[:(]. It seems pretty cool, looks to be a european prototype. But that shouldn’t keep us deep-pocketed modelers (definitely not me, my parents would kill me) from buying this thing, to add an extra piece of life to a layout besides the trains and lighted buildings most of us have…
