i have these locos n dont kno who or what they are meaning name of company that made them or there names i know the big one is the bachmann spectrum series it says it on the bottom but the other one dont know any help would be greatful thanks Daniel
The smaller one certainly looks like an Athearn Blue box GP9.
i hade got that one from ebay but no box so i really dont know but just like you said i think so to ???
A photo of the bottom of the loco will help identify it.
Hi
a picture is worth a 1000 words, but a detailed description makes it 2000 words!
What are the markings stamped on the bottom of the loco?
What was the description on Ebay? didn’t it identify the name brand of the loco?
A thorough look-see would help…add pics of the markings on the bottom {if any}.
[8-|]
Easy enough on the second one - it’s an Athearn GP7 (usually mislabeled “GP9”) from the old “blue box” line. The first appears to be a Bachmann/Spectrum Dash-8 40C.
ok ill do that know 
Yep its an Athearn
Yep! Athearn! Motor mount pegs and truck bottoms are dead giveaway.
thanks [:D]
Your Athearn GP7/GP9* would benefit from a bit of attention to the handrail stanchions and handrails. As is so often the case they are slightly askew. The bottoms of the stanchions need to be pushed in a bit more into the body, and then the vertical stanchions need to be straightened to be at exact 90 degrees from horizontal. Back then some guys never did take care on this step, or if they did after a while the stanchions got askew again, particularly if the engine was handled or packed for storage.
This is actually easier to do now than it was when the kits were new because we have ACC.
With luck you have one of the fairly quiet and smooth running Athearn geeps. Even with the overly wide body (immediately evident if you double head with a correct width GP from Atlas or Life Like) the Athearn engine is likely to soldier on for years.
Dave Nelson
- PS Athearn took heat for getting the GP7/GP9 distinction wrong, and also for not just owning up to it once it was well known. But they were not entirely to blame. Back in the 1950s even Model Railroader staff was still of the “all diesels look alike” mindset, really quite indifferent to spotting features, and once they even stated in print that the only difference between the GP7 and GP9 was that the GP9 had dynamic brakes! They also printed a photo of a scratchbuilt GP7 from a rather well known modeler of the time who clearly had just eyeballed the engine and had the length totally wrong.
To be fair, there was also a degree of indifference back then to spotting distinctions on steam locomotives, too, with the result that some prototype plans printed back then mashed up different sub-series and eras of a locomotive. Even modeling from photos of the same locomotive has its risks if the photos were taken at different times.
DN
Not to mention the “piano wire” handrails and wraparound stanchions.