I model New Jersy Transit passenger service, which runs by my home. I’ve had difficulty in finding some HO scale models. I already have a Bachmann F40PH. Any tips on where I can find other locomotives or passenger cars?
I know Walther’s makes or used to make Horizon passennger cars in the Metro-North and other commuter RR’s paint schemes, They were availiable in NYC area hobby shops, however that was over 2 years ago so they might not be in production anymore
I have seen these cars in the 2009 Reference Book, and they are not listed a retired. However, on the website, they have been noted as not in stock, and a new shipment will not be in the new future
Walthers does the Horizon cars and their superior F40PH in NJT, Atlas did the U34CH and AEM7 in NJT and Imperial Hobby Productions http://ihphobby.tripod.com/ does the GP40FH, MU cars and possibly some of the later Comet cars. Lot of mfr’s do the F7A’s. Ebay is your friend when it comes to the out of production stuff as are swap meets. The truth is out there.
Your best bet for RTR NJT stuff is eBay; other than the Walthers Comet/Horizon coaches (which can be tricky to find anyway) all the other NJT stuff is either out of production or only available as shells/kits from smaller places.
Atlas did an ALP-44 some years back, and these turn up on eBay from time to time, though unpainted ones are more common and NJT-painted ones tend to fetch quite a bt more $$.
Bachmann did the F40PH, as you know (which is only prototypical up until 1997/98, when they were rebuilt as F40PH-2CATs; the most glaring difference is that the body extends over the whole frame, covering the rear platform on the plain PHs). They also have a new run of the E60, some of which NJT picked up from Amtrak. Unfortunately, Bachmann only has them in Amtrak paint; although some of them did run on NJT in a mostly-Amtrak scheme, neither of the as-produced Bachmann models work, since NJT didn’t get #974 and while they did get #971, it would have been in a Phase III scheme at that point, not the Phase II of the model. (Not to mention that all the photos I’ve seen of #971 show it in full NJT paint; it’s possible this unit never ran in on NJT in the Amtrak/hybrid scheme).
Walthers has Comet/Horizon coaches and cabs in both the NJT and NJDOT schemes; I’m not sure if these are being actively produced because they seem hard to find. They pop up on eBay fairly often, though. The MTA/Metro-North scheme, depending on your era, might be prototypical. Since NJT runs service into NT state on a few lines under agreement with Metro-North, they run Metro-North owned/painted locomotives (F40PH-2CATs, GP40FH-2s, and a single GP40PH-2) and until a few years ago had some Metro-North owned/painted Comet coaches running in the fleet. These ended up going back over to the other side of the river for use on M-Ns east-of-Hudson operations, I think.
Overland did a limited-run GP40P in brass; I don’t know if they did an NJT scheme but the CNJ scheme (but not numbering) would be appropriate for the early NJDOT/