…today at the LHS I got a Spectrum GP30 undecorated for $20! It looks like it’s at least 10 years old as it was quite dusty. It has much better detail than Athearn B-B but not quite as much as Athearn RTR. It runs better than B-B; almost as quiet as Atlas and it runs almost as slow as my Atlas Master series GP40.
So all in all, I’m happy esp when I consider what I paid for it.
BTW, I’ll be painting it for CGW as soon as I get the paint which may be tomorrow if HOBBY LOBBY carries floquil spray paint.
Those were very nice engines, their Fairbanks unit is really sweet, alttle load, just like the prototype. They also have a GP35 CP brown and maroon nice!
The GP30s do have pretty nice shells. They’re actually the GP30 shells brought out by Bachmann and Lionel in the mid’ 70s with grab irons, lift bars and windshield wipers added.[:D] Pretty nice if you consider how long they’ve been making that shell![:D]
I believe at one time Bev-Bel used to sell this shell custom decorated in a variety of road names. PPW also sold the shell undecorated and still sells a modified Athearn GP35 frame and a complete chassis to fit it.
I happen to have both of those units sitting right here in front of me, but the reason they’re doing that is because they’ve been bumped from service by better units (What else is new?) - By a Kato GP35 I painted into CP and my newer P2K GP7s and 9s, they’re just so much more prototypical in every way, but if I didn’t have the same budget, I’d definitely run a lot more spectrums, they’re good units!
Sounds like you got the deal of the day. I have sveral of the Spectrum line, they are like the older BB Athearns as far as value. Fair priced and good runners.
It has a sort of split-frame in the sense that there are 2 pieces that are the frame and they are big enough they surround the motor. If you took the screws out that hold them together- it would fall apart. It’s heavy. I can get a pic of the drive if you don’t understand what I mean.
It could be as little as 4 years old. If the wheels are blackened, then it was probably made either in the late 90s or the early 2000s. If they aren’t blackened, then it’s either from the late 80s or the mid 90s.[:D]