this may be a touchy subject but i’d like to see someone redress a up big boy in southern pacific lettering and an sp ac12 sporting the up on its side. or any other railroad herald. never seen this mentioned before. is there anything wrong with wanting a provacative piece of your favorite steam power on your layout to match your rolling stock or just because.
i’d like to hear your response’s, suggestions and see some pics if anyone has ventured into this area.
(Whew! By the subject title, I was almost afeared to open up the thread.)
Michael,
I guess it depends how prototypical you want to run your layout. Some folks would have no qualms doing it. I personally wouldn’t, but that’s just me. Seeing a New York Central Challenger or Big Boy coming down the track would just look all wrong. However, it’s YOUR railroad…
I saw a pic of a bright pink challenger one time. Would that count? I think it was like those pink trains Lionel put out to try and get little girls interested.
Back in days of yore when the only RTR HO engine was an American Flyer NYC Hudson layout pix in MR frequently showed them lettered for Santa Fe or whatever. It affected me then like a fingernail on a blackboard and I suspect that many now would get the same reaction but, then there’s the Tower 55 modern engines w/ “classic” paint schemes so who knows?
I’ve never seen the Big Boy/AC12 swap, but one of the manufacturers put out a Conrail J3a Hudson… Forget who, but saw one recently on that auction site…[:O]
Sorry, but I absolutely refuse to run one of my Yellowstones while wearing an evening gown!
Oh–you mean the OTHER kind of cross-dressing, LOL!
Well, I have two M-4 Missabe Yellowstones that are lettered for Rio Grande and given the ficticious 3900 series numbers. Of course I have a perfectly logical explanation. During WWII, Rio Grande DID borrow a number of Missabe 2-8-8-4’s as extra power when the Great lakes were shut down due to ice. In fact, the Rio Grande engineers all agreed that the big M-3/4’s were the best steamers they’d ever run. I simply decided that Rio Grande went to Baldwin and bought duplicates.
So I have my favorite articulated running on my favorite railroad, and I’m not THAT far off, historically speaking.
Well, in the “there’s a prototype for everything” department. I remember the Reading 2102 was dressed up to look like a D&H engine with elephant ears, recessed headlight and paint job. I think it was in the late '70s.
This photo is at a distance but there’s a Reading engine under that “dress”
Not so much anymore, but for years Bachmann & others have painted everything UP Armor yellow & gray - including MOW cranes & Overton pass cars!! I know they sold - I have a crane! That ranks along with the Pencentral steam![:D]
A friend of mine models the MKT. He always wanted a Big Boy on his layout, but doesn’t particularly like UP. So he took up the best of both worlds and repainted the Big Boy in MKT dress.
As can be seen by some of the examples given already, the model manufacturers do it all the time. Bachmann is famous for offering loco’s in paint schemes that the prototype never wore.
In the end, it’s your layout. This is a hobby. Have fun with it!
Tyco did some strange things with their E7s years ago. I’ve seen them in full New Haven (McGinnis) colors, as well as an interesting BN scheme. The BN units were green and silver…without the black roof. Their RF16s had some strange paint as well–I own one done up in 1970s Rock Island red and yellow.
A few years ago when the Chicago & North Western Historical Society had its annual convention in Green Bay Wisconsin, we held our two banquets at the railroad museum there – dining directly in front of a beautiful British 4-6-2, a UP Big Boy with the headlight and class lights on, a Pennsy GG-1, and a M &St L Alco switcher. Someone put a large CNW herald on the front of the Big Boy and if you squinted just right you could sort of fool yourself into thinking it was a CNW Class H 4-8-4. I might add that Titletown Brewing (located in the old CNW depot and a great place to eat) had brought free railroad themed beer so after a while anything was possible. Yeah the Big Boy looked like a Class H, the GG-1 looked like a huge pit bull, and I no longer recall why I bought the stuff I did at the post banquet auction. But it was a great evening while it lasted.
Can you imagine what a PRR T1, 4-4-4-4, would look like if painted for Southern Pacific?
I had one. It was a non-working basket case, one of the Bowser engines. I bough it and I rebuilt it and included Bowser super details. Also, used Bowser’s PRR decal set. Now I have a very heavy (5 pounds including tender) loco with two motors. Passengers connecting from my CB&Q trains to my PRR trains need not worry about having their train stalled somewhere. This engine will pull any train I can put behind it.
And mine will soon be wearing the B&O logo, it will be my version of the EM-1. I also bought a PCM Bigboy wich will crossdress as a DM&IR 2-8-8-4 borrowed for the winther pulling 36 Ore jennies behind it. It’s all about the fun. Why shouldn’t I play with what I like.
It isn’t just the “lower end” models that come from the manufacturer with fantasy paint jobs. Even companies such as Walthers and Rapido have released passenger equipment in fantasy schemes. I just saw some Rapido cars decorated for Santa Fe and about fell off my chair. Santa Fe never had any of the cars that Rapido has released. It seems that every manufacturer is guilty to some degree. If the consumer is happy with it, what the heck.
(With a sincere tip of the space helmet visor to the late Robert A Heinlein…)
On Time Line Three (Neil Armstrong) the SP never owned a Big Boy and the Articulated Consolidations were long gone by the time UP acquired SP. This is the time line we are stuck on.
So, who’s to say that California’s Gang of Four didn’t acquire control of the entire Transcontinental Railroad on Time Line One (Leslie Lacroix?)
Possibly, on Time Line Four (Ballox O’Malley,) the USRA was extended indefinitely, and by the 1930’s EVERYTHING (except local rapid transit) was lettered U. S. Railroad.
Or pick a time line of your own and model things to suit yourself. If some Prototype Phanatic objects, hand him (her) a copy of To Sail Beyond The Sunset and keep on rollin’ along.
Chuck [(modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on time line 13 (Alfred E. Neuman)]
J-3a hudsons in ATSF, NYC&StL, CMStP&P and others that at least had the wheel arrangement. Then there were roads that never even ran the wheel arrangement: SP, PRR and others. I am sure that SPFs go bonkers over seeing a J-3a painted DGLE with a red keystone.
B-mann does it, as well in N: prairies in Baltimore and Ohio.
Then there was the Mehano FA-2 in ATSF.
And yes, even the Kato of much fable, song and story issued its N scale USRA heavy mikado in SP and, as a COAL burner. While EP&SW was scheduled to receive some USRA heavy mikados, they never made it there.
And to talk about improper dressing, there is the Model Power B&O USRA light pacific with a Vanderbilt tender. There is also the MP USRA light mikado in B&O (RR class Q-3) with a Q-4 number and a Vanderbilt. MP has tried three times, and failed as many times, to get a correct cab number on a B&O USRA light pacific. The B&O had originals of both the USRA light pacific and mikado. I have never seen a photograph of a B&O USRA light pacific (RR class P-5) with a Vanderbilt. B&O P-6s, which were copies of the USRA heavy pacific did come with Vanderbilts. The Q-4, which was a heavy mikado (but not USRA) also came with Vanderbilts. Some Q-3s did acquire Vanderbilts late in life after the B&O scrapped some EL classes (articulateds).
