To add to Brianel027’s comments about k-line alcos. I don’t own the later FAs but do own an early NYC from the early nineties. These are pretty spartan locos made of mostly plastic with truck mounted motors and no flywheels (pretty sure, anyway)
I was just running these for the first time in many years and they run rough and are just not that well made. Paint and graphics on my NYC are nice though and I believe the units are indeed painted.
K-Line would go on to do so much better.
Thanks Bob for the clarification. I wasn’t trying to imply that the F3’s are that scale… but they are closer to reality than the Alco FA and don’t look too out of wack with tradionally sized cars, at least as compared to other loco choices.
On the K-Line Alco FA’s. It’s not fair to compare them to other better locos with larger motors and flywheels, such as Williams which are quieter runners for certain. All the dual DC truck mounted motored locos (be they Lionel or K-Line) suffer from what I call a “growl” noise, especially on curves. In comparision to the newer Lionel Alco FA’s, the K-Line model is still the winner be they older or newer versions.
K-Line had their traction tires all over the place. One thing I have found that does help some is to remove one traction tire from each motorized truck and to add a little weight to inside the shell if deemed necessary. It is inevitable that two DC can motors will probably not run at precise identical speeds. But having double traction tires on the same truck - especially if the tires are on opposite sides of the same truck - will contribute to the growling noise especially on curves.
Alton, I am unaware of earlier versions of the SD45 and SD90MAC, other than the Railking versions and then probably the Scale Railking versions after 2000 or 2001 when MTH basically started using the former Premiere line dies for the new Railking releases.
When the first Railking Dash-9’s came out, I borrowed one and made a scale drawing. Then I took scale drawing from the Model Railroader or RMC, scanned them into a computer and then played with them in a graphic arts program. I basically started from scratch to see if I could make a better proportioned version than MTH did. And then I showed my work to the fellow I borrowed the loco from. And he agreed that I had made a better looking scaled down loco. The KEY here is to NOT use a scale ruler, but to throw away the scale ruler and go by FEEL.
So I’m just saying by my op