I am new to model railroading. I have decided that I would like to model the transistion era from steam to diesel. I am more interested in the diesel era, mainly F7s and some of the earlier diesel engines. I want to model the UP and Santa Fe railroads either in Southwest CA or possibly a more northern area. Which makes are going to look the most realistic in engines? I would like to stay away from having to purchase high dollar engines, but I am not afraid of detailing a lower cost unit if I can get accurate and favorable results. Thanks in advance for any help.
Proto 2k, Kato and Broadway Limited are all a little high end in regard to price, but grabs and handrails are more to scale, and optional parts to model specific prototypes usually are included w/ Proto2K,s. Shop around at the larger hobby and train stores and you can usually find some pretty sweet deals. If you,re close to Denver, CO. try Caboose hobbies and Colpar hobbies.
I will look into the Proto line. I also read a post on Athearn BB and may look at them. When I was a kid I had some AHM trains which seemed to be of better quality than Bachman and Tyco. I just wanted to get a good starting point and work from there.
Athearn locomotives are decently priced & should still be somewhat available everywhere well they are in my local hobby shop. They are a good start if you want to detail them to make them look they way you want
Proto, Kato & Atlas are excellent locomotives but are more expensive.
Gordon
My suggestion for cheap transition era diesels is to attend some big train show or firehall train show near you and look for old Atherns to overhaul. You can add parts using a “Diesel Dress up Kit” which provides grabs and windows. Just make sure the chassis is complete and operational when you buy. One real challenge is that when you start you should strip the shell of paint and mold release, add the parts, then prime and finally paint. Bad luck for you that the Western roads used multi color paint schemes. Once you have applied paint you need to decal your units. I prefer Microscale decals over Scalecoat gloss paint. After that you fit a close coupling kit to your units to make them three scale feet apart as a wide separation between units makes them look dumb. Finally add diaphrams which often come bundled with the close coupling kit. Now carefully lube the motor bearings and grease the gearing in the trucks, clean the slip rings and ease the whole shebang back together again. Total cost should be no more than thirty bucks a unit, depending on how good a deal you got in the first place. By the way, do those newer engines that have everything you want right out of the box look a little better now?
If you’re serious and plan to stay in this blasted hobby a long time,get a better made engine Protos ,Atlas, Genisis if you can,in the long run you’ll be glad you did,If you’re not sure get Athearns,they do run well,and look okay,it depends where you want to go with it.
I have found the most bang for the buck with the Atlas Master Series. These are DC OR DCC equipped with a move of a plug on the circuit board. VERY nicely detailed. Sweet runners. SMOOOOOOOOOOOOOTH. I would also look on Ebay, I find most of my stuff there very reasonable. Check under “toys and hobbies”. Lots to choose from.
i do not got a time era 4 my layout i got 2 steam and 8 diesels
my dad got me a diesel 4 only $8- [8D]