Being new to american model railroading i am thinking of buying aa 4-8-4 heavy loco.I would like to know if ATSF ran these locos and if so what road numbers did they use?Thanks
The Santa Fe certainly did run 4-8-4 heavy steam engines – Broadway Limited Imports even has them with QSI decoders and sound sytems in them.
Sorry, I can’t answer your question about all of the road numbers that were on them, but the road number on Broadway Limited’s current offering is 3751.
3751 through 3780, 3781 through 3785 and 2900 through 2929. Going from smallest to largest on the Santa Fe. The 2900 series being the largest 4-8-4 on any U.S. railroad. BLI makes the 3751 series with DCC and sound, if desired, and a SUPERB model. Bachmann has just re-released the 3781 series with DCC but no sound. While not quite as nice as the original production run, it still runs better than the original. Unfortunately they didn’t bring them back out with traction tires and they don’t pull worth a darn! Needs a lot of weight. I haven’t tried yet but I imagine sound can be installed very easily. Trainworld sells both of these engines at very reasonable prices.
Dick, Texas Chief
Not sure of the web site but the Fort Madison web cam shows a good 4-8-4 thats on display in FT Mad. Plus you get to see the Transcon trains roll by.
Also welcome to the forum.
Chief: Santa Fe had four classes of Northerns. They are the 3751 class, 3765 class, 3776 class and the 2900 class.
The BLI locomotive is a modernized 3751 class, I did my HO model as the 3759, the last Santa Fe Northern to operate for Santa Fe in Califonia in February 1955. The real 3759 is preserved in Kingman, AZ. I would recommend the BLI locomotive to any Santa Fe fan. The real 3751 is in California and may be used in fantrip service again.