Have any of you guys installed an engineer and fireman in your locos, or do you figure no one would really notice if you didn’t ?.
Tracklayer
The only figures I have are the ones that came already in many of the Atlas loco’s I have. So no, I haven’t “installed” any yet. I have thought about doing it though. My only problem with it is that my consists aren’t always in the same order or use the same locomotives pulling a train.
Never have figured out how to get them in there… On many of the small ones there sometimes isn’t any space to add them. On the Bachmann Spectrum locos, they come with the little people already in them so they can run the choo, choo. I only use steam (no diseasals back in 1925 ya know) so each loco can have a crew and be prototype. I do feel sorry that the poor people never get to leave the engine, even when it is parked and the fire is out.
From this point forward, my plan is to add these features whenever I do a DCC conversion.
i havent done this before.
I’ve noticed that unless it is summertime, so the windows are wide open, or they are hanging out it is really difficult to see anyone in the cab.
They are almost standard on Lionel engines these days, though I think they are a little undersized. Even O scale cabs are a little cramped, because one of 2 motors is in that space, at least on the diesels anyway.
6K
I use to add the crew in my engines till I saw how silly they look when I was mu’ing my units as I never seen crew members in each unit of a consist. or the crew looking back wards while the unit was running in reverse while returning a local or transfer run to the yard.After all diesels operate equally well in both directions…There were times when steam engines operated in reverse direction.So,I no longer add engine crews and remove them when they come installed from the factory.Yard units on the other hand gets crew members.[:D]
My p2k’s came with crews,I just paint them and leave them in,even in mu,many crews deadhead back home,and back in the sixties crews were 5 or 6 men anyhow.
My new Bachs come with them and they look cool. I plan on putting them in all my locos.
You just have to chop and cut them so they fit. The Bach engineers are actually half figures with one arm and no legs glued to the side frame in the cab area.
For those of you with Proto 2000 locomotives that have the unpainted crews in the cabs, check out this cool website. Pretty neat techniques!
It depends on the loco. I have a few open-cab steamers that either have or will have a crew fitted, mainly as you can see right into the cab and it looks very odd without them. At the same time, you can really go for it on detailing - removing the plastic coal and putting the real stuff in its place, etc.
I usually paint the cab windows black on the inside of the cab so that I don’t have to worry about crews.
Gordon
Good evening Tracklayer,
I don’t have them in every engine yet, but I probably will eventually. [^][^] Especially me HOn3 engines. [:P][:P]
Something brought up by a poster a few months back regarding cab interiors. Sort of a “Rule of Thumb”.
If you have a group or groups of locomotives that you run in double or triple header formations, then you might not want to put crews in all of your locomotives, rather insert them in the units you think will be the lead unit on most occasions.
Not difficult in HO, but can be more challenging in N Scale. I like Preiser’s painted figures. One thing I intend to do is instead of using the “traditional engineer” with the striped overalls, I’ll be using figures dressed more “post 1960s”. Even as a kid I remember seeing engineers generally wearing polo shirts, wind breaker jackets, flannel shirts, jeans or khaki type pants.
I never installed any figures in any of my Loco’s
there is a pieser figure of man crouching with an overcoat on that fits perfectly in the widow of athearn EMD units …a little whittling on the guy with a hobby knife will change his appearance so they all don’t look the same…i just glue him in by the window…chuck
Sure do. My main switcher has a crew plus 2 brakeman side riders
i did 1 loc. iys an athearn genesis sd75i. has room for a 3 man crew but i only added 2 crewmen.
tom
i don’t add them but a couple of my engines have them.
I don’t understand not installing figures because you might run consists. Is it more realistic to run “ghost” trains with no figures?
Look at some pictures of the V & O railroad. Some of the most real looking picture ever taken, and they all had figures in the engines.
I’m in the process of filling 12 passenger cars to about 65-70 %.