Many MR’s model specific railroad names, others make up their own names, my question is does anyone run or use USRA locomotives? I’m not sure of the USRA motives, did they make locomotives, design locomotives, sell locomotives, can anyone explain their purpose? and does anyone out ther use them on their layouts? I saw a brass site that 16 beautiful brass locomotives at prices far far below other brass engines , are they not very popular?
United States Railroad Administration (USRA) locomotives were standard designs developed by USRA during WWI when the railroads were taken over by the government. USRA did not build or sell the locomotives, but did control who got them. The designs, some with modifications, continued to be made after the railroads were returned to private control.
Search United States Railroad Administration for sites with information.
Whether you use them or not depends on whether your prototype used them (not all did) and for how long.
Brass locomotive prices are dependent not only on the popularity of the owning road, but the quality of the manufacture, rarity, and collector value. USRA locomotives also been made in non-brass, which probably lessens the value of the brass version.
Enjoy
Paul
Some of the real railroads which received USRA locos liked them, while others weren’t so impressed, and got rid of theirs at the first opportunity. However, the designs were generally sound, and many copies of the various USRA designs were made after control was returned to the railroads.
For example, there were 625 Light Mikados built under USRA control, and more than 600 copies following that era.
While the basic locomotives were identical in design, railroads were free to specify fittings and appliances of their own preference, as long as the devices were of proven merit. As a result, one road’s USRA locos might look quite different than those of a neighbouring road.
Most of my locos are lettered for free lance roads, which allows me to use whatever locos I like, and since I like the look of USRA locos, there are several on my layout.
This is a Bachmann USRA Light Mountain. I modified it somewhat following NYC practices, and call it a Mohawk:
I also have several Athearn USRA Light Mikados. Visually, they’re relatively unchanged from “stock”, although they’ve been heavily altered to improve their pulling power.
Here’s the 636 pulling onto the turntable at Lowbanks:
I have another Athearn Mike which will eventually become a CNR S-3-a - the CNR got their USRA Mikados via their Grand Trunk and Grand Trunk Western subsidiaries.
Here’s an Athearn loco which I modified for a friend:
Wayne
Fantasy roads can run anything, of course. The sky is the limit. I ran 2 older AHM Y6B USRA’s on my old HO gauge Disputanta and Danville Western layout after modifying them a bit.
On your own named road, your shops can tear into another road’s locomotive modifying it in a manner to make it there own after saving it from the scrappers torch or buying it from its parent road as it goes surplus.
Just have a good back story on it and most MR’s will accept it in good humor as long as the era and geography are correct for its surplusing or scrapping by the original road.
Richard
Yes, the US Government knew that greater efficiency and co-operation was needed from the railroads to be able to succeed in the war effort in WWI. The USRA thus took over some of the administration of most of the major railroads (some short lines weren’t much affected). Standardization was a way to reduce costs, so the USRA promulgated standards for a variety of basic locomotive types as well as types of freight cars. A number of railroads thus utilized “USRA light Pacifics” or “USRA like Mikados”, but those locomotives would have still been lettered for the home road. There are a few photos out there of locomotives lettered for USRA (under the “there is a prototype for everything” column), but those were relatively rare.
As to the “16 beautiful brass locomotives” at low prices: Value on brass locomotives varies with the quality of the build as well as rarity. Not all brass locomotives produced have been great runners, so the low price on those particular engines may have been indicative of that performance (or lack of it). Also, the standard USRA design model would not likely be as unusual or rare as a brass model of a locomotive that was more specific to a particular railroad.
Bill