In the past few years,
there has been utter lack of MBTA equipment
Today, nobody produces F40’s or GP40’s in MBTA livery
Also, the only passenger cars are horizon cars painted for the south commuter lines
I havent seen any of the double decks
Anyone know if any company is planning to produce new MBTA equipment?
Not to mention they use the wrong shade of purple. Walthers is rerunning their F40’s soon. They arn’t doing MBTA, but they might in the future. Kato is doing Metra, but for their next run, I sure hope they do MBTA new scheme F40’s. And the way their passenger cars are going, they just might do horizon coaches someday.
The only semi-correct items for MBTA commuter rail livery of late has been the P1K RDC’s, the Walthers Bombardier cars, and the Walthers F40PH’s. The major problem for anyone modeling the MBTA is the T’s use of really weird equipment and/or one-of-a-kind items. For example, GP40MC’s, F40PH-2C’s, the 0700 Kawasaki’s, and the 0500 MBB’s are all strictly MBTA. Even the equipment that eventually went elsewhere (like the FP10’s, de-motored Budds, etc.) were all rare birds.
The only mass produced items that could be done for the MBTA are the F40PH’s, the Bombardier cars, the RDC’s, and maybe some of the work train power (GP’s). And for the most part, these have been done already.
BTW, the so-called “southside” cars you mention are all over the MBTA…
mustanggt,
Kato and Walthers cannot do a correct F40PH in the “lightning stripe” scheme, as none have ever been painted in this scheme. Only the F40PHM-2C’s (the rebuilds) and GP40MC’s are in this scheme. All the 1978-80 F40PH’s were rebuilt in 1989-90 before the re-painting, and therefore may even be retired before they are repainted again.
BTW, if you want the right purple, check out the Microscale Trim Film, “MBTA Purple”. This was matched by Microscale against a freshly painted unit at South Station with Pantone color chips. The name of the color: “Nuclear Safety Purple”.
I just picked up my Bowser PCC car, the same as the MBTA used to run. It will be painted in a different MBTA livery though - the Moose Bay Transit Authority. I kept the initials, anyway.