Alright, so I’m sure that in building our lines most of us have gotten one special engine, for sentimental or other reasons that is our favourite. So tell us which engine is your baby and why!
Mine is acutally a tie, haha, between my P1K DL-109 and my Athearn PA-1. These pull the express trains on my layout and took a lot of justification on my part as to why they’d be running in the 21st Century at all.
But, I’ve always loved streamliners, especially ALCo streamliners, so it may not be the most prototypically correct but they are my greyhounds and my most favoured engines on the line. Haha, if I hear so much as a squeek from them in the wrong way I open em up, while sometimes I forget to lube my road freights for weeks after they are due (speaking of which…) but yea haha that’s how good those engines have it on my line.
Probably the Erie-Built I have hauling push-pull commuter cars - standard P1k with Bachmann decoder (will be replaced as soon as funds allow!). All I’ve done apart from the DCC fit is to replace the couplers with Kadee #58s, which do look a lot more realistic especially on pilots. One day it will have sound, and with any luck I’ll find the other matching A unit that Lifelike offered - not found it anywhere over here (even on ebay!) Here’s a photo:
Right now it’s my Alco S1. I asked Tony’s yesterday about converting it to sound and they just shook their heads. (Or maybe it was them putting their hand over the receiver and giggling.)
I think I’m going to get a BLI SW7 while they are on sale. I think i’m turning into a yard goat.
Gotta agree with Chip on the S1. I’m partial to steam but…that S1 is just the cutest locomotive to me. I find myself running it more than my 2-8-2. Smooth as silk, and now even more fun on DCC.
Chip, save some tuffs of grass for me. MaAaAaAaAaAaAah…
Oddly or perhaps strangely enough its a old Athearn GP7 that my late wife got me in 1975.[:D] I really love that old geep and she still runs even though she’s seen many years of service.[:D] This locomotive is so worn in that its whisper quiet.[:D]
Thanks for the tip, Tom. I’m about this close to getting an unlettered one and adding it to the Hogwarts team. It would have to be confined to the King’s Cross Station passenger yard with Lil Guy, but I’ll still get to run him.
Well, for all of the posts that I’ve done about my two Akane Yellowstones–and I love them dearly–I’d have to say that my ‘baby’ is really my little #1159, a cute, chunky little Rio Grande C-45 2-8-0 that I use for way freights and moving seasonal cattle. Got it from Caboose Hobbies about 15 years ago, it’s a New Jersey Brass import, and came with the LOUDEST motor I’ve ever heard. Re-motored the little critter some years back with a NWSL can, and it just rocks and rolls along (top speed about 35smph), and the side-rods are so low that it can cut grass along the right-of-way. But it’s a charmer.
Runner-up would be my little Santa Fe 1850 class 2-8-0 from PFM–I’d double-head the little critters, but they’re insanely jealous of each other.
Tom [:D][:D]
My baby is my brand new Canadian National GP-7 that my wife gave me for my birthday. Some of you may remember me posting about it. It’s an Atlas Master Series model and is nicely detailed. What I like about it most, besides that fact that my wife gave it to me, is that it runs smooth as glass and can pull a ton of cars. Now, I only have 11 freight cars to pull, but this impresses me. Not only can it pull all those cars easily, but it can pull them around my tight turns and up my seriously high inclines (3.75% incline the most radical…sorry to the purists, but it had to be done[:p])
After that I love my K4 4-6-2, but she doesn’t like the sharp curves so much and spends more time on the shelf than on the layout.
My favorite engine is pictured below in my signature. It’s an Athearn with extensive reworking including a can motor, Ernst gears, NWSL wheels and direct wiring. I’m still breaking in the gears on it, but I can see that baby of mine can crawl sooo ssslllloooww…Excellent for a mountain railway! I’ve added some detailing since the picture. That [angel] is my favorite engine.
