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Post by wagnersteve on Jan 9, 2024 19:22:08 GMT -8
1/9/24, starting about 9:46 p.m., EST
FP7A - F7B sets, @$599.98 each with LokSound 5 sound & DCC installed, $399.98 each with standard DC. I'm not sure from the announcement whether the B units are powered.
A unit only, @$299.98 each "with" and $199.98 "without".
All will have railroad-specific detailing.
ETA for all is Summer 2024.
Canadian Pacific (CP Rail) and Soo Line models will have the same road numbers both with sound & DCC installed and without those features.
CP Rail: Action red with multi-striped nose, MultiMark at rear of sides. A-B sets "with" 4066 and 4474, 4070 and 4477. Single A units 4068, 4072.
Soo Line models will be white with red nose on the A and big black SOO in rounded letters on both units. A-B sets will be 501A and 501C, 2501A and 2501C. Single A units will be 502A and 503A.
The other two paint schemes will have different road numbers on units "with" and "without".
Chesapeake & Ohio (as delivered): A-B sets "with": 8004 and 8503; 8009 and 8506. "Without": 8005 and 8505; 8007 and 8506. Single A units "with" 8008, 8013. "Without": 8006, 8011.
Southern Pacific ("bloody nose" scheme with road name only on the A units): A-B sets "with" 6446 and 8296, 6450 and 8301. "Without": 6448 and 8298, 6451 and 8302. Single A units "with": 6453, 6457. "Without": 6455, 6459.
It's now 10:21 p.m. I'm going to go to bed.
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Post by lvrr325 on Jan 9, 2024 20:08:31 GMT -8
Given the price the B must be powered.
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Post by GP40P-2 on Jan 9, 2024 20:53:57 GMT -8
It just seems like one day we should hit a saturation point with F-units, as those who remember them "move on"... For as often as we get F-unit announcements from multiple manufacturers, it would seem that we should get SD40-2 and GP38-2 announcements much more often. We should also be seeing a major pick up in ES44whatevers and SDxxACE things, and a serious down trend in F-units.
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Post by Mr. Trainiac on Jan 9, 2024 21:31:31 GMT -8
It just seems like one day we should hit a saturation point with F-units, as those who remember them "move on"... For as often as we get F-unit announcements from multiple manufacturers, it would seem that we should get SD40-2 and GP38-2 announcements much more often. We should also be seeing a major pick up in ES44whatevers and SDxxACE things, and a serious down trend in F-units. Scaletrains and Genesis 2.0 have made a lot of newer locomotives like Tier 4 GEVOs and SD80/90 MACs from EMD. Your prediction about modern locomotives becoming popular has been true for the last few years as people growing up in the 90's and 2000's enter the hobby. The mantra of people modeling their childhood railroads is true. The outlier is the F unit, and I think it's because of the passenger train. Passenger has a certain magic and timelessness that freight trains don't, so there is always an appeal for streamliners, even if the current modeling generation didn't grow up in that decade. It's easy to justify an F unit as a show or club locomotive even if that railroad isn't your main modeling subject. Sometimes running a cool passenger train is just a good break from your regular modeling stuff. |
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Post by cemr5396 on Jan 9, 2024 22:08:07 GMT -8
It just seems like one day we should hit a saturation point with F-units, as those who remember them "move on"... For as often as we get F-unit announcements from multiple manufacturers, it would seem that we should get SD40-2 and GP38-2 announcements much more often. We should also be seeing a major pick up in ES44whatevers and SDxxACE things, and a serious down trend in F-units. Scaletrains and Genesis 2.0 have made a lot of newer locomotives like Tier 4 GEVOs and SD80/90 MACs from EMD. Your prediction about modern locomotives becoming popular has been true for the last few years as people growing up in the 90's and 2000's enter the hobby. The mantra of people modeling their childhood railroads is true. The outlier is the F unit, and I think it's because of the passenger train. Passenger has a certain magic and timelessness that freight trains don't, so there is always an appeal for streamliners, even if the current modeling generation didn't grow up in that decade. It's easy to justify an F unit as a show or club locomotive even if that railroad isn't your main modeling subject. Sometimes running a cool passenger train is just a good break from your regular modeling stuff. A lot of F units were long lived too. Other than post-2000, the 70s and 80s are probably the hottest era right now. Just look at what Tangent has been producing lately. With how many Fs lasted into the 70s and beyond, there are still lots of guys out there who actually need F units for what they are modeling. A good friend of mine (who is a fellow CP modeler) models the 60s, 70s, and 80s and has more F units of various flavors than you can shake a stick at but he might be getting a couple more with this Walthers release. He cut his teeth as the new guy in the shop working on those F units early in his career, as the Fs were reaching the end. The CP FP7s as presented are late 70s into the 80s, many of CP's 'Dual Service' FP7s that were still set up for passenger service with high speed gearing and steam generators were transferred to VIA when they took over all the long distance passenger trains, and VIA got at least another decade out of them. By the time of the transfer many of those FP7s had racked up several million miles hauling the likes of the Canadian and the Dominion in addition to doing freight duties on and off. |
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Post by prr 4467 on Jan 9, 2024 22:35:49 GMT -8
It just seems like one day we should hit a saturation point with F-units, as those who remember them "move on"... For as often as we get F-unit announcements from multiple manufacturers, it would seem that we should get SD40-2 and GP38-2 announcements much more often. We should also be seeing a major pick up in ES44whatevers and SDxxACE things, and a serious down trend in F-units. Some of us have moved on, and the major pickup has already occurred or is still occurring based upon recent local sales trends. My buddy who owns a train store, and I, and my son, all have a pretty bad train habit. Between the 3 of us there are no F units whatsoever, No Alco PA or FA units, or FPA units, whatsoever, and he only has a handful of E units to pull the very late 60's version Broadway Limited. I'm 55 and my friend who has 300+ locos is 57. Neither of us can remember F units, though we do have a 60-year old friend who saw a PC black F unit one time in his life at/near Starford, PA, on a coal train. He might have been 10 at the time...they didn't last very long on Penn Central. I have had an interest in Alco's for many years, but...am kinda moving on from those, too, only having a few remaining. As far as what really sells in the store, it tends to be later Conrail and successors, and that means Alcos, GP35's and anything not at least a Dash 2 is now kinda a slow seller in this area. I literally cannot tell you the last time he had any HO F units in stock in any roadname that weren't specifically ordered for someone plus maybe one or two extras for the store. I had friends who had F units, E units and steam and all that...sorry to say they are no longer with us. I was the youngest guy of that group of people, was in my 20's when they were playing with steam power and E, F and PA units (as I did then). |
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Post by cpr4200 on Jan 9, 2024 22:55:12 GMT -8
I'm 70 (still can't believe it) and have dim childhood memories of NYC C-Liners and lightning stripes. F units were part of my railfan and modeling life right up to Conrail, which took away so much. My interest pretty much stops at the EMD 50 series, but recently a set of CR big GE's seems like it might be nice to have (C39-8, C30-7, C30-7A, C36-7).
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Post by Colin 't Hart on Jan 10, 2024 3:07:28 GMT -8
Burlington Northern, Soo Line and Milwaukee Road ran substantial fleets of F units on freights into the 1980s. I'm eyeing a Soo Line FP7A, but what I really want is a Milwaukee Road unit... this one:  Milw 100C by Bob Anderson, on Flickr |
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Post by wagnersteve on Jan 10, 2024 4:21:07 GMT -8
1/10/2024, starting about 7:02 a.m., EST
I probably saw CP and possibly CN FP7s in passenger service in the 1960s, perhaps 1970s. The ones I know I saw fairly often, mostly in Philadelphia, were some of the Reading's, which succeeded the streamlined steam loco[s?] on its fastest trains beween Philly and just across the Hudson River from New York City.
For years the B&M used its newest diesel-electric freight units on its busiest routes, from Portland, ME, to Mechanicville and Rotterdam Jct., NY, using the former Western (inland) Route in Maine, the Stony Brook branch and then the Fitchburg Route from Ayer, west. By the time I was living in Mass. and got my first automobile ca. 1970, I saw a few F units on the Fitchburg but many more on the less busy Connecticut River line.
My layout is so small, with no turning facilities at my main passenger station, that running bidirectional hood units -- no more than two per train -- or A-A sets of cab units (Alcos and F-M/CLC ones as well as EMDs) makes sense. But the turnouts in the yard are so sharp that I have to trim some of the brake detail on the sideframes of F units' trucks so as not to foul their side steps. A single Alco PA or EMD E unit can take only a short passenger train to the station and be turned on a turntable near the throat of the yard. I have a lot of full-length passenger cars but can't run many in a train. I'm not ashamed to run NYC 60' heavyweight coaches or combines though the real railroad never had any.
Switching cars using F units must have been a real paint for crews in the real world. Hood units made better sense for that and in many cases for ease of maintenance. But though I understand the safety concerns that led to the disappearance of footboards from them, I miss seeing them almost as much as cabooses.
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Post by sd80mac on Jan 10, 2024 6:25:55 GMT -8
I was born in the 90s, but I can still appreciate an F unit. Last time I checked, I had about a dozen Genesis examples, they're just too cool not to have a few.
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Post by prr 4467 on Jan 10, 2024 10:28:30 GMT -8
I'm not saying the F's etc. aren't cool or worth having. I'm only saying the sales have slowed from what they once were, and instead it is today's Gevo's that are flying off the shelves.
My local store has a few Rapido E units, all late PRR (final versions) or the late NYC or Amtrak ones. We would have thought they would have sold by now, but they just have not.
I think there will always be some F's, just like there will always be some people who need to have a UP Big Boy, but I don't think the market is quite as hot as it once was.
Seems a lot of people like Heritage units because it is their way of getting yesterday's paint scheme on today's loco. They sell like crazy, still.
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Post by riogrande on Jan 10, 2024 10:40:33 GMT -8
F units were largely gone by the time I began watching trains in the early 70's as a budding teen. But they have always been quinicential diesel engines I've alway wanted to have some. I still have some Stewarts Rio Grande for mid 1960's era running along with a number of single stripe D&RGW Genesis passenger F's and an ABBA set of Proto2000 single stripe F freight units. I count 25 D&RGW F units. And also being an SP fan, I've got 5 SP bloody nose FP7's. And speaking of shiny things, I don't need it but the Piko Krause Maffei SP diesels look gorgeous. So far I have resisted.
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Post by lvrr325 on Jan 11, 2024 0:03:57 GMT -8
Found a good deal on a Bowser LV F7 so I bought it. The LV's were gone by my era but we can roll back a few years once in a while. Sooner or later will pick up a couple NW and maybe a CNJ (ex-B&O).
My only memory of seeing the real deal in freight service is when I was maybe 5, my dad took me out to watch trains and that one blue Conrail F7 happened to go by that day. No idea even what was behind it but I remember that blue engine clear as day. 1978, 79.
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Post by prr 4467 on Jan 11, 2024 6:49:18 GMT -8
Nice. The Bowser LV F-7 is the one F unit that I would actually pick up, because they did run rather late...just when I've seen them the couple units I saw had a few cosmetic issues such that I passed at the time. The other one I'd buy is the F-9A in Santa Fe blue/yellow warbonnet.
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Post by lvrr325 on Jan 11, 2024 17:13:28 GMT -8
Nice. The Bowser LV F-7 is the one F unit that I would actually pick up, because they did run rather late...just when I've seen them the couple units I saw had a few cosmetic issues such that I passed at the time. The other one I'd buy is the F-9A in Santa Fe blue/yellow warbonnet. That was a train show deal. A gentleman has been at one of the shows the last few times dumping probably his own stuff. I grabbed the LV red C628 he had as it was so cheap I could flip it if I already had it - but it was the one from the previous run I didn't have. The F sat there, and sat there, and finally I went back and offered a little less and got it. Neither one shows any sign of ever being out of the box. I could probably turn it for double my money if I wanted. It's always funny because some things he had low prices on and others were about market. The last show I went to where he was I didn't see anything that looked like a smokin' deal. |
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Post by onequiknova on Jan 12, 2024 11:24:38 GMT -8
Burlington Northern, Soo Line and Milwaukee Road ran substantial fleets of F units on freights into the 1980s. I'm eyeing a Soo Line FP7A, but what I really want is a Milwaukee Road unit... this one: Milw 100C by Bob Anderson, on Flickr Now that looks like a fun weathering project!. |
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Post by hudsonyard on Jan 12, 2024 23:59:22 GMT -8
Burlington Northern, Soo Line and Milwaukee Road ran substantial fleets of F units on freights into the 1980s. I'm eyeing a Soo Line FP7A, but what I really want is a Milwaukee Road unit... this one: Milw 100C by Bob Anderson, on Flickr
Fordson Jct and short line hill as it climbs away from the bluff looks like a model railroad, that was a favorite spot to catch the CP and TCW transfers to Minnesota Commerical.
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Post by prr 4467 on Jan 14, 2024 9:35:01 GMT -8
Nice. The Bowser LV F-7 is the one F unit that I would actually pick up, because they did run rather late...just when I've seen them the couple units I saw had a few cosmetic issues such that I passed at the time. The other one I'd buy is the F-9A in Santa Fe blue/yellow warbonnet. That was a train show deal. A gentleman has been at one of the shows the last few times dumping probably his own stuff. I grabbed the LV red C628 he had as it was so cheap I could flip it if I already had it - but it was the one from the previous run I didn't have. The F sat there, and sat there, and finally I went back and offered a little less and got it. Neither one shows any sign of ever being out of the box. I could probably turn it for double my money if I wanted. It's always funny because some things he had low prices on and others were about market. The last show I went to where he was I didn't see anything that looked like a smokin' deal. I think the pricing likely reflects his estimation of value and/or most likely how badly he might want to sell off certain items while maybe getting a bit more for others. Sounds like you got a great deal. I have used variable pricing like that after items have sat around just too long. |
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Post by lvrr325 on Jan 14, 2024 14:57:50 GMT -8
That was a train show deal. A gentleman has been at one of the shows the last few times dumping probably his own stuff. I grabbed the LV red C628 he had as it was so cheap I could flip it if I already had it - but it was the one from the previous run I didn't have. The F sat there, and sat there, and finally I went back and offered a little less and got it. Neither one shows any sign of ever being out of the box. I could probably turn it for double my money if I wanted. It's always funny because some things he had low prices on and others were about market. The last show I went to where he was I didn't see anything that looked like a smokin' deal. I think the pricing likely reflects his estimation of value and/or most likely how badly he might want to sell off certain items while maybe getting a bit more for others. Sounds like you got a great deal. I have used variable pricing like that after items have sat around just too long. No, that's just how a train show works. On old stuff, on used stuff, sometimes even on brand new things, people offer you less. So much so that I price it into the items I put out. About half your vendors are people dumping things for whatever reason. They're going to be more willing to take an offer than someone who sells as a business and will pay taxes etc. Here you had an old guy probably selling his personal stuff who has never looked at eBay in his life and just priced what he thought it was worth, it didn't sell by 2:00 so when I offered $20 less he took it. |
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Post by antoniofp45 on Jan 15, 2024 10:28:45 GMT -8
Bummer...........no Undecs.
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