My 44 year old son is finally interested in model trains and has asked for the HO set I built for him when he was 5, about 1978. He thought it was boring then so it's been tucked away since. Fortunately, a Lionel HO engine and several cars are still in original boxes so easy to find info. about. But I'm having trouble with identifying a second engine so I can tell him what he's getting, to match up with tracks & couplings, etc., since none of that stuff is simple anymore.
The mystery engine is in a Bachmann HO box, the easy part, but the box has no labeling, just pictures of other engine models. According to the engine's markings, it is a Santa Fe. However, it does NOT match the image of a "307" on other sites. It has a red front and silver rest of the body, with 4 OPEN holes near the center (1 in the red section) and a small (yellow cross) Santa Fe decal under 3 of the holes. The"Santa Fe" is in SMALL block lettering at the lower back, near the rear and just above the red & yellow strips extending back from the red portion. There is also a Santa Fe decal across the lower front of the engine, with 3 vertical yellow stripes extending up from the name decal and onto the top toward the window. Thanks for any help or suggestions. B
It sounds like you have a Santa Fe model FT. This was EMD's first production road engine.
The paint scheme you describe was the passenger scheme. The freight paint scheme was dark blue with yellow striping.
These locomotives were used from 1939 through the 1950's. It is a correct model for the Santa Fe. It was used to pull both freight and passenger trains.
To use this loco to pull current production model cars, it will need to be equipped with knuckle couplers. Check with a hobby shop for advice on this.
Les
After 38 years of sleeping this engine has a very high chance of not running with a thorough cleaning of all electrical contacts, and a thorough cleaning of all old congealed lubrication and a thorough re-lube.
Quote from: bjday on September 18, 2016, 04:09:34 PM
...since none of that stuff is simple anymore.
I would not go as far as to say that. Many things and the concepts importantly, are basically the same, outside of the wide scale availability of DCC. Still lots of folks who run trains the "old fashioned way" (DC).
Is it this? (top one, FT unit as
Les suggested)
http://hoseeker.net/bachmanninformation/bachmanncatalog1979pg04.jpg
And I am with
TM203, even if that thing still runs, it's heritage is a pancake motor, which is poor running in even ideal conditions (not being stored away since 4ever).