Models of less popular roads

[trainman203]

Unfortunately, for model railroaders like me who follow less popular roads like the MP, Bachmann is in the Model Railroad business to make money, not to grant the every wish of me and everyone else like me.

The models offered by Bachmann, and just about every other vendor, seem to be prototypes from roads that serve the most major major population centers, essentially the metropolitan Northeast and Chicago. This makes sense, because that's where the most people interested in model railroading are going to be concentrated, not in small towns and small regional cities throughout the country. There's only a couple of Bachmann models defying this logic, which are the mogul, based on a engine from a 100 mile long midwestern short line, and a Wisconsin central diesel, from a relatively small regional carrier, not well known outside it's immediate area. 

Fortunately, for Missouri pacific steam modelers like me, over the years Bachmann has offered several engines that, while not precise molecular correct models, are very reasonable stand-ins that have made me happy for a very long time.

1. The spectrum consolidation, while a little heavy for a Missouri Pacific 2-8–0, has overall lines and details very Missouri Pacific like. I have four of these engines lettered as the imaginary MP 180 class, right above the MP spot class engines numbered 1–173.

2. The spectrum consolidation was offered as Missouri Pacific 92 many years ago. It appears from time to time on eBay and I finally got one about two years ago. It's very cleanly and prototypically lettered. It's a little heavy for a spot class engine, but again, who cares. A very accurate brass model of a spot class was offered many years ago, but they run like coffee grinders, and are unusable for any kind of operation or anything at all other than a mantel piece placeholder. On the other hand. Bachmann steam engines run like clocks once the DCC CV settings are correctly.

3. The Bachmann USRA mikado is almost dead on for an MP 1300 class. I have one done up as the 1304, with multiple added MP specific details, such as an oil bunker for the tender, number boards by the stack, and a hinged stack cover.

4. Bachmann offered a USRA light 4-8-2 years ago, dead on for the MP 5300 class as-built and before their heavy rebuilds in the late 1930s. Bachmann's MP model is very beautifully lettered. A purist could argue that the numerals on the cab side are a little big, but who care, I don't. It's a beautiful engine that took me a very long time to locate.

5. Bachmann also offered a Spectrum light USRA 2-10-2 back in the days of yore.  There were several variations for different prototypes, and the Seaboard Air Line one was very close to some of the MP 1700 class engines, including a Boxpok center driver acquired by some during shoppings. I bought one to repaint for the MP, but my Gulf Coast friend cried out, how can you paint over something that says "through the heart of Dixie" on the cab?  So I never did, and it is still in my roundhouse as a Seaboard engine, although really too large to run my branch line.

6. The Russian decapod is an incredible offering. The Bachmann one is in its second run now. I've loved those engines ever since I saw a photograph of an MP one way back when I was a teenager, switching in the Anchorage, Louisiana yard across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge.  The MP engines vary  some from the Bachmann model, especially the running board configuration, but I don't care. The 8 MP decapods were numbered from 941 to 948. I've lettered two of mine as imaginary MP 940 and 949, just outside of MPs numbers as if they could've been a couple of extra engines.  I have five other decapods operating on layout, but the MP ones are my favorites.

Some might argue otherwise, but for someone who is modeling a marginally popular railroad, I feel like I've been showered with riches untold.

[Quentin]

My father is from Missouri and loves the old MoPac. I need to get some of their steamers.

No, you can't paint over "through the heart of Dixie". I'm a huge Seaboard fan, but the Espee takes the no. 1 spot for me. Then there's the Milwaukee Road, Erie Lackawanna, AT&SF, C&NW, Pere Marquette, and the Katy.

Oh, and of course, the A-OK railroad (not a fallen flag, but eh). SKOL (South Kansas and Oklahoma), ending in my hometown, also holds a (small but) special place in my heart.

I'd love to see a few more models of these railroads, but as you said, Bachmann is not in the business to grant all our wishes.

[jward]

You have forgotten about the MKT GP40 and the Frisco GP35, notable for riding on Alco trucks just like the real ones. The B23-7 was also offered in Missouri Pacific.

[trainman203]

I don't pay much attention to diesels.  Easy to miss.  Diesels make modeling less than popular roads pretty easy. Standardized models for only a couple of manufacturers, as opposed to the many customized steam engines over the years. Diesel modelers might well say that there's lots of variation in hatches and fans and stuff like that, and that's true, of course, but the generalized profile all these engines makes it quite easy to superficially model just about any railroad you're interested in. Since I don't follow diesels, I don't know, but the Santa Fe CF7 was a real odd duck, and I'm not sure if anyone has ever made a model of it.

[Quentin]

Haha, yes, the CF7 was quite interesting. And ugly, but thats just my opinion.

On the topic of diesels, what are your opinions about the EMD MRS-1?

[trainman203]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_MRS-1

"Military Road Switcher". Haha. I like it.  A great idea too late for practical use.  Homely, I have to say.

About the truly most homely diesel I ever saw, I can't remember the name of.  It looked like a GP7 but instead of a short hood it had a cab that looked like the faceted glass nose of a B-29.  Someone knowledgeable remind me what it was.

[Terry Toenges]

This EMD NW5 is an odd looking loco.

[Len]

Athearn did a DCC Ready version of the CF-7 around 8 or 9 years ago. They still show up on eBay now and then.

Len

[jward]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_MRS-1

"Military Road Switcher". Haha. I like it.  A great idea too late for practical use.  Homely, I have to say.

Far from being too late for practical use, EMD was thinking way own the road with these units. The military market was small, but the export market was HUGE. Dieselization may have been beginning to wind down in 1952, but overseas almost every railroad was still steam powered. The export market is something often overlooked by US railfans, but it was greatly important to our locomotive builders. With the MRS1, EMD gained experience building locomotives to the smaller loading guages common overseas, and the modifications to domestic designs necessary to meet those specifications. The MRS1 was the forerunner of the G16 model, and it and the smaller G12 series dominated EMD export production well into the 1960s.

[Quentin]

I'd honestly like to see a MRS-1 model. Might be a neat addition.

[trainman203]

No one knows yet what the diesel was with the B–29 cockpit for a cab? I had a model of it years and years ago, was lost in a house fire.

[Quentin]

I've searched the internet, couldn't find anything. Anyone else?

[trainman203]

My model might have been a bachmann.  It's probably 30 yr since I last saw it.  It was Chessie.  Never ran it, it was a gift.  No space for layout back then.  I think it was an EMD engine.  Can't remember for certain.

[Terry Toenges]

Are you talking about the M1000?

[trainman203]

No. It was a road switcher with four wheel trucks from maybe the late 60s, certainly the 1970s. I was given a model of it in the early 80s when I begin to think about a layout and talked about it some. Couple or three people gave me models, diesels, and this very unusual road switcher was one of them. Think B 29 or B 36 faceted glass nose. That's what the front of this locomotive looked like. It was the weirdest looking thing I've ever seen on rails. 

I never unboxed any of them. Really should have. I didn't understand that I could've had a 2x8 switching layout using the three or so road switchers I had. I had that peculiar locomotive, an Athearn SD9, and  an S2 and RS2 or something by Atlas. Plus a dozen  or so freight cars that had survived 20 years in the attic.  All burned up in a fire.