It was put up for auction in Japan, and several people made bids. Did such a prototype exist?
referring to the japanese online auction (picture may disappear as time goes on):
Short answer,
for Great Northern, no. Notice the european buffers.
I believe Great Northern did have double cab _electric_ locomotives.
I see instances online of what appears to be the same model you refer to, listed as Marklin West German double headed diesel. So perhaps there is a prototype.
follow up:
I did come across a prototype for the model you mentioned. A private owner in Sweden painted the locomotive in GN scheme. Search for Swedish locomotive TMY. Another forum (focussing on z scale) has photos of this.
further info, see
FUNET Railway Photography Archive: Sweden - Private operators' electric and diesel locomotives
quote:
STAB's Nohab diesel of the class TMX (former Danish class MX) is a classic. They were built after the second world war based on a 1930s US design of General Motors corporation, but adapted to Danish low bridges. The builder was Nohab, which sold them to the Danish DSB but also to the Norwegian NSB and to Hungary. After the Danish state railways DSB got rid of them, a large number of them were sold to various operators in Sweden, Denmark and Germany.
I was surprised by the 6th and 7th pictures from the bottom of the site you showed us. It is permissible to cite 3 photos... isn't it? Please tell me if it is not allowed.
Märklin HO model on Japanese Yahoo! auction
Picture in Kristinehamn 29.6.2016 by Ilkka Siissalo
Hello All,
While "double-ended" locomotives are common on European railroads, they are not very common on North American rails.
Apparently, there were electrified versions (as mentioned) known as "Little Joes."
These were American-made electric double-cab units (EF-4) produced for Russia- -hence the Joe Stalin "Little Joe" reference. The article states that they were never exported due to the cold war.
In the Nation Model Railroad Association (NMRA) magazine; September 2022, Pg. 28-35, there is an article about modeling the North Montan Line.
On pg. 32 it talks about the "Little Joes."
A portion of the NML was electrified between Harlowton and Avery, Idaho, where these units ran.
The Milwaukee Road ran them from the early 1950s to 1974.
Milwaukee Road’s "Little Joe" Locomotives.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
There was the Y-1 rebuild using two "F" unit cabs from EMD:
This engine went on to the Pennsylvania Railroad and used for parts. Both the cabs were later used to repair wreck-damaged FP7 and an E7 on the PRR.
Good Luck, Ed
HillyardI believe Great Northern did have double cab _electric_ locomotives.
The W-1s were a bit larger:
BN7150 Märklin HO model on Japanese Yahoo! auction
Note that this is a Marklin engine, so is designed to work on three-rail AC - see the third rail "slider" hanging down from the truck on the left. Marklin uses metal 'studs' that stick up from every other (or every third?) tie in place of a third rail; engines then have a long sliding 'shoe' that contacts the studs.
wjstixNote that this is a Marklin engine, so is designed to work on three-rail AC...
Trix locomotives- -Märklins' DCC division- -do run on North American two-rail DCC systems.
Converting this locomotive is as simple as swapping out the trucks and soldering the wires to the correct contacts on the decoder.
The Trix part number is Drehgestell (Bogie) E245 754.
I did this conversion on a Märklin Class G 2000 BB Vossloh heavy diesel locomotive with symmetrical cabs.
Check out this thread for more info...
Well, that was easy...relatively...
The difficulty will be finding the parts.
Looking at the Märklin/Trix spare parts webpage it does not list the trucks (Drop the "E" from the part number when searching).
Contacting Märklin directly might yield better results, as Trix does list this type of locomotive in stock.
The movie in which this locomotive appeared is said to be the 2000 Danish musical film "Dancer in the Dark" (Wikipedia). There is also a German site called "Eisenbahn im Film – Rail Movies", and I tried to confirm it with a YouTube video.
Indeed, the semi-centre cab T43 appears between 54 and 57 minutes after the start.
However, I can't find the essential TMY. Is it the train that passes by the heroine 33 minutes and 20 seconds after the start?