I am seriously considering changing the focus of my railroad from a fictional railroad to modeling the BNSF. I really like that railroad and there are plenty of locomotives available for BNSF, BN and ATSF to get a good stable of motive power. Does anyone else model the BNSF? I am in N scale but HO should have a lot of BNSF fans as well
I had a Santa Fe model railroad when the merger happened, it slowly became a BNSF merger railroad and still is. I have Locomotives with SF blue & yellow warbonnets, red & silver warbonnets, BN Green & black, Eddy Bauer (cream & dark green) and BNSF heritage paint. The locomotives range from FP45 & SD40-2 to SD70ACE.
Kato has locomotives that are DCC ready and some online suppliers offer them with DCC installed. Kato locomotives run smoothly through all speeds. The SD70ACE may not be the best choice to start with unless you purchase it with the decoder installed. The frame originally had PC board issues in the N scale locomotive. That may have been corrected now.
Atlas has locomotives that come with and without decoders and the engines run smoothly. Some may run slower than others. The GE Dash 8-40BW & GE Dash 8-40B engines are geared slower but run smoothly.
Athearn has locomotives that come with or without decoders and decoders with sound. N scale sound is good now compared to what it was originally.
Others may have knowledge of other brands. These are the ones I use on my DCC layout.
I have mostly TCS decoders but also have 4 Athearn FP45 locomotives Onboard DCC decoder with SoundTraxx® Tsunami® decoderes
I hope this helpful
Remember it is your model railroad and it only has to satisfy you.
Good luck
When I first gott ba k into mrr about 5 years ago, I had many ideas.and some.were kinda crazy. I did change.my mind many times before I settled on santa fe, b and o, union Pacific and southern Pacific. I do mostly Santa fe partly cause there's so much out there for it.
Mostly, its for fun and having a good time as well as a way to relax after a bad/stressful day. By the way, I model in ho gauge.
love any kind of train
Out of all of the engines that I have thirettn are BNSF & ATSF, so I have a good start. Ten are Kato, one Athearn SD75I an two Atlas GP38-s's. The rest I am selling. I have made up a spreadsheet of all of the BNSF, BN and ATSF locos made in N scale. There are a lot of them. I have one undecorated Kato 8-44CW that I have pu Fox Valley C4 trucks under. Need a BNSF shell for itt.
Thanks For the Information Nick100.
Ira
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
I have a lot BNSF freight cars and 2 diesels. But I have more Union Pacific diesels than freight cars.
My layout was going to share together with UP/BNSF with one railroad with trackage rights. Don't forget about Amtrak the one important passenger train. The only Amtrak train I know if its a BNSF layout would be the Southwest Chief. The Union Pacific theme, is unclear on Amtrak passenger service.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
The thing about the BNSF is that it is so big, many different styles of railroading take place under its banner. Just in Galesburg Illinois alone, you have the former Santa Fe mainline through town with its endless supply of intermodal and autorack trains, while the former BN/CB&Q lines have coal trains, and traditional loose car railroading. You have a single track line to Peoria that sees relatively little traffic, lines to Burlington and Quincy that are busier, and lines to Chicago and Savannah and the Twin Cities that have their own traffic types. Amtrak trains both large and small add to the mix.
The line from Galesburg to Quincy through Bushnell (which branches off to Beardstown and beyond) would be very modelable with its traffic variety. Heck in Bushnell the BNSF crosses the Keokuk Junction which is still running F units!
In the earliest days of the BNSF you not only had BN and Santa Fe units (including war bonnets) in addition to BNSF but there were still plenty of GN, NP and CB&Q freight cars to be seen.
I would recommend a trip to Galesburg, perhaps during Railroad Days in June, to anyone considerting modeling the BNSF because there is good photographic access at the depot, at Peck Park, and at the bridge that goes over the huge railyard. You can even go on yard tours - for extra money our group toured the hump tower and engine house. Rare access indeed. I rarely come back from Galesburg with fewer than 1000 photos to download.
Dave Nelson