Hello,
I am new to the forum and, to a lesser degree, HO modeling. As a kid, my dad and I had an O gauge layout in our basement but to call it "modeling" would have been a misnomer. As a dad today, I have been eager to share with my son (and my dad) the fun that HO modeling entails. We have decided to model the B&O and are currently running a modest 4x8 layout to establish our landscape skills and converting from DC to DCC.
In the past couple months, I have become pretty adept at overhauling and reviving old Athern locos (I picked up a couple old B&O F7s on eBay). I have one that runs so smoothly, I'm contemplating a DCC conversion on that one. I also have a nice Proto2000 B&O E7 A/B tandem (love the dynamic braking) and just ordered a Genesis GP9 from my LHS. I would like to get a Alco FA-1 (with DCC and sound) in accurate B&O colors (Blue and Gray) and I'm wondering if any of you might offer a suggestion as to brands/models? I've been looking at Intermountain, Proto and Genesis thus far. Any sage advice would be appreciated. I have a few other questions about passenger cars and replacement steam loco motors for the community but will try to send them as separate topics. Thanks! Andrew
Andrew Roberts
Greenhorn Modeling the B&O
Maryland, USA
Welcome to the forum. Stop by and say hello in the Jeffrey's Trackside Diner thread where we talk about trains, life and a lot of OT subjects.
I see Rapido is coming out with an FA-2 this summer. They make some really nice stuff. https://rapidotrains.com/ho-alco-mlw-fa2/
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Welcome Andrew.
I've done a few Athearn "up-grades" and DCC installs. As many as they have produced through the years, two stand out as really great runners, right of the box, the amps draw is low, and they do good with a DCC conversion, the GP35 and the GP50. I have some questionable SD40-2's and some SD45's, although most do good, and the switch from the spline drive shafts to the one-piece "dogbone" style, gets rid of a lot of the noise I know, I know, they are all the same, but, for some reason.... anyway, I'm sure sure you have found this site, but just to let you know it's out there,
http://www.mcor-nmra.org/Publications/Articles/Athearn_TuneUp.php
Mike.
My You Tube
The Proto 2000 ones are very nicely detailed. One overlooked option is the Walther's one. They are insanely cheap. They have an upgraded can motor drive that runs VERY well, using the old Train Miniature shell which is rather coarse by today's standards (no worse than Athearn Blue Box), and with the addition of some brabs and ladders would look great. And did I mention, they are cheap. Almost suspiciously so, but they ARE great runners.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker And did I mention, they are cheap. Almost suspiciously so, but they ARE great runners.
.
to the Model Railroader forums.
I have a pair of the Walthers FA locomotives that Randy mentioned. Yes, they run SURPRISINGLY well for the price, and their looks, while dated, are not really all that bad.
Please continue to participate in our discussions here.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I have a herd of Athean BB locos. Most of them have been converted to DCC & Sound. They all needed detailing and tuning but operate satisfactorily on my 4 x 10 BRVRR layout.
I purchased this pair of InterMountain F7s last year that I am really pleased with. The lead unit has sound and the training unit a simple decoder. Except for adding reverberation to the sound decoder a and little momentum to both, they operated well together right out of the box.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
Soundrew Hello, I am new to the forum and, to a lesser degree, HO modeling. As a kid, my dad and I had an O gauge layout in our basement but to call it "modeling" would have been a misnomer. As a dad today, I have been eager to share with my son (and my dad) the fun that HO modeling entails. We have decided to model the B&O and are currently running a modest 4x8 layout to establish our landscape skills and converting from DC to DCC. In the past couple months, I have become pretty adept at overhauling and reviving old Athern locos (I picked up a couple old B&O F7s on eBay). I have one that runs so smoothly, I'm contemplating a DCC conversion on that one. I also have a nice Proto2000 B&O E7 A/B tandem (love the dynamic braking) and just ordered a Genesis GP9 from my LHS. I would like to get a Alco FA-1 (with DCC and sound) in accurate B&O colors (Blue and Gray) and I'm wondering if any of you might offer a suggestion as to brands/models? I've been looking at Intermountain, Proto and Genesis thus far. Any sage advice would be appreciated. I have a few other questions about passenger cars and replacement steam loco motors for the community but will try to send them as separate topics. Thanks! Andrew
Andrew,
Welcome.
If you don't mind me asking, what part of Maryland are you in?
I live in Harford County, near Bel Air. I model the B&O, C&O, WM and my freelanced ATLANTIC CENTRAL.
As for locos, B&O locos in particular, are you interested in steam, diesel or both?
Diesel: Proto2000 (old or new), newer Bachmann, Intermountain, Broadway Limited, - all are good runners and detail levels vary with prices.
Steam, Broadway has a few "close" generic locos lettered B&O, Bachmann has the B&O EM-1, and their 2-8-0 is not a bad stand in, and was available lettered B&O, and can be found on the secondary market.
Bachmann now also has USRA light Pacifics and Mikados, correct for B&O, with more correct details than Broadway.
Most other really correct B&O steam is going to be brass - more expensive and/or older brass may require some skills to put in top running condition.
Passenger cars are a little more difficult depending on how detail correct you want to be.
The first thing to learn about passenger cars in general is that except for coaches, few few where the same, or stayed the same through their entire serivce life, so building accurate models is tough for the manufacturers becasue the market for each car can be very small.
If you are running tight curves, you may want to consider "generic" cars that are shortened, like those from Athearn. They look good, can be detailed to look even better, and run well on tight curves.
What kind of steam do you want to remotor?
Sheldon
Proto2000 used to make a really nice ALCO FA2. I have an ABBA set of them and they run very nicely. Walthers bought up Proto2000 some years ago and I think, (haven't actually checked) that Walthers still sells them. Walther's also used to offer ALCO's made by someone else, not quite as nice as the P2k ones, but decent.
DCC allows independent control of any number of locomotives on the same stretch of track, at the same time. Independent control means multiple operators. If you are thinking about operation sessions with 3 4, or more operators all running their own trains, DCC is wonderful. If it's a home layout with just you, or your child running a train, plain old DC is perfectly fine, and cheaper, and simplier. If you are going for DCC on older locomotives, you want to make sure the maximum current draw of the locomotive does not exceed the ratings of the DCC decoder. I'm still running plain DC, so I am not right up to date on things, but it used to be the average DCC decoder was good for maybe 0.75 amperes. Some old open frame motors could pull a full ampere with the drivers slipping. Can motors draw less than half an ampere. Open frame motors can be greatly improved by replacing the old Alnico magnet with the new neodynium (sp) supermagnets. Swapping magnets is less work than a complete remotor job.
Old BlueBox locomotives can be greatly improved by taking the gear towers on the trucks completely apart, scrubbing the case with solvent to get all the old hardened up grease out, and then wiping every tooth of every gear with a pipecleaner to get tiny invisible bits of black plastic flash out of the gear trains. If the wiper strip on top of the motor fails to conduct electricity, stalling the locomotive, you can hard wire from the truck wipers to the motor. Hardware stores carry 1/4 inch "Fastons" which slip nicely over the truck wipers, and allow you to take the locomotive apart in the future without desoldering anything.
For steam, the old Mantua Pacific is a fine runner and I'm told the tooling (which goes way way back) was largely from a B&O President class. I have one and it pulls my heavyweight passenger trains just fine. Good slow speed preformance, plenty of weight.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Hi Henry, thanks for that. The Rapido looks pretty sweet. Nice detail. I'm guessing they will be in the $400 range?
I will visit the diner soon.
Thanks Mike, I had not seen that site. Much of it, I've already figured out- things like getting rid of the metal contact strips and replacing with soldered wire, cleaning the commutators, making motor mounts to replace the cracked ones (I ended up using plumbers epoxy), etc. Lots of fun for me.
Thanks Randy. I love my Proto E7A/B and will certainly consider them for the FA.
Yes and yes.
Thanks Allan,
Those IMs seem really nice. Your layout is awesome too! I just got the Digitrax controller and am excited about making the switch from DC. I have an Athearn BB FA and it runs well after some mods but I just dont think it looks the part- at least not in the same way my Proto E7 looks. The intermountain and Rapido look really nice and I'm told they are both great runners out of the box.
Hi Sheldon,
I'm in Monrovia a few miles south of the old B&O line than ran west from Baltimore. I'm looking to join the four county society of model engineers soon. We saw their modular set up over the holidays and it was impressive.
I just finished a resurrection of a Rivarossi (B&O) 2-10-2 S1a as a gift for my dad. It hadn't run in decades. I started with no prior knowledge and jumped in the pool!. I am now pretty good at taking them fully apart- even the 3-pole can motor and cleaning the stator and replacing the brushes. I've found them to be very tempermental and unbalanced too. I'm waiting on a replacement can motor (low draw 5-pole), new drive shaft components (2.0mm) and new gearbox guts from NWSL. I got it for him to putz around running DC and am not sure that unit will make the DCC cut. Any advice for that would be aprreciated- I'm guessing one would put the decoder in the tender?
I've already learned through research that trains like the Cap Ltd and National LTD rarely had a uniform look- mixing streamliners with prior gen gear. My first purchase were some old Athearn BB cars (with a non prototype paint job) and truck mounted couplers. I replaced glass, tuned up trucks, installed Kadee couplers, vestibule diaphragms, etc. They run pretty well on my 22" and 18" curves. I picked up a few of the proto budd cars (which are proper length, based on the actual size of 85'). Those have a rough time staying on the rails and I can see there would be work ahead to make them compliant but I'm afriadd they will still have massive overhangs on the turns. Therefore, I've decidied to keep those Protos for when the layout expands and I will contiunue to detail the athearns with new paint/decals, interiors and lighting, weathering, body mounted couplers (if applicable) and some fabricated undercarriage hardware.
Those brands you mentioned, plus Genesis, are the ones I'm considering for the FA purchase. Thanks much for the advice! Send me a message through here or my email is soundrewatgmaledotkom. (phoenetically at least)
Hi David,
Thanks for sharing so much!
Over the weekend, I got a pair of Proto2000 FA/FB units (non DCC) for $50. I figured I couldn't go too wrong. If it runs good, I'll probably go with installing DCC and sound. Stay tuned. If not, I'm leaning toward a Intermountain or Rapido.
I am astute at cleaning the truck gears on those Atherans. Like I said in my OP, I've got an F7 that runs like a champ and quietly.
I'm well aware that higher drawing motors arent good for a DCC system so I intend to load test every conversion candidate! I've ordered a few aftermarket can motors for my Rivarossi steam experiment.
Thanks!
Andrew, sounds like you are off to good start.
I have a good friend (in another hobby) who lives in Mt Airy.
I am a life long Marylander, so I know most of the state pretty well.
Those Proto FA's may need a little tuning up because of age, but they can be great runners. I have two B&O sets and two sets for my ATLANTIC CENTRAL.
I can't help you much with the DCC/sound thing, I still run DC, but I do know they can be easily converted.
More later, I will drop you a direct line soon.
Heyo, we got a new member. Welcome to the forums! I'm also new to HO scale modeling, so I can somewhat relate; although as a life-long Californio, I don't see a whole lotta B&O.
You'll find that there are a lot of veterans of the hobby ready to give you advice, so don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions.