All,
When I dabbled in model railroading in the late 90's/early 2000's I bought several P2K locomotives, to include some GP7's letered for the L&N. I sold all of them, thinking I wouldn't get to have a layout.Well, I'm back, and it looks like finding any P2K GP7's lettered for the L&N on the secondary market is going to take a long time. So, I'm thinking I'll find some other GP7's, strip them, and paint and letter them. So, barring any P2K GP7's, what other manufacturers out there have made some good ones in the last fifteen years or so that I can be on the lookout for?Thank you!
Warren
Attempting to model the L&N and NC&StL in western Kentucky
Ride the Battlefield Route!
Ride the Dixie Line!
To and From Dixieland
NC&Stl Railway
Atlas had a good GP7 made by Kato back in the 80s, and you can find these for around $60. The detail's kind of sparse compared to the P2K model, but if you're repainting it anyway, adding some extra parts shouldn't be too difficult. They brought this model back out not long ago in the "Classic" series with their own chassis, but those may cost a bit more than the Kato made version since they're new.
Bachmann's new GP7 is a good model, but the retail price of $139 is about double what it should be. You can find them for around the price of the Atlas/Kato model easily enough if you look around.
If you want the best of the best in detail, Athearn's new Genesis model puts brass to shame.
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dixieflyerSo, barring any P2K GP7'
Don't give up on the Protos. They frequently appear in NIB condition at train shows and Ebay for <$50 As you probably remember, there is an axle gear problem that is dead easy to fix.
The are a few on ebay right now
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
My P2K engines are 10-12 years old now, and they are still running perfectly. I did have to replace the wheelsets to fix the cracked axle problem, but that was quick, fast and cheap.
Keep looking. It may take a while, but you'll find what you're looking for.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
At the very least you'll still have to renumber them. P2K did 4 numbers for Reading in the GP7, I have all those, and I do still find them popping up now and then on ebay, so definitely keep looking. If I want any more I'll need to change numbers, but I'm more of an RS3 hound, I have nearly a dozen, mostly undecorated since the paint job is so simple, that one day will be all ove rmy layout.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I am going to go ahead and suggest the Proto-2,000 models as well, even though you seem to have ruled them out.
.
For price and reliability, you really cannot do much better.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Thanks everybody for your advice and encouragement! I haven't ruled out the P2K's at all, just didn't know if they had gotten as scarce as they seem to be. I'll just have to try to make it to a show or two and be patient. That, or spring the bucks for the latest and greatest.
Again, thanks guys.
I agree with the previous posters. If you look for bang for your bucks, the P2K GP7s are hard to beat. Going for detail and prototypical correctness, Athearn Genesis is the first choice.
Now Walthers is offering new GP7s which have more detail than the P2Ks, and come close to the Genesis models (unfortunately, also in price). I was very happy to see that one of the first models they produced were the Santa Fe "torpedo-tube" GP7s (Santa Fe had 5 of them). Athearn Genesis so far did not offer those. Unfortunately, the added detail in the Walthers GP7s appears to be extremely brittle. So far, I ordered three GP7s from reputable dealers (MB Klein, Tony's Train Xchange), and all of them came with at least one broken-off MU stand; for me, with my limited skills, it is impossible to repair the break without leaving a "scar".
Thus, for the moment the only Santa Fe torpedo-tube GP7 on my roster is the "ancient" (1991) brass GP7 imported by Key . For a factory-painted brass unit (with an obvious paint blemish), it was reasonably-priced ($250 on eBay). It runs well and pulls more than a single P2K or Genesis GP7.
Since you've been out of the hobby for a while, you may not know that Life-Like's train lines were bought by Walthers a while back, so if you search online for Life-Like or Proto 2000 GP's you might only find the old LL ones. Walthers has continued the Proto line, but they show as made by Walthers now. Generally their newer version are improvements over the old LL ones (which were generally pretty good!).
Also, before stripping an engine, Atlas does / has made undec GP-7s. They also sell separate body shells in their parts department, you may be able to buy a GP-7 lettered for another RR and get an undec shell separately.