I have reached the point where I have just about all the steamers I want for my transition era layout (for now anyway). I was looking at my roster of diesels and decided some road switchers would be a useful addition so I looked through the Walthers catalog for some GP7s and was surprised to see the only offering was for the Ohio Central Railroad and that is listed as "limited quantities available" which tells me this is probably being closed out. I went over to the Horizon website to see what they had in the Athearn line but they don't offer one anymore in either BB or Genesis. This was really a surprise since I had 3 BB GP7s on my old DC layout which I acquired in the 1980s. The GP7 was a very common first generation diesel with 2729 built according to Wiki, so why so few offered in HO? Just about everybody offers F-units of one type or another, which is fine since they were my favorite diesel but I'd like a little variety in my roster which is why I am a little disappointed that the selection of Geeps is almost non-existent. Have I overlooked some offerings? Does anyone know why the GP7 is a no show?
IIRC, Bachmann just released a line of GP7's that look fairly decent, but you'll need to add some of the smaller details [like grabirons] yourself...
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
A no-show?
Atlas has run these a half dozen times in the last ten years in HO. Probably about due to run them again.
Check this page for the past runs, plenty of examples are available on auction sites.http://www.atlasrr.com/hoproducts.htm
Unless you're modeling a particular railroad whose only road switchers were GP7s during your time period, do what the prototype railroads did when EMD couldn't timely fill their orders: buy Alco and Baldwin road switchers. Baldwin's looked brutish; Alco's looked handsome.
Baldwin beasties:
Mark
jecorbett Have I overlooked some offerings? Does anyone know why the GP7 is a no show?
Because for the last 15 years Proto2000 and Atlas have made and sold 10 of thousands of them in dozens of roadnames, and most of those who want them have them.
I have no less than 8 or 10 of them. All proto2000, in my case undercorated (now lettered for my ATLANTIC CENTRAL and Western Maryland.
There are likely a lot still out there to be purchased, bt you might have to search around a little. And, I suspect they will be back again from these manufacturers at some point.
What roadname are you looking for? Call places like Trainworld and Caboose hobbies and see what is left in stock, search the net, check Ebay. I'll bet you will find lots of them that have never been out of the box yet, or as we used to say at Radio Shack, "not yet touched by North American hands".
Do you want DC?, DCC?, Sound? Its all out there. and with the weak economy there may well be some real deals. I bought some of mine on closeout at Trainworld for about $40 each.
Sheldon
Hello:
According to a recent post on the Atlas forum, by Atlas themselves, there is a problem (unspecified) with the GP7 tooling. They are reviewing whether or not it makes sense to renew the GP7 tooling as is, or develop something completely different. Until Atlas makes a decision one way or the other, I wouldn't count on any more runs of GP7s.
That said, the GP7s aren't that hard to find at some online retailers and certain online auction sites.
Regards,
Mike
jecorbett I looked through the Walthers catalog for some GP7s and was surprised to see the only offering was for the Ohio Central Railroad and that is listed as "limited quantities available"
At a quick count, there seems to be 7 different GP7 models available in H0 scale on www.walthers.com:
Bachmann UP #116 Bachmann Chessie #6411 Bachmann B&O #6414 Bachmann NYC #5608 Bachmann Clinchfield #908
Proto 2000 GP7 Phase I - Algoma Central #153 Proto 2000 GP7 Phase II - North Central Texas #613
Search: http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Locomotive&scale=H&manu=&item=&keywords=GP7&words=restrict&instock=Y&split=30&Submit=Search
In N scale, there are nine different offerings from Atlas.
In O scale, there is only one offering - from Atlas ...
If I search for GP7s and doesn't limit the search to what they have in, they list 82 variants in H0 scale, and 46 variants in N scale. Most of these (at least the ones that has been sold out from Walthers), no doubt can be found on various auction sites on the net.
Smile, Stein
Mark,
I like your AS-616's. What make are they? They look like they might be brass. The only ones I've seen in plastic were made by Stewart Hobbies and weren't as detailed as yours. And their painted in my favorite SP paint scheme!
Pat
Those are recent Overland brass imports. I also have a set in the earlier Tiger Stripe paint scheme (but without the Mars lights.) I love both schemes.
Hi!
I think the market for early GPs got overloaded a few years back, with Proto putting out a ton of them (some with cracked/loose drive wheel gears). Anyway, I have several GP 7s & 9s in ATSF and IC livery. My suggestions are to check the Walther's website (the catalog can be out of date), and also check the larger online hobby shops like Toy Train Heaven, Caboose Hobbies, etc. For older stuff, Ebay will usually have what you want, sooner or later.
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
From a model standpoint, the GP7 and GP9 are almost identical, and some of the accepted distinguishing features between the two actually appeared on at least a few engines of each type.
So, if you're out geep-shopping, look for GP9 at the same time and you may get a lot more hits. In my recollection, I think more of these models were marketed as the newer and more powerful GP9.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
The last train show I went to, about 2 weeks ago, had several vendors with stacks of P2K units in various roadnames. Most new old stock, some used. Average price was $35-$40.
There were also several used Atlas units, also for about $35-$40.
Of course for the P2K, you should budget for a set of Athearn axle gears, and be careful not to short the axle halves together during reassembly.
1948PRROf course for the P2K, you should budget for a set of Athearn axle gears, and be careful not to short the axle halves together during reassembly.
Last time I checked, Walthers has plenty of replacement gears, and still gives them away if you have cracked gears from what I understand. I have never had a replacement from Walthers or Life Like fail. I have over 50 Proto diesels, mostly models that did have cracked gears, about half the wheelsets have been replaced with Proto parts and again, none of those repalcement parts have failed. So why buy sometihng you can get for free?
markpierce .....do what the prototype railroads did when EMD couldn't timely fill their orders: buy Alco and Baldwin road switchers.
.....do what the prototype railroads did when EMD couldn't timely fill their orders: buy Alco and Baldwin road switchers.
Or if you want to stay with 2 stroke engines, like EMD, go with Fairbanks Morse, for example:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/150-9585
Caboose has Atlas GP7, RS1, RS3, RSD4/5, RS11 and H-15-44 HO models in stock.
Jecorbett, if you use it I have a GP 9 by Front Range you can have, it is in UP colors. It is missing one side of hand rails, and I will be robbing the motor for another project. If you want the Mashima motor (only reason I got it) we can talk. It has never been assembled. Let me know by PM.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
I would do some investigating either online or at the big suppliers because I have a very nice pair of about 10 year old GN GP7's made by Life-Like Proto 1000, that I have Loksound decoders in and they are Sweet! I hope you find some...they are out there! John
Thanks to all who replied. My initial comments were directed at what is currently listed by the two major distributors, Walthers and Horizon. I realize there have been numerous GP7s made in the past and are likely still available through some of the e-tailers or e-bay. It just seems odd to me with the numerous choices in F-units that there are so few choices currently offered in GP7s. Both were common first generation diesels but there is a huge imbalance in their availability.
jecorbett It just seems odd to me with the numerous choices in F-units that there are so few choices currently offered in GP7s. Both were common first generation diesels but there is a huge imbalance in their availability.
And two or three years ago it was the opposite. Two or three years from now it will be different again. This stuff changes over time, you know.
jecorbett Thanks to all who replied. My initial comments were directed at what is currently listed by the two major distributors, Walthers and Horizon. I realize there have been numerous GP7s made in the past and are likely still available through some of the e-tailers or e-bay. It just seems odd to me with the numerous choices in F-units that there are so few choices currently offered in GP7s. Both were common first generation diesels but there is a huge imbalance in their availability.
Its called "batch" production. When the car business is good, factories make cars all day every day and people buy them, so most anything is available all the time.
In the model train business, even in the best of times, there is not enough demand for lets say, B&O GP7's, to make them all day every day. This was equally true back in the day when Athearn and others made trains here as it is now with them made in China.
So, they make a big batch, and hope, to some degree, it fills the demand while they make a batch of sometihng else on the same assembly line and machinery, and so on.
In the old days, some Athearn items would be out of stock for years, even though they were always listed in the catalogs. But they always made more eventually, and so it will be with GP7's, I'm sure.
I juast got a gray box gp7 from trainworld. HO no cracked gears proto 2k. Runs gr8 and smooth. 139 plus shipping dcc and sound. Brian
jecorbettMy initial comments were directed at what is currently listed by the two major distributors, Walthers and Horizon. I realize there have been numerous GP7s made in the past and are likely still available through some of the e-tailers or e-bay. It just seems odd to me with the numerous choices in F-units that there are so few choices currently offered in GP7s. Both were common first generation diesels but there is a huge imbalance in their availability.