Locomotive recommendations needed


Darkscot

Darkscot

New Member
Hello
I live in the UK and my current layout is British steam (LMS) OO gauge set in late 1940s West Yorkshire. It is an L shaped end to end layout located in a cellar (basement). However, the cellar needs a new ceiling, rewiring, painting and general improvements. As a result, all work on my layout has ceased and it is going to have to be dismantled and stored for an unknown number of weeks.

I have always wanted to have a go at an American based layout and this seems the ideal opportunity/excuse to start one. I came across Dave Howell's '63rd Street Yard' several years ago and always said if I ever did a US layout it would be based on that, though maybe slightly simplified.

What I am looking for is recommendations for an 'interesting' switching loco. American image models from Bachmann and Kato are readily available here, but they tend to be mainly modern image diesel or 1940/50s steam. There are a few specialists shops that offer obscure brands like Atlas and Athearn, but I have no idea what sort of quality they are.

So my requirements are:
  1. Diesel switching loco
  2. Late sixties, early seventies era.
  3. Probably N gauge. I will have to buy new track anyway, so thought changing scales would be interesting.
  4. DCC with sound, literally all the bells and whistles!
  5. 'interesting' and/or unusual colour scheme. Less common railroad than the likes of Santa Fe, Union Pacific et al? I saw the 'Elgin & something' railroad recently which caught my eye as I used to live in the original Elgin.
I have done some research on line but not really knowing much about American real life locos or the models it is hard work. If the recommended loco is only available in the US then I would consider ordering it from there. I am probably only going to buy one loco (at least at first) so I want it to be a good one.

Thank you in advance.
 
There are a couple of "Elgin" roads , Probably the most known or common would be EJ&E, Elgin Joliet & Eastern . Wikipedia has a page with a locomotive roster and a few pics .

Looks like Atlas made some EJ&E , You might want to look at BLI (Broadway Limited) , They made an NW2 in EJ&E with all the bells and whistles.

The thing to remember is most of this stuff now days is limited run - batch production, pre-orders ,ect. So if your looking for new ,you may have a substantial wait time before the next run on an "obscure" railroad especially in less popular scales ( I think HO is around 40-50% of the market , N is only ~20%.).
 
'Elgin Joliet & Eastern', yes that was it.

The BLI locos look very interesting, I will add them to the short list.

Edit: I have found a UK reseller of the BLI range (never heard of them). The price for an N scale EMD SW7 is about $330, which is a typical price for N gauge loco with sound. However, I see the same model in a US online store for $165.
 
Last edited:
Darkscot said:
Hello
I live in the UK and my current layout is British steam (LMS) OO gauge set in late 1940s West Yorkshire. It is an L shaped end to end layout located in a cellar (basement). However, the cellar needs a new ceiling, rewiring, painting and general improvements. As a result, all work on my layout has ceased and it is going to have to be dismantled and stored for an unknown number of weeks.

I have always wanted to have a go at an American based layout and this seems the ideal opportunity/excuse to start one. I came across Dave Howell's '63rd Street Yard' several years ago and always said if I ever did a US layout it would be based on that, though maybe slightly simplified.

What I am looking for is recommendations for an 'interesting' switching loco. American image models from Bachmann and Kato are readily available here, but they tend to be mainly modern image diesel or 1940/50s steam. There are a few specialists shops that offer obscure brands like Atlas and Athearn, but I have no idea what sort of quality they are.

So my requirements are:
  1. Diesel switching loco
  2. Late sixties, early seventies era.
  3. Probably N gauge. I will have to buy new track anyway, so thought changing scales would be interesting.
  4. DCC with sound, literally all the bells and whistles!
  5. 'interesting' and/or unusual colour scheme. Less common railroad than the likes of Santa Fe, Union Pacific et al? I saw the 'Elgin & something' railroad recently which caught my eye as I used to live in the original Elgin.
I have done some research on line but not really knowing much about American real life locos or the models it is hard work. If the recommended loco is only available in the US then I would consider ordering it from there. I am probably only going to buy one loco (at least at first) so I want it to be a good one.

Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
He ships worldwide.

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If you see the same locomotive, same features, same issue (date of manufacture), and there is a wide disparity in price, it could be a number of reasons. Old stock being liquidated, returned opened for some reason, refurbished and being sold that way (BLI offers a full warranty on their refurbished models). In BLI's case, you have to keep a close eye on their refurbished page on their website. Years ago it would have 20-40 items of varying kinds, so the pickin's was good. Nowadays, they seem to have fewer refurbished items for sale.

That's quite a disparity in price. If you have confidence in the seller, and can be assured that you can return the item for a full refund if you cannot accept it later, maybe pull the plug. Even with trans-Atlantic shipping, and maybe an import duty/VAT charge, it will be a lot cheaper than the full price item. But the two may not be the same production run.
 
Okay, what kind of support are we talking about? Are there modellers in your area who know how to repair toy trains, or who use DCC? I think you'll find that, if you spend some time asking, maybe on FB pages, you will find someone local, or within shouting distance, who can help. You might have to drive and meet at a pub. Wouldn't be the first time, no? :)

If you'd like to learn more about steam locomotives:

Steam Locomotive dot Com

Scads of photos of both steam and diesel:

Fallen Flag Railroad Photos (rr-fallenflags.org)

Also, I use Wikipedia generously, including supporting them with a few coins every other year or so.

Or, ask specific questions here and on other forum sites. There are at least six I visit daily.
 
There is an EJ&E group on Facebook. What time period are you thinking about modeling? I grew up with the J. SD 38s from the 70s on Balwin center cabs before that.
 
I bought two different lettered Diesel NW-2. They have sound and are really nice runners. Broadway Limited has them It uses there Paragon # Rooling Thunder sound installed. They should be able to pull 8-10 cars, so really the best for yard or short line action. Here is the link:
https://www.broadway-limited.com/nscale.aspx Have fun!!
 
A courteous trans-Atlantic welcome to you, Darkscot. I pass over your neighborhood every couple of months as my work often takes me to the continent. Unfortunately, I haven't made it north of London on the ground yet, but someday I need to visit Scotland as my ancestors were from there, supposedly.

I'm not an N-scale expert (my layout is HO), but I was recently helping a friend source some smaller scale trains, so I had been looking at various online suppliers recently. I also took a look at your proposed layout plan, and I see that the "63rd St. Yard" calls for a fairly small switching locomotive; I think one article I saw suggested a GE 44-tonner and and S2. I don't know how historically accurate you are planning, but of course, run whatever makes you happy.

As you may have discovered, there isn't a large amount of DCC+sound switching locomotives in N scale that are currently in production. In addition to the suggestions above, some of the "colorful" ones I've seen recently include:

-BLI's SW7 switchers- colorful liveries include Great Northern; CBQ "Burlington Route"; maybe...Chesapeake & Ohio, Southern Pacific with the zebra stripes?
-Atlas Master line Alco C420- Monon; Lehigh Valley; Delaware & Hudson, granted these are "road-switchers," but wouldn't look out of place doing switching work.
-Atlas N, RS-2. They make this in a number of different railroads, however as far as I can tell, they don't come equipped with sound.

Here's an EJ&E Baldwin on Ebay, DCC but no sound: https://ebay.us/4ZNMH7

And finally I was going to say, I've ordered many things from modeltrainstuff.com / MB Klein over the years, I even visited their store in person once before they switched to online only. Although I don't have experience with their international shipping, I've never had any problems with orders from there.

Good luck to you in your search and new layout.
 
Selector said:
Okay, what kind of support are we talking about? Are there modellers in your area who know how to repair toy trains, or who use DCC?
Click to expand...
In theory there are, but the reality can be different. I recently had to get a Bachmann tank loco repaired and contacted several local shops and the general advise was send it to Bachmann who have a UK service centre.
 
Thank you for the various replies. I think I am going to go for something from BLI, for some reason they really take my fancy. The E&J Baldwin does look nice and I have found a UK supplier that has these in stock. However, as said it has no sound and the UK price is the same as for BLI model with full sound.
For my main layout I try to be as authentic as possible and will not generally run locos from outside the region. But for this I don't think I will be so precious. I am tempted to go ahead with track and landscaping and get something cheap and cheerful off ebay for now. Then when the international travel ban lifts I will get my brother in law to bring something over on his yearly family visit.
 
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