E6 Diesels - Lionel or MTH?

Another question please - Are the E6 sets in the 2015 catalog (p92/93) going to still have the d**m tethers or will they be independent units?

Will the new E8's have a second powered A unit in a different number available?

Well Sam do you have a link to the new catalog? I keep pulling up the old one. 

The E-6 locomotives are my favorite. Still looking for a set of CB&Q E-5's as well.

 

 

I know that the MTH E6's are a little bit longer than the Lionel E6's.  I tried to put one of my MTH E6 A units into the Lionel E6 box, but the MTH E6 was too long to fit into the styrofoam insert, by a fair amount.  I think that the Lionel E6's might be a little bit short of scale length (but I have not measured them).  I have the Lionel ATSF E6 AA set.  I also have the older MTH PS2 ATSF E6 set with two extra B Units (ABBBA).  The MTH ATSF E6 is really well done and I imagine the PS3 version is the same tooling.

Thanks for that info Jtrain. We had an early set of MTH B&O E6s and had traded them off before acquiring the Lionel AT&SF E6s. I remember the Lionels appearing slightly more 'bulky' or massive. Perhaps if they are a bit too short this would have given me that impression...

Anyone have the MTH Santa Fe E6s  and could post a photo or three?

I have the MTH CB&Q E6 ABA set from a few years back.  I actually corresponded with the MTH designer & supplied him with photocopies of prototype material.  I explained that although the Q never had E6s, they did try to order them during WWII but the War Production Board vetoed their order.  

 

I suggested two paint schemes to MTH:

 

1. Decorate like an E5 with parallel stripes along the sides to simulate the fluted stainless steel sides of the E5 prototypes.  The Q actually used a similar "shadow-line striping" on some smooth sided passenger cars and an E7 to simulate the look of an E5 on smooth-sided E units, but instead replaced the silver-painted steel side panels with smooth-sided stainless steel side panels on some E7s, E8s, and E9s.  (MTH did not like this option because they said that narrow-parallel paint steps are hard to reproducibly manufacture.)

 

2. Decorate the E6 model with the prototypical CB&Q E7 paint scheme: silver paint, smooth sides, red single stripes just above the bottom of the carbody & below the cab windows & side vents, "BURLINGTON" on the sides in Zephyr Gothic Font, black "window" & "vent" striping on the nose, full color BR herald on the nose, and silver Blomberg trucks.  Because this was a "fantasy" engine, I suggested that they number the units 9998A, 9998B, & 9998C because the Q only used numbers 9900-9997 on their prototype E unit Zephyr fleet.  MTH used these suggestions on their model.

 

Hope I am wrong, but this is probably the closest that we will ever get to a 3-rail O-gauge CB&Q E5.  It is an awesome model to my eyes.  

 

CB&Q Bill 

That is really interesting Bill.  I have the MTH CB&Q E6 set.  If desired, with a little effort, they can be made to look pretty similar to the unskirted postwar version of the E5 (I would remove/paint over the red stripes though):

 

Hi Jtrain:

 

Your customized CB&Q E6s to E5s look awesome to me !  

 

Did you revise the MTH-assigned road numbers to actual prototype Q E5 numbers ?

 

How did you add the shadow-line fluting stripes ?  

 

Did you have to raise the BURLINGTON lettering ?  

 

Were did you find the E5 plate decals ?  

 

Do you plan to add any SILVER locomotive names ?  

 

These are awesome models !  This would make great article for the BRHS "Zephyr" newsletter.  

 

Thanks for sharing !

 

CB&Q Bill

       
       


Hi Bill,

That is not a photo of my set, so I cannot take credit for the nice work.  I found the photo on the Internet a while back when I was considering a similar modification to my set.  I do not know who made the modification, but it was to an MTH E6 set.  I have some of the same questions you have, especially regarding the fluting material.  It looks to be glued on, something like the Lionel Texas Special E7's from a few years back.  I imagine that a decal could fairly easily be made of the "5" to cover the "6" in E6.  The "Burlington" lettering looks to have been decals added higher up (as you know, the MTH lettering would be covered by the fluting down low).  I would probably glue a silver passenger car type letterboard in the same location for the Burlington lettering, to better simulate the E5.  I would also like to remove the red striping, if possible without painting over them.  I would also glue on the "Silver _______" nameplates.  I think that with all that, they would look really close to the prototype E5's.

I also have the Lionel CB&Q E5 AA set, but it too is really just an E6 set in disguise.

Sam, one more thing to consider, I saw the new MTH PS3 ATSF E6 this weekend and the warbonnet stripe and numbering location are not correct for the prototype.  The red goes too far back.  The PS2 version was more accurate in this regard, so I am not sure why MTH changed it.  The Lionel version also has this little "problem."  So you might want to look for the MTH PS2 version.