GE BQ23-7 in O-scale/gauge?

There is an undecorated HO shell on eBay for about 10 bucks.

TM Terry posted:

I know there are a number of reasons to NOT make the GE BQ23-7 diesel.

1. Only ten were made

2. It was for a southern railroad, thus covered a rather small portion of the USA. 

3. It’s design was to remove the need for a caboose. And we all love the caboose.

4. And last but not least, it is ugly.

 

Question: Has any O-gauge manufacturer made a GE BQ23-7? Is there one available in HO?

1 - not relevant; many popular and worthy models are of rare prototypes (need I mention the PRR 6-8-6 direct-drive steam turbine?)

2 - looked at a map lately? The "South" is considerably larger than the Northeast, and, if you define it as all the sates of the Confederacy, plus Kentucky (border; South-leaning), currently has more people in it than Great Britain or Germany. (The Confederacy included Texas and Florida, currently the second and third most populous states in the US; New York state is only fourth.)

3 - huh?

4 - not so sure about that; I never thought that the EMD F3/F7/and so-on were particularly handsome.

TM Terry posted:

 

Question: Has any O-gauge manufacturer made a GE BQ23-7? Is there one available in HO?

Bachmann made one in HO way back when.  Even they eventually retooled it with a standard GE cab.

Rusty

Bachmann made the BQ23-7 in HO in the Family Lines scheme.  It was during the era of fairly poor drive mechanisms, but a pretty cool engine as it was one of the first "crew cabs" in the US. 

Yes it is "homely", but the uglier the better when it comes to this hobby!

Sadly, it is difficult in this era of O scale to bring a model like this to the marketplace.  It is in that odd era where there are not as many modelers doing the 80's, it is specific to one road, and unlike HO, there aren't over 1000 people that would buy this model. 

Contrary to some opinions, the business has no bias against southern roads.  The business is all based on what will sell and what won't.  Southern, ACL and SCL tend to do well.

Nothing to say that a company like 3rd Rail wouldn't consider it with enough interest.  It would simply be a $1200 locomotive to offset the tooling cost for a niche product.  It would be like the Krauss Maffei.  200 tops if it could even sell that many.

If the tooling were modular enough, couldn't a majority of the tooling also be able to be used to produce a B23-7?  If so, possibly that could create enough interest to get the reservation numbers.

Cab changes are pretty easy.  You make a good point Bob.  For 3rd Rail to do it, 500 or so units total in 2 and 3 rail for all roads would drop the cost to the $700 range.  Still not cheap, but accurate of course.

TM Terry posted:

I know there are a number of reasons to NOT make the GE BQ23-7 diesel.

1. Only ten were made

2. It was for a southern railroad, thus covered a rather small portion of the USA. 

3. It’s design was to remove the need for a caboose. And we all love the caboose.

4. And last but not least, it is ugly.

 

Question: Has any O-gauge manufacturer made a GE BQ23-7? Is there one available in HO?

1. s1 turbine, lionel boxcab, eire triplex, m-497... 

2. it seems csx used them too, so they may well have operated in the north. 

3. not particularly relevant, but with more modern designs like this, it’s not uncommon to not run cabooses anyway.

4. maybe to you, i think it’s kind of cute, and certainly unique. i like the cab forward-esque look it has.

bachman made them in ho scale in SCL and Chessie decos back in the 80s, they haven’t been made in a long time though. 

Signalwoman posted:

3. not particularly relevant, but with more modern designs like this, it’s not uncommon to not run cabooses anyway.

Rules were changed and general caboose use began to be phased out around 1982.

The BQ23-7's were all scrapped in 2001.

The only thing a caboose is used for nowadays is as a shoving platform for reverse moves.  Some are nothing more than empty boxes with the windows blanked out and the doors welded shut.

Rusty

There would need to be an O scale model of the B23-7 and B30-7 diesel locomotive produced with modular cabin parts so that the BQ23-7 crew cabin can be added to the model. 

This could be produced by LIONEL or MTH.

Andrew 

Rusty Traque posted:

Signalwoman posted:

3. not particularly relevant, but with more modern designs like this, it’s not uncommon to not run cabooses anyway.

Rules were changed and general caboose use began to be phased out around 1982.

The BQ23-7's were all scrapped in 2001.

The only thing a caboose is used for nowadays is as a shoving platform for reverse moves.  Some are nothing more than empty boxes with the windows blanked out and the doors welded shut.

Rusty

i meant “not particularly relevant” in the sense that people running prototypical modern consists don’t run cabooses anyway, and people who don’t are free to run a caboose if they please.