Let's see your O-27 Alcos

Kusan Trains

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Terry:
Kusan Trains

Cool I have never seen this one. Is this an unusual item?

It seem so unusual to see anything in a Mexican roadname Canadian RR's are much more common in model form.

Although I no longer own them, here's a pair of MPC's I repainted back in the 80's



Rusty

quote:

Cool I have never seen this one. Is this an unusual item?

It seem so unusual to see anything in a Mexican roadname Canadian RR's are much more common in model form.

Kusan Electric Trains had manufactured at least 4 different Alcos for Mexican RR's from their Mexican production facility.

D&H Alcos from 1972 detailed:


Here's a catalog image of what they looked like originally:


The catalog shows a front coupler and cutout pilot, but they were produced with the closed pilot as you see in the top photo, so the shell is unmodified. Just paint detail and the horn swapped to a 5-chime passenger horn.

-Eric

Here are some K-Line Alcos.

These were derived from Kusan tooling. K-Line started out with simple paint jobs and minor detailing. By 1995 they used more complex paint jobs, and added more detailing, as these examples show.






Ken

Here are Lionel's Pennsy 027 Alcos. The first release is on top and the new TMCC version on the bottom.

The other pictures are of a painted up green set of early Postwar UP Alcos that were in need of restoring. Since my focus was/is PRR I did them up in Pennsy green. That's a diecast framed "B" unit and a dual motored "A" powered unit I fabricated.

quote:

Originally posted by EricF:
D&H Alcos from 1972 detailed:


Here's a catalog image of what they looked like originally:


The catalog shows a front coupler and cutout pilot, but they were produced with the closed pilot as you see in the top photo, so the shell is unmodified. Just paint detail and the horn swapped to a 5-chime passenger horn.

-Eric

I was hoping the D&H might appear..

There's that dual motor Penn Alco . I have been trying to rig one up for years..

Maybe now I can get back on it again.

All Alcos's I see here are sharp>>

Rod

Here are my namesakes:

This picture is from Christmas 2009. The yellow UP set I remember receiving for Christmas 1951. I have the original boxs/carton.

The street cars are Pacific Electric and Pittsburgh Railways. Both are PS1. I like PCC cars and found the PE at my LHS. I later found out there were Pittsburgh RR Big Reds available since I grew up in Pittsburghs south hills, Upper St Clair to be exact.

This is from 2010, I had just finished repainting the cab shells and rebuilding the locomotive and dummy as they were in bad condition. The dummy shell is actually a brand new shell purchased form Olsons as a Madison Hardware part. The engines are part of the freight set which I received the Christmas before I received the yellow set, so that would have been December 1950.



In the late '60s my sister wanted her train (a prewar 224E freight train) for her kids, so I took it from my parents' house to hers and they set it up. It quit on her, so I took the silver freight over and they ran that for a bunch of years. When I bought a house in California in 1978, my parents wanted to know if I wanted the yellow one and I said yes. My sister aksed if I wanted her train and my silver UP and I said yes. The UP arrived with a battery leaking inside, cracked shells, badly scratched, E-unit and horn relay wires corroded and inoperable. When I pulle all the parts out that I had stored in a shoe box since 1980-81 I found I had ordered parts from Madison Hardware as well as purchased some from Lee's in Oakland, CA. The above picture is soon after the first run since before 1981.

For you other Nittany Lion(el) fans, I also bleed blue and white, 69 ME. Ed G.

Lionel Western Pacific AB

Cool thread! I always liked the little Alco FA's that Lionel produced!

Andre Ming

All are Lionel -

Great Thread!!! No pics, but I run the MPC Amtrack and PRR versions, and the new PRR version as well. Both PRR's are shown above.

I also have the PW versions for the UP and Erie.

quote:

Originally posted by Christopher2035:
All are Lionel -

Nice shots

Fun topic, enjoying the photo's. I have no Lionel Alco's but do have a bunch of the Kusan.

Steve

The Lionel RS3 Diesel is a model of an ALCo and it can operate on O27 track.

Andrew

Lionel 8020/8021

Anyone have photos of the numerous Williams 'Golden Memories' Alcos? These are faithful replicas of the handsome early PW Lionels before they cheapened them and (IMO) ruined the brawny look with the 'sheet metal lip' highly visible along the sides.
Even the Kusans are better models...

I just wanted to say thanks for the great pics.

Just located this photo from the 'other' train magazine a couple of years ago.
This has to be the 'Ultimate' 027 Alco set!

K-line Northern Pacific Alcos

quote:

Originally posted by Steve "Papa" Eastman:
Fun topic, enjoying the photo's. I have no Lionel Alco's but do have a bunch of the Kusan.

Steve

At last weekends TTOS SP meet, I at least got to run some of my Military themed Alco's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXoyvtyewgQ

Steve

Nice collection of Kusan military trains!

Can you say "NIB"?

I have the original Eries. I've restored the decals and had the motor tuned. But that was a long time ago. I haven't run them now in quite a while.

I think Lionel would have been doing themselves a big favor if in the '50s they offered another Alco version built up to scale size like the F3s.

Ginsaw, I think one of the attractions of the Alcos is the fact that they are NOT scale size and fit in better with most Lionel equipment of that era better than the F3's, which tend to look out of place with most of the other, less-than-sacle stuff. The Marx no. 21 metal AT&SF diesels have the same problem, dwarfing all the other Marx equipment.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Tighe:
Ginsaw, I think one of the attractions of the Alcos is the fact that they are NOT scale size and fit in better with most Lionel equipment of that era better than the F3's, which tend to look out of place with most of the other, less-than-sacle stuff. The Marx no. 21 metal AT&SF diesels have the same problem, dwarfing all the other Marx equipment.

Bingo

In the '50s Lionel was at a fork in the road on what size to make its trains. So they went both routes at the same time, with the F3s (and SWs and FMs) in one direction and the Alcos the other way as the flagship of the 027 line.

As between the F3s and the little Alcos I don't think we'll disagree on which became more popular.

They apparently thought the F3 was better looking or they would have reversed the order. Or maybe the prototype roads or manufacturers had a say. Or maybe they didn't think the F3 suitable for a slotted pilot. Who knows.

But, the one that was built to scale size in fact became the defining feature of Lionel in the '50s on through today. Largely because they WERE proper size.

Btw, there's a 1953 catalog pic showing three diesels. NYC F3 in front, Western Pacific F3 in the middle and just enough of a third one in the back to see the word "Rock" and get a look at the trucks. As a child I was very intrigued with that ad and at the time wished they had a full size CRI&P diesel. I would certainly have pressured Santa to leave one off under our tree.

quote:

Ginsaw, I think one of the attractions of the Alcos is the fact that they are NOT scale size and fit in better with most Lionel equipment of that era better than the F3's, which tend to look out of place with most of the other, less-than-scale stuff. The Marx no. 21 metal AT&SF diesels have the same problem, dwarfing all the other Marx equipment.

Spot on.

Another reason I prefer the Alcos to the F3's is that the overall shape of the Alcos is correct, even tho less than scale size. The "face" of the F3, however, does not accurately follow the contours of the real thing. The only real knock on the Alcos is the truck side frames, which are the switcher variety, with solid bearings, not rollers. But that is a minor quibble. Overall, I think those original Lionel Alcos of 1950 are still just about the nicest toy train Diesels of them all.

Another few things... The O-27 Alcos match up pretty nicely with 6464 boxcars, look good on O-27, better on O-31, really good on O-42 and magnifcent on O-72 curves.

Rusty

Lionel CN from 1970

I have seven different Williams 0-27 Alcos:
Santa Fe
Missouri Pacific
Northern Pacific
Rock Island
Union Pacific Silver Streak
Erie
Nickel Plate Road
The addition of the MRC 1815 AC Diesel Sounder to the dummy makes them a really nice unit. Two have been installed so far. I am looking for both the Florida East AA and the Gulf Mobile & Ohio, both produced a few years ago by Williams. Will "advertise" on the ORG wanted.

My Alcos
Lionel Santa Fe 8020 Lionel Union Pacific 1065 Lionel Santa Fe 8919 Port of Lionel City FB 2
Port of Lionel City FA 2

My K Line Texas Special A-B-A set. I believe the "B" unit is unique as it has a horn in it. The "A" unit shells were new and do not have the horns install yet, but I have them.



Tex
Steve

Williams 2023 UP and Lionel 202