Revised - 3rd Rail E7 - Texas Special will be and Wabash won't be produced

Great news! Wabash has always been my second favorite (after Santa Fe). My first train set was the Lionel Wabash F-7 set I got for Christmas in 1956 when I was 3 yrs old. I still have it. Will be nice to have an accurate loco in that road. 

 

Thanks for posting Marker!

 

-Glenn

It may be my favorite road.  I received a Lionel Wabash diesel and a set of passenger cars in 1955 for Christmas.  My best Wabash day was when my Cub Scout pack chartered it's own coach and took the Wabash from St. Louis to Decatur and spent the day going through the Wabash shops, a great memory.

 

Here's a picture I took in the 80's at the Decatur shops.  I'm pretty sure the F unit was fully restored to Wabash colors and is at the Monticello Railway Museum, shown here as N&W 3725.

 

What would make this an easy decision to purchase the Wabash would be if GGD did a set of Blue Bird passenger cars to go with the diesels. What do you think?

Would love to have the Bluebird! (Hope this video works)

-Glenn

 

 

 

I talked to Jeff about this when I ordered the engines.  He said that he didn't think 3rd Rail would do the cars.  However he did think that it would be possible for Atlas to either do the cars or have unlettered cars available to make up the train.

 

Atlas will be doing the CZ cars reconfigured with the proper skirting as some point in the future.  The Blue Bird dome cars are already done in a sense, the observation is about to be done when that CZ car gets finished.  I doubt there will be a Pullman Standard dome to match the PS car that got added to the BB.

 

 

 

 

Even Marklin had done the Blue Bird

 

 

 

Glenn, I think this is what you were trying to do.

 

 

What you need to do to post a YouTube video is click the video insert tab.  Then click the YouTube share tab.  When you see the http, etc in the box, click where it says options and then choose the long link box.  Then copy the link in the box above to where it says file/URL on the video insert.

I posted this in main forum, but thought,ght have more interest here, anyway:
I Spoke with JD's Train's the other night as I heard they were thinking about doing a run of Golden Gate Depot Texas Special E7's in Frisco livery. He said he is thinking about it, actually he is looking at doing both Frisco and Katy in both RR's numbers (each road had two sets of engines) for a total of 4 "AA" units. But, he will only do it if Scott Mann at GGD can get the look right for the plated siding. I would suggest if anyone is interested in getting a Frisco set of Texas Specials, you contact JD's as no one else has made them in O gauge and probably no one else will. As an aside, I had a very nice visit with him about Frisco and Santa Fe roads. Hope he can get these done!

And he was not aware Scott had at one time planned to do the Frisco Firefly. Wish that would get revived.

Just so everyone knows, today is the last day to reserve 2nd run E7s from Sunset.  Also, production quantities are being set for the special runs that Petersen Supply and JDsTrains are signing up for and if those quantities are spoken for...

 

Also there should be no expectation that there will be a 3rd run of E7s.  Scott said if there ever is another run it will be 5 years or so in the future.  After these E7s are delivered the builders will be moving on to other things.  None of Sunset's things are done by dedicated model builders like Sanda Kan who can build run after run but instead are built by the same folks who do their Brass "one time good deal" limited builds and move on to other projects.  This is why they take on smaller runs of things that Lionel/MTH/Atlas apparently do not think there is sufficient market for them to make profitably.

 

Richard

I have not seen any of the 3rdRail engines in person.  Most of what you see in museums are fairly glossy paint jobs.  How about the Third Rail stuff?

When brand new or freshly repainted, prototype diesel (and steam too!) locomotives were indeed very shiny, just like a new automobile. The shine wore off rather quickly, given the harsh detergent washes they got, grit and dirt from the roadbed when running and the constant effect of the sun. Nobody Simonized or polished their locos every few months like people did with their cars at one time.

 

Some roads like B&O had a regular schedule for repainting their locomotives. B&O repainted their steam and diesel power every 5 years. So their power always looked reasonably fresh, until the last decade of its existance.

 

Restorations are very shiny, just like when a loco or car in question was brand new. If kept under cover and out of the weather with maybe occaisional use at a museum, that shine can last for quite a while. And more so now with modern paints than it could have with paints of the 1940s and 1950s. 

 

Modelers usually prefer a semi-gloss or egg-shell finish on locomotives and  passenger cars. It seems to better replicate what the prototype looked like after several months of service. Third Rail's locos and Golden Gate Depot's cars try to capture this look rather than that of a high shine.

 

 

I received the same set that year, but I was 6.  Also still have it.  The Wabash paint scheme is one of the classiest in railroading.

 

John

Looking at JD's Trains website, it looks like the Wabash E7 isn't going to happen.

 

Very disappointing.

 

I came across an Otto Perry video with Wabash A's and with a UP E7 B sandwiched in, running in Colorado and powering one of the City trains.  It made perfect sense to try and model the UP/Wabash  City of St. Louis which ran between St. Louis and Cheyenne via Denver.

 

Now I have cancel the UP B unit.

 

Oh well, saves me some money for my Key FT's

I am surprised tht the TS is a go, and WAB is not!  Lionel and W?WBB have done the Katy TS, but the WAB seems to be left out in the cold!

The reason it is not being produced is too few orders. This the reason nobody including the 3 rail mfgs. are not making it.  Too bad, a very nice scheme but not enough modelers of the Wabash it seems.