I was looking through a book on New England Railroading, and came across a Maine Central loco that was unique. It was a General Electric U18B, and I was wondering if the MPC Lionel locos that were built in the late '70s would be close to scale, since they were rather truncated. Any thoughts?
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NOt really. The Lionel MPC U boats are too tall. compare the shell with the Atlas O U23B and you get the picture.
The irony is, back in the MPC daze, Lionel had a U18B in their HO lineup!
Rusty
IMO, a U-18B would be a natural addition to SOMEBODY's road diesel line. Despite the fact that the U-18B design is over 35 years old now, it still looks relatively modern. It's also shorter than most U-boats--no bad thing considering how long 21st century road diesels are in the US and how hard up for space many of us are.
I DON'T like condensed locomotives and rolling stock that much. I'd sooner have a model of a short locomotive or passenger car than a model of a full-length road locomotive where the toy train designer lopped off ten to twenty feet so they'd be able to negociate O-31 curves.
The Maine Central was not the only RR that ran U-18's. The Seaboard Coast Line owned over 100 of them, the Nacionales de Mexico had over 40 of them, the Providence and Worcester had one and the Texas Utilities had another.
Thank you, Bob, that was a great video! I enjoyed it very much!
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