Why Not A Alco PA Demonstrator?

I like demonstrator locomotives and those PAs are nice.  I'd buy a set.

Good point, Don.  I have a BL-2 demonstrator that I'm partial to, and the Milwaukee never had any of those either.  Certainly you must have seen the photos of the pair of FM Trainmaster demonstrators that the Milwaukee tried out for a while?  I actually think I remember seeing them on the Road when I was a kid.  Probably about 1952 or '53.  Certainly there would be good justification for those attractive PA's on your new layout.

 

Paul Fischer

I have the MTH version of the FM demo. I use it to pull my circus train. Not a great runner (it's got problems) but it looks wonderful. I'd love to have the Lionel version but they go for more cash than I have. Don

But one, send it off to Jeff Sohn to repaint!

Excellent idea. Pretty easy repaint if the decals could be had one way or another.

But: I'm not sure that the photo is actually an Alco demonstrator as such;
it is more a GE advertising vehicle/paint job that roamed around.

There was a PA Demo set - with a two-toned paint job. Maybe the same loco set. I could
go look all this up, but it's late. I'm sure someone here knows.

Anyway, good idea - but I'd prefer the true Alco Demo; better yet, both.

There was a 4-unit Alco-GE FA1/FB1 4-unit set that toured in (I believe) 1951, including SP and Santa Fe, neither of which had any of their own Alco-GE cab freight units.  After the tour, C&NW bought them.

 

They were painted a simple dark green.  I thought about repainting, but, apparently, O gauge decals for them are unavailable.  I'd look favorably on putting some to work, if Lionel offered them.

Tom:  Very interesting about those FA's that went to the C&&NW.  I didn't know that's where the Northwestern got their FA's, but I recall seeing them in service as a youngster.  I lived not far from the Butler, WI yards and I would "hang around" up there once in a while.  But the Northwestern ran them as A-B pairs, if I remember correctly, so they must have had two such sets.  They were painted in the early freight diesel paint schem of green and black with a yellow stripe.  Interesting set of engines.

 

Both the Northwestern and the Soo Line had Alco diesels, but the Milwaukee Road, after a love affair with Alco steam and only one Alco diesel cab unit, a DL-107, (originally an A-A set but broken up quite early), pretty much standardized on EMD stuff.   So we never saw PA's in our part of the country.  All of the above RR's had Alco hood units, both RS and SW types.

 

Paul Fischer

There was a 4-unit Alco-GE FA1/FB1 4-unit set that toured in (I believe) 1951, including SP and Santa Fe, neither of which had any of their own Alco-GE cab freight units.  After the tour, C&NW bought them.

 

Are you sure Fa-1? they look like FA-2's!

http://www.trainorders.com/dis.../read.php?11,1314573

 

In any event, the following models have been made by various O guage Mfg's yet NO one wants to put the demo schemes on them?

 

ALCo C630

ALCo Rs11

ALCo s2

ALCo s4

ALCo Fa-2 A-B-B-A

ALCo Pa-1 Demo A-B

 

EMD MP15 DC [Scale-NOT K-line Tinplate]

EMD SD80

EMD F7A-B-B-A

GE U25B [Two Sets of 4 units in TWO different Color Schemes were made as demos- Red/White & Blue & Silver]

GE U30B/U33B

GE C30-7

GE C40-8

 

FM C-Liner

http://www.brasstrains.com/Cla...strator-CPA24-5-4801

FM H-16-44

An excellent article in Classic Trains Magazine (Winter 2008) has a photo of the original ABA called "The 6000" for the total horsepower of the three unit engine.

This photo shows engine No 51 in black before the arrangement with Santa Fe to paint them in the classic Warbonnet Colors. Side views and a company brochure shows the locomotives with the black nose and the rest light colored - probably stainless steel. The classic design was the work of Raymond Patten with GE. This article is a wonderful account of the lavish 'coming out party' held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NY where "There may not have been as much personal net worth in one room at any other time in 1946 - to say nothing of the combined net worth of the companies represented." The titans of industry, publishing, and banking were all there...

 

The impression I got from the few photo's I've seen, it was black from nose to the back of the cab doors, then stainless steel beyond to the rear of the unit wirth the B all stainless steel.

 

Rusty

Here's the original demo black version. Don

c-sam:

That photo - that's the Alco (not Alco/GE) PA demonstrator set-up I meant.
Would make a nice model. I don't remember the colors - dark nose, though.
Probably in that magazine you scanned.

Oh, I see someone knows. Black nose, then stainless. That would look really hot.

I'm slipping.  I agree -- the demos were Fa2/FB2's.  

I really like the orange and silver.  Decals would be trivial - my decal guy would do them for $25.  This has to be the world's easiest repaint.  Too bad MTH doesn't make these in die cast, so we could paint and strip when the mood strikes?

 

Didn't Lionel make a die cast PA at one time? Don

I think all Lionel Diesels have to be plastic.  Only electrics, turbines, and steam can be die cast.  I could be wrong.  Here is another from the bronze age:

 

Don, I'm seriously concerned. It is a nice demonstrator, but, Don, you are an extremist  Milwaukee man. Is this a side effect of a central Pacific relocation?

Next thing, you will be modeling New Zealand Railways.

Didn't Lionel make a die cast PA at one time? Don

NO. I believe you are thinking of the Veranda Turbine. 

BTW, Mike Wolf did the Alco PA mold for Lionel back in the early 1990's.

I like demo's too. Williams has done some interesting paint jobs since they became wbb. We could see some demo engines from them in the future. Never know.

Someone could but I'd almost guarantee that they would be a slow seller then get blown out. Why? - color sells! Solid orange or black just doesn't have the punch of the GE or the FM schemes shown in this thread. Even EMC's FT demo had a more dramatic scheme. I realize that demonstrators have that appeal that they could work for a lot of folks, but these schemes are relatively rare across the modeled scales.

 

Peter

That's precisely why I have taken a recent liking to them, Don.  I purchased the GE Evolution Hybrid for just that reason, and now have another one (EMD SD-24) on the way.

You make a good point, Peter.  I'd go for demonstrator dark green FA's, but, in the 3 rail community much more than in 2-rail O and the smaller scales, mixing of road names on the same track because the modeler likes the look of certain engines and paint schemes is common.  Since I'm unflaggingly loyal to the home road -- I only have one SP diesel and all my other engines are Santa Fe -- I would like to have some FA's without having to justify another foreign line running over the High Plains Division.  I'm still kicking myself for having not obtained the Demonstrator Alco Products RSD7 demonstrators offered by Atlas-O a few years back.

Don I have been waiting for this one along time too being from the home of where both companies produced it. It would be a nice engine for Lionel to bring as an upgrade to Legacy for the next generation of model PA's.

Nice to see this thread pop back up - What a great looking PA!

Thanks Don for the original photo.

That, to me, looks like the all- time easiest paint job ever.  For $25 bucks my decal guy can duplicate those practically from the photo, and while I would not mix orange to match the above, I bet a mix of GN Orange and NH Orange would be spot-on.  You would not have to mask anything!