Has anyone seen either the Sante Fe or Texas Special semi scale Alcos they are offering? Was curious to see how the color / finish compared to Lionel originals. I know firsthand that their Golden Memories Sante Fe was off a bit.
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The Blue/Yellow Santa Fe should be a real winner - much nicer than the original Lionel.
Most of the Golden Memories were quite nice. You're correct about the Santa Fe and even the Texas Special needed a coat of gloss to bring it up to snuff. We have the 2356 Southerns and they are spot on for color and markings as are the Illinois Central and B&Os.
Here are two examples of the O-27 scale Alco FA-2's that are in the Santa Fe passenger and freight colors:
...and here is the Texas Special FA-2:
Thanks for the replies.
Personally I would go with the Williams Golden Memory engine.
Williams by Bachmann(WBB) is not getting stuff done correctly and says that their trains are toys and are claiming that detail is not to be 100% on target. For example the WBB SD-90's being offered for the Norfolk Southern Heritage series when the real engines were SD-70 ACe's.
WBB is way overpriced at their website for their stuff!
About the only thing I will buy from WBB is the E Z Streets track. They have only one caboose version, the N5C.
Lee Fritz
Williams never did try for scale detail. Most are copies of postwar Lionel. Some of their new offerings are getting closer but not spot on. I doubt that is their goal. As for color, some are Lionel correct and some are about 2 shades off. Depending on the road name. Always has been that way and WBB followed with the same shades.
